Category:Skills & Abilities
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, Keyboard | Skill in playing clavichord, pump organ, and others. | Finesse |
| 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 |
| Intimidation | The ability to influence people's actions by cowing, coercing or otherwise striking fear in others. | Command, Will |
| Investigation | The ability to observe a scene or object closely and draw conclusions from one's observations, and to pursue research of various kinds. | 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 |
| Glassworking | The creation of a variety of utilitarian and decorative items from cut and blown glass. | Finesse |
| 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.