A Critical Engagement is intended for boss fights and similar cinematic encounters. In these Encounters if a Character gains enough Degrees of the Wounded condition, where they could Die or be Knocked Out of the Fight, they just Die. When Initiative is called, it should be made clear this is a Critical Engagement.
The following special rules apply to Critical Engagements, for the purposes of these Encounters, Critical Threats are any entity within this Encounter that does not have the Minion Role Tag:
Conditions. Critical Threats cannot gain more than 3 Degrees of the Dazed, Exhaustion, Frightened, Poisoned, Sap, or Slowed conditions. If a number of Degrees wiuld be applied past that limit, then they take an additional 1d6 damage for each additional Degree that would be applied to them.
They also cannot gain the Charmed, Confused, Paralysed, Stunned, Petrified, and Terror conditions. If they would gain any of these conditions, they instead take 1d10 damage.
The Damage Type, of the above damage dealt depends on which condition that would have been applied:
Lair Actions. Some Critical Threats may have a Lair, these have actions that occur at set Initiative's during the Round as stated in the Lair's Encounter Stat Block.
If an effect in a Lair's Stat Block only occurs at a specified Round, it cannot occur at any other point no matter how many other Rounds occur during the Encoutner/Scene. Only resetting at the start of a new Critical Encounter in that Lair.
Threat Actions. Critical Threats may state they have THreat Points and Threat Actions/Reactions.
Threat Points. Critical Threats have a resource called THreat Points (TP), equal to the number of Player Characters + half the number of Companions (rounded down). These can be expended to perform Threat Actions/Reactions.
Any expended TP is replenished at the start of the Critical Threat's Turn, much like AP and RP.
Threat Actions. So long as the Critical Threat has TP available to spend on them, these actions can be performed at any of the following times:
Threat Reactions. So long as the Critical Threat has TP available to spend on them, these reactions can be performed at any time during a Round when the Trigger occurs.