Skills

Each character has skill levels equal to his age in years. List skills as level name ("fair stealth") for readability. All skills default to poor; they may be lowered to terrible or raised as high as superb. A character may have a maximum of one superb skill and one great skill. For each skill, you may choose a specialty, which grants a +1 bonus in appropriate circumstances. Skills cost double if raised above the appropriate attribute. Easy skills are rolled at +1, Hard skills at –1, and Very Hard skills at –2. You must have some knowledge to use a skill at default.

Most skills are of average difficulty. Easy skills are at +1 level, while hard skills are at -1 level, and Very Hard skills are at -2 levels. The cost breakdown looks like this:

Level Easy Average Hard Very
Hard Description

Legendary 16 32 64 128

Superb 8 16 32 64 Grandmaster (famous)

Great 4 8 16 32 Master (well-known)

Good 2 4 8 16 Professional

Fair 1 2 4 8 Competent

Mediocre default 1 2 4 Amateur

Poor -1 default 1 2 You have no training.

Terrible -2 -1 default 1 Amazingly inept.

Nonexistent -4 -2 -1 default Complete inability.

Combat Skills

Melee is the ability to fight with all hand weapons.
Ranged is the ability to fight with ranged weapons.
Brawling (Easy) is the ability to fight without weapons.
Dodge (Easy) is the ability to dodge an attack.
Stealth is sneaking, moving silently, and following.
Disguise lets you hide your features, but not necessarily look like someone else.
Forgery lets you forge papers, signatures, seals, coins, wax seals.
Legerdemain (Hard) is nimble fingers: picking pockets, cutting purses, palming things.
Pick Locks is what it sounds like. You need lock picks, of course.
Search (Easy) allows you to find things. And hide things too.

Climbing includes acrobatics & stuff.
Riding is for horses, unless you specifically choose some other beast.
Swimming (Hard) is a useful skill.
Animal Handling is used to calm, train, and control animals.
Tracking is usually used for hunting and covering your tracks.
Survival lets you find food and shelter, estimate weather, etc.

Craft (type) is the ability to perform some craft.
Teamster lets you drive a wagon and team.
Boating is the ability to use small boats.
Mariner is the ability to work on a large ship.

Acting lets you mimic gestures and accents.
Storytelling is a valued entertainment skill.
Jongleur includes slapstick, juggling, flashy acrobatics, jesting.
Sing lets you carry a tune.
Play (instrument) (Hard) lets you play an instrument.

Repartee is verbal sparring.
Debate is persuasion by logical argument.
Bargain is used in haggling and trading, and negotiating too.
Diplomacy is tact and inoffensive communication.
Drinking speaks for itself.
Etiquette is courtly grace, good manners, protocol.
Intimidation is used for Presence attacks.
Intrigue is eavesdropping, reading between the lines, innuendo, gossip.
Leadership is motivating people.

Healing (Hard) lets you administer first aid, treat poisons and disease, perform surgery.
Concentration is used to resist interruptions and maintain spells.
Meditation is used for prayer, mind-over-matter, and recovery from fatigue.
Alchemy (Very Hard) is brewing and identifying potions.
Magic (Very Hard) is spell-casting skill.

Knowledge

Area Lore (specific area) (Easy) includes knowledge of local geography, customs, and legends.
Church Lore is knowledge of church doctrine, dogma, history, etc. This includes theology as it is generally understood.
Church Knowledge is knowledge of hierarchy, people, politics, etc.
Dark Lore is knowledge of devils and diabolism.
Fantastic Beast Lore is knowledge of monsters.
Legend Lore is knowledge of myths and legends.

Humanities is mathematics, secular history, the arts, and rhetoric. It is usually gained from
Medicine is knowledge of medical procedures and lore.

Speak (language) is the ability to speak a given language. A fair skill indicates fluent speech, while great skill is the province of a native speaker. Everyone gets their native tongue at good skill for free.
Scribe (alphabet) (Easy) is the ability to write using a particular alphabet. Each alphabet is a different skill, easily mastered with a bit of practice.

Enigmatic Wisdom (Very Hard) grants you +1 on all saving throws.
Arcane History is knowledge of great wizards of yore.
Arcane Lore is knowledge of legends, people, items, and places.
Arcane Theory (Hard) is required for using magic, and limits your magic skill.

LANGUAGES

Everyone knows their birth-language at good for free. Here is a rough guide to language skills:

SKILL	USAGE
Terrible	Everything you say turns out to be an insult or a curse
Poor	You know a few words at most
Mediocre	A smattering of phrases, the minimum you need to get by
Fair	Fluent, but slowly and with a bad accent
Good	Fluent, native accent and colloquial phrases
Great	Fluent, exceptional vocabulary
Superb	Fluent, scholarly knowledge

Dwarvish is the traditional language of dwarves, although they usually use human trade languages aboveground.
Elvish is the language of the elves (naturally). It is a complex language and seldom heard, but very beautiful.
Islander (Common) is the western trade tongue. It has elvish influences.
Talarian is the noble courtly language used in the west. It is spoken by diplomats and other high-and-mighty persons, and is sometimes used to show superiority over those of lesser station.
Eastern is the common eastern trade tongue, and was the language of a great empire (now fallen).
Barbarian is a language used in the north. It is considered vulgar and uncouth in the southlands, and seems to have a disproportionate percentage of monosyllabic words.
The Secret Tongue (H) is an old language now used only by wizards. It is similar to the medieval church's use of latin. It's origin is unknown.
Thieves’ Cant is used, of course, by theives. It is unusual in that it makes much use of gestures and other body language, allowing limited but silent communication.
Darkspeech (E) is used by the goblin races. It is somewhat harsh and extremely vulgar.

SCRIPTS

Western script (or Talarian script) is the common script of the west, similar to uncial manuscript.
Runic is widely used both for inscriptions and parchment, especially by dwarves.
Elf script is a beautiful script used by the elves, and seldom taught to mortals.
Southern script is a flowing script used in the east and the south.

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