Category:Skills & Abilities

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In attempting various courses of action, different skills or fields of knowledge may come into play. In such cases, success or failure will generally depend on a combination of stats and skills. There are four fundamental skill sets: action skills, combat skills, crafting skills, and magic skills. You may see your character's existing skills with the command SKILLS, or view all available skills by typing SKILLS ALL.

Related to skills are abilities. Abilities are actions you can attempt whose success or failure are influenced by the skill(s) associated with them. For instance, TRACK is an ability that is influenced by skill in Outdoorsmanship. You can view all of the abilities you currently possess with the ABILITIES command.

Skills

Learning Skills

Each character begins with a number of skill points that can be assigned in character generation. Skills start at a minimum of 0 (no formal training or ability in the skill) to 10 (near-perfect mastery of the skill). Everyone receives a base number of skill points to spend, modified by the character's age. This represents the greater life experience of older characters and the longer opportunity they have had to develop a variety of skills.

In order to learn skills after character generation, you first need to earn some experience through roleplaying. You can then spend those experience points to learn skills in one of three different ways: learning from a teacher (PC or NPC), practicing or training, or actively using the skill. The experience cost needed to raise a given skill will increase with each skill level. Once a character has invested a certain number of overall skill points, an xp tax will also be applied to each additional skill point bought; this tax will rise along with total invested skill points.

To see how much experience it will cost to raise a given skill by one point, you can type LEARN CHECK <SKILL>. To commit the xp to learn a skill, enter LEARN <SKILL>. Once you have invested the xp, you will then be able to raise the skill through classes or by practicing or using the skill.

Innate Skills

In addition to assigning points in character generation, a character can choose three skills to be considered innate. These skills represent things that a character has an especially strong affinity or natural talent for. Once chosen, innate skills cannot ever be changed.

Innate skills cost 10% less xp to raise per point than do regular skills, representing the comparative ease with which a character picks them up. Innates can also be learned beyond the ordinary 10-point skill cap, granting ever more powerful rolls and, sometimes, access to potent specialized abilities. The experience cost for the skill rises steadily for each point beyond the cap, so developing innate skills to such a degree represents a significant investment in a particular path.

Action Skills

Skill Description Primary Associated Stat(s)
Acrobatics Climbing, tumbling, and getting into and out of tight spaces. Grace
Animal Ken A natural rapport with animals and an understanding of their behavior. Intuition
Dancing Dancing and graceful movement in general. Grace
Dissembling The ability to conceal motives and feelings, misdirect others, and outright lie. Composure
Education A character's level of formal education, including basic subjects such as reading, writing, and mathematics. Logic
First Aid Essential medical knowledge to treat injuries, including setting broken bones and basic wound care. Logic
Instruments, Percussion Skill in playing drums, castanets, xylophones, and more. Finesse
Instruments, Stringed Skill in playing plucked and bowed instruments. Finesse
Instruments, Wind Skill in playing flutes, horns, and more. Finesse
Investigation The ability to observe a scene or object closely and draw conclusions from one's observations. Acuity, Logic, Intuition
Linguistics The ability to learn new languages, and facility in understanding, speaking, reading, and writing in them. Intuition, Logic
Lockpicking Picking locks on doors, gates, containers, and more. Finesse
Mercantilism The fine art of trading and haggling. Composure
Outdoorsmanship Pathfinding, tracking, hunting, and general outdoor survival skills. Acuity, Intuition
Riding Skill in riding horses, camels, and other mounts. Grace
Sailing Skill in sailing techniques and knowledge of navigation on the water. Intuition
Shady Arts Experience in burglary, banditry, smuggling, con artistry, and other criminal skills. Command, Magnetism, Intuition
Sleight of Hand Feats of legerdemain, from pickpocketing to conjuring tricks and more. Finesse
Stealth The capacity to actively or passively go unnoticed. Grace
Street Smarts Survival skills for the urban environment. Acuity, Intuition
Swimming Skill in swimming and diving. Endurance
Vocals Training in singing or projecting the voice. Voice

