Skills - General Information
Skills represent the character’s specialized training or practice of a specific type of expertise. Skills are like sub-categories of statistics, each one being a focused version of its associated statistic. For example, the fighting statistic covers a broad range of different styles of fighting. Your preferred fighting style is determined by your skills, such as one-handed, throwing, and two-handed, as a few examples. The skills you decide to leave untrained and which you decide to become an expert in are up to how you design your character.
Naturally, the character must practice untrained skills to become an expert in them. That's why, after training, your character upgrades their untrained skills to expertise skills. The representation of your training is reflected in the talents (experience points) you spend on acquiring them.
Starting Skills
During character creation, you will need to select seven untrained skills to become expertise. Up to three of them can be combat/channeling and the rest must be basic skills (see Step 5: Skills). When selecting your starting skills, select which statistic they are associated with, if they have more than one (see the table below). All skills not selected as your starting skills are untrained and are associated with the default statistic listed under the Untrained Statistic column.
Untrained Skill
Untrained skills are skills you know little to nothing about and have had no training in their field. Untrained skills cannot be increased with skill points and have half the associated statistic minus one (min. zero) to any rolls associated with them. Untrained skills can be chained in the same way expertise skills can, but you do not get to pick their associated statistic.
Untrained skills cannot gain skill points
Untrained skill base = half associated statistic – 1 (min. 0)
Negative Skill Totals
A skill’s total can be negative, as some traits, masteries, and other aspects of the games can lower it below zero. When this happens, the negative skill’s total is still added to the skill check as a penalty for lack of experience with that specific skill.
Skills Can Have Negative Totals
Expertise Skill
These skills were once untrained but because of training and practice have been upgraded to expertise skills. Upgraded untrained skills have half their associated statistics plus one as their base total. Their total points can be increased using skill points, which are purchased using talents. Skill points are something that untrained skills cannot have.
Expertise Skill Base = Half Associated Statistic + 1
Acquiring Expertise Skills
All skills start out untrained; meaning you have little to no knowledge related to their areas of expertise. During character creation, you selected a few skills as your starting expertise skills. After character creation, any untrained skills you wish to make expertise must be purchased using talents. When selecting your skills, you determine which statistic they are associated too if they have more than one.
There are different sections of skills: Basic, Channeling, and Combat that can be upgraded to expertise skills. Each section has their own specialization that is reflected in the cost of skill points, along with the skills offered per section. See skill sections later in this chapter for details on each section and their skills.
The only requirement or limitation when gaining skills is the amount of talents needed in order to gain it. Once the talent cost of the skill section has been paid, the untrained skill becomes an expertise skill. The amount of talents depends on the skill section it is under. The prices listed in the skill section cost table are per skill.
So, if gaining acrobatics—which is in the basic skill section—you would pay two talents, as that is the cost for skill listed in the basic skills section.
There are four steps to gaining expertise skills:
- The first step is to upgrade the untrained skill to an expertise skill by purchasing it using talents. Each skills talent cost is based on the skill section it is listed under.
- Step two, if applicable, is to select which statistic the skill is associated too. Such as intimidate can be agility, might or persona. This cannot be changed later.
- Step three is to improve your skills by increasing their associated statistics and buying skill points for new expertise. The Acquiring Skill Points section will explain this in more detail later in this chapter.
- The final step is to calculate the skill’s total. Add half of the relevant statistic, skill points purchased, and any trait/master bonuses (or penalties) to calculate skill total.
Instinctual Skills (Instincts)
This type of skill is special in that they are automatically expertise skills. They are treated like other expertise skills except for the talent cost for skill points is increased.
Instincts = Half Associated Statistic + 1
Acquiring Skill Points
Skill points are used to determine how much extra training your character has put into a skill. Improving skills shows you can overcome limitations and master abilities. As you increase your statistics, so does the cap on how many skill points an expertise skill can have. The number of skill points that can be put into an expertise skill is equal to the character’s total associated statistic and your current level plus two. So, if you are level three and have a five in your mental and want to increase your psyche instinct, you can put five skill points in it. However, if you increased your mental to seven, you cannot put anymore skill points into the skill until you level.
Level + 2 & total associated statistic = Total skill points per expertise skill
Only expertise skills can gain skill points
Skill points can only be put into expertise skills, as untrained skills cannot gain skill points.
Knowledge Checks
When making a knowledge or lore check, you roll a d10 and add your skill that relates the most to the topic. Such as wanting to figure out how much information you know about the geographical area you are currently adventuring through. A survival check would be made versus the difficulty rating the game master has decided on.
However, keep in mind that not all information can be known through making a knowledge check. Sometimes you simply just don’t know about the topic at hand.
Knowledge Check = D10 + Skill Total
Each topic of knowledge can vary depending on the situation. Sometimes a scale of difficulty ratings can determine how much information you know.
