Martial Abilities

Martial Abilities

There are a few martial actions available to all characters, regardless of training. The actions Strike, Defend, and Flee, are common to nearly all characters. Additional martial actions may be granted to a character based on a Heritage(s) or via Flagstone(s). Martial abilities are based on physical attacks and pull from the pools. However, being a martial ability does not preclude it from having magical properties.

The weapons used in a loadout automatically alter the keyword Strike to the damage keyword applicable to their weapon type. For example, wielding an Ax in a loadout changes the base melee damage type to chop if the character has access to that keyword. Every weapon will have one or more damage type associated with it based off of its component parts. When making a basic attack action with a weapon, the weapon's primary attack type and damage type override Strike.

Basic attacks with typed damage gain their bonuses specifically from bonuses to those keywords (i.e. Crush, Slash, Chop, etc) instead of Strike. These bonuses may be acquired via Flagstones as described below. For the puposes of calculating cost, a basic attack with a weapon dealing typed damage is considered a base action + 1 methodology. Prepared wielders do not need an ability creation to attempt a basic martial attack with a weapon they are trained with.

Abilities

Like a basic attack action, the main action word in a martial ability must overwrite one of the default action words, altering or adding to the damage types, status effects, cost or other properties. If an ability would cause damage of a type that the weapon is not capable of causing, either an alternate source of the damage must be identified or the ability can not be used with that weapon. A character is only able to create abilities that depend on a weapon type if they have the proper sub-domain integrated into the loadout.

Weapon & Armor Skills

Only a fool would venture out into the wider world of Duende without the means to defend themselves, and She is not one to suffer the folly of fools. Merely possessing a weapon or wearing a piece of armor is not enough to ensure your survival. Your sword and staff need become extensions of your arm and your armor like a second skin.

In Flagstone, any character may equip any weapon or armor, but that does not mean they know how to use it effectively. Like everything, learning a new weapon or armor type takes investments of time and resources. Weapon groups each have a Keyword that can be acquired as a Flagstone bonus in any or all of the four Flagstones. The effect of the bonus depends on which Flagstone it is applied under.

Armor, like weapons, benefits from specific training aligned with individual Flagstones. Each armor type benefits similarly from training with the same Flagstone as described below.