Combat Skills

Skill Description Primary Associated Stat(s)
Aim The ability to land a blow or strike a distant target. Finesse
Archery Skill in short bows, longbows, composite bows, crossbows, etc. Finesse
Armor Experience in maneuvering well and mitigating damage in armor. Endurance
Dodge The ability to evade attacks. Grace
Footwork Skill at moving deftly and tactically in combat. Grace
Parry The ability to block an attack using your own weapon. Finesse, Strength
Shield The ability to block attacks using a shield. Strength, Endurance
Unarmed The ability to fight in a variety of styles without weapons. Strength or Finesse
Weapon - Blowguns Projectile weapons from the tropical forests of Idiri. Finesse
Weapon - Bolas Ranged weapons used to incapacitate a target. Finesse, Strength
Weapon - Boomerang Wooden ranged weapons from the Desert of Fallen Stars. Finesse, Strength
Weapon - Flails Peasant flails, ball-and-chains, etc. Strength
Weapon - Heavy Swords Broadswords, etc. Strength
Weapon - Javelins Skill in throwing spears, including light javelins and assegais. Finesse, Strength
Weapon - Knives Daggers, stilettos, khanjars, and other short blades for close and stealthy combat. Finesse
Weapon - Light Swords Leaf-blade swords, flyssas, cutlasses, rapiers, etc. Strength or Finesse
Weapon - Medium Swords Scimitars, sabers, shotels, etc. Strength or Finesse
Weapon - One-Handed Axes Small battlaxes, horsemen's axes, etc. Strength
Weapon - One-Handed Maces Small flanged, spiked, and ball maces; war hammers, etc. Strength
Weapon - Polearms Heavy spears, pikes, glaives, halberds, etc. Strength
Weapon - Slings Slings and slingshots. Finesse
Weapon - Staves Quarterstaves, donga, canes, etc. Strength or Finesse
Weapon - Two-Handed Axes Large battleaxes. Strength
Weapon - Two-Handed Maces Large flanged and spiked maces. Strength
Weapon - Two-Handed Swords Greatswords, flamberges, etc. Strength
Weapon - Whips Bullwhips, sjamboks, etc. Finesse

Crafting Skills

Skill Description Primary Associated Stat(s)
Animal Husbandry Breeding and raising livestock and other kinds of domesticated animals. Intuition
Bowyery Creating a variety of different bows and arrows for archery. Finesse
Butchering Working the carcasses of domestic stock and wild game to obtain meat and other useful materials. Finesse
Carpentry Shaping and assembling wood to create a variety of useful objects, from wooden tools to furniture. Finesse
Construction Creating buildings from stone, wood, brick, daub, and other materials. Logic
Engineering Designing and assembling large works and complex mechanical devices. Logic
Fishing Catching fish with a pole, spear, or net. Finesse
Foraging Finding and gathering useful natural materials, from wild berries to dead wood. Acuity
Herbalism Knowledge of useful plants and the ability to create remedies, teas, and more from them. Logic
Horticulture Growing and breeding a variety of cultivated plants. Intuition, Logic
Hunting Stalking and killing wild game. Acuity, Finesse
Jewelcrafting Creating decorative accessories using precious stones, fine metals, and other materials. Finesse
Leatherworking The preparation of hides and the creation of a variety of leather goods, from armor to saddles. Finesse
Logging Harvesting trees for the production of lumber. Strength, Endurance
Luthiery Crafting a variety of stringed and other instruments. Finesse
Mining Discovering and extracting materials from the earth, especially ore and gems. Strength, Endurance
Painting Creating art not just with different paints but also charcoal, pen and ink, and other media. Finesse
Pottery The creation of bowls, cups, and a wide variety of other vessels from clay. Finesse
Sculpture Creating three-dimensional art from stone, metal, and wood. Finesse
Smithing Working with metals to produce tools, weapons, accessories, and more. Strength
Tailoring Fashioning garments of all kinds, as well as embroidery and mending. Finesse
Tinkering Repairing metal goods and creating small devices. Finesse, Logic
Weaving Making cloth and finished goods such as blankets from wool, silk, and other materials. Finesse

Magic Skills

Magic skills are unavailable to characters in character generation, and will be unlocked primarily through pursuing in-character stories for now.

Abilities

Basic Abilities

Everyone gets a set of basic abilities initially, which is common to all new characters. While each basic ability is governed by a particular skill, you don't actually need to have points invested in that skill in order to use the ability. Having a high Outdoorsmanship skill will definitely improve your ability to find and interpret tracks, but you can use the tracking ability on a basic level even without a single point invested in the skill. Depending on your roll you might discover a few tracks or you might find nothing at all, but you are at least able to try!

Special Abilities

Besides such basic abilities, there are a large number of other abilities that can only be unlocked by investing points in a particular skill. You will not be able to FIND GAMETRAIL in the wilderness without Hunting skill, for instance. Every skill will have its own unlockable abilities at different levels of skill gain, up to 10. While most abilities will be in the form of actions that you can perform, some will be passive traits that you have gained through your skill and require no performance or activation.

In addition, there are still more special unlockable abilities that can only be gained through combinations of skills, stats, organization membership, heritage, and story development. A hypothetical example of this is that maybe you come from a tribe that has perfected an unarmed combat move called the grapplekick, but it is only taught to the strongest members of the tribe. In this situation, a combination of tribal heritage, Unarmed skill, and the Strength stat will lead to your unlocking the ability to grapplekick. Perhaps it's further gated behind story development, in which case you'd need to set up a story arc about learning the grapplekick and a tribal NPC would teach you. Then you would have the ability.

Pages in category "Skills & Abilities"

The following 5 pages are in this category, out of 5 total.