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◀ Rulebooks

Ver. 1.3.1

Step 3

Skills

Your character has two primary sets of Skills. This section will deal with your Martial Skills, which are the basic adventuring skills unrelated to magic. You'll determine your magic skills in a later step.

Your skills work alongside your ability scores to determine the likelihood of success when your character makes a check during gameplay.

Each skill has a skill level from 0 to 10. A skill level of 3 is an average person's level of experience. The highest level a skill can be for a new character is 5.

Whenever you make a skill check, you'll add your skill level plus an associated ability score modifier to the outcome of the roll, along with any other bonuses you have, to determine the final result. Whereas your ability scores describe your physical and mental capabilities, skills describe your level of experience. It's entirely possible for a character with low Dexterity to have a high Stealth skill through practice.

Each skill has a default ability score that is added to its skill checks, but depending on the circumstances the GM can call for a skill check to use a different ability score than usual - for example, when rolling to intimidate someone with violence, the Intimidation skill may use Strength instead of Charisma.

There are a total of 21 martial skills you can start with. Click on a skill to see what types of checks might be made using it.

• Agility - quick and precise movements; acrobatic acts
• Athletics - actions requiring physical prowess and training
• Deception - telling believable lies and stories
• Defense - protecting yourself and your allies from incoming attacks
• Determination (Save) - concentration; withstanding mental and social stress
• Diplomacy - forming positive relationships and reaching agreements
• Endurance (Save) - withstanding physiological stress
• Insight - reading other people's body language and intentions
• Instinct - survival skills and self-preservation
• Intimidation - getting others to cooperate via threats
• Logic - reasoning and making conclusions based on clues
• Marksmanship - aim and hand-eye coordination
• Medicine - healing injuries and treating afflictions
• One-Handed - usage of one-handed melee weapons in combat
• Perception - keenness of your senses and ability to search for things
• Performance - getting people's attention and making impressions
• Reflex (Save) - reaction time; avoiding unexpected hazards
• Sleight of Hand - actions requiring quick and precise hand motion
• Stealth - hiding and moving around undetected
• Technology - use of tools and electronics; crafting
• Two-Handed - usage of two-handed melee weapons in combat

Choosing Skills

There are three methods to choose your skills: Standard, Freeform, and Rolling. Use the Standard method unless told to do otherwise by the GM.

Standard

Always use this method unless the GM has instructed you to use one of the others.

Follow these steps in order to choose your starting skills.

• Choose up to one skill to be Proficient (5) in.
• Choose up to two skills to be Experienced (4) in.
• Choose up to four skills to be Trained (3) in.
• Choose any number of skills to be Amateur (2) or Beginner (1) in, up to the maximum total of 35 for all martial skills and knowledges.
• You are Untrained (0) in all other skills.

Freeform

Choose a skill level from 0 to 5 for each skill. The sum of your skills can't exceed 35. Beware these two common pitfalls:

• Too many high (4-5) skills won't leave much room for the other skills, leading to an over-specialized character with a very narrow focus. These characters often find themselves with little to contribute when their highly-focused skill set isn't useful to the party's current situation.
• You may be tempted to spread small numbers out across every skill, but this can lead to the opposite problem. An over-generalized character often has no clear focus or role in the party. Try to have at least one skill start at 4 or 5.

If you're concerned about your skill set being unbalanced, stick to the Standard method.

Roll and Choose

This method is suitable for short one-shot campaigns.

Roll a d6 a total of 21 times and subtract 1 from each result. Write these numbers down and then assign them to your skills as you see fit.

Roll In Order

Roll a d6, subtract 1 from the result, and assign that number to Agility. Repeat this process for each skill in the order they appear on your character sheet.

Inquisitive - Knowledge Skills

If your Intelligence modifier is positive, you get up to that many optional Knowledge skills. These special skills give your character extra knowledge of a specific subject, and use your Intelligence modifier. See the Knowledges page for a list of common subjects. Before adding a subject that isn't on this list, consult the GM.

Skill Modifiers

Skill modifiers are equal to their respective skill levels (+0-+10) - there is no separate skill modifier table.

After choosing your skills, copy the ability score modifier next to each skill from the section above, based on the scores you chose in step 2. Don't add them together yet - we'll do that in a few more steps.

Next: Feats ►

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