Basics of Combat with d10 System

Sequence of Events

Roll the attack: A character making an attack rolls against a set difficulty, usually 6 but subject to many potential modifiers.
Roll the defense:  If the target is defending, any successes they garner count against the attacker’s successes subtracting from them on a one-for-one basis. If the defender equals or surpasses the attacker's successes, the defender is not hit at all.
If the attacker has one or more successes net of the defender’s successes, she hit her target. Assuming this is case, move on to the next step.
Determine Damage: Each attack has a base damage amount. If the attacker acquired more successes than is necessary to hit her target (that is more than one success), the attacker gets to add a die of bonus damage for every additional success on the two-hit roll. Assuming the attacker scores at least one success, move to the next step.
Attacks that hit automatically never get bonus damage of this sort.
Roll Soak: The defender rolls his soak pool in dice, if any applies. Each success the defender garners negates an attacker’s damage successes on a one-for-one basis. If the attacker has one or more successes, the defender loses health levels equal to the difference.