Skills

A skill is earned by using it - including by failing with it - and no class grants one. A rank of 1 is a skill you know of rather than one you can perform; using it is what moves it.

What each one does

Aegis

Move your shield to cover somebody standing with you: the next blow that would land on them meets your shield first, at your own skill with it, and if it holds the blow is stopped. If it does not, they answer the blow themselves and your footing slips a rung for the shield being in the wrong place. One blow spends it, and it lasts until then, or until the fight ends, one of you leaves, or the shield goes. Your presence carries the call, and shortens the wait before the next.

Banner of Courage

Plant a white banner, a golden crown over a shield, and the people standing with you find something left in them. For half a minute the line mends where it stands - you and every companion with you - and it needs no fight to be worth planting. Your presence is what the banner is worth, and what shortens the wait for the next one.

Banner of Judgement

Plant a black banner, a white fist closing on it, and the armor of everything set against you stops turning as much aside. It lasts twenty seconds and no longer, it falls on whatever is fighting you rather than on the room, and every banner shares one cooldown - so no banner can be planted while another is still fresh. Your presence is what lands it, and what shortens the wait.

Banner of the Dawn

Plant a white banner, a sun rising over mountains, and the line firms around it: you and every companion standing with you gain a rung of ground. A rung is held the way any rung is - the fight erodes it - and every banner shares one cooldown, so no banner can be planted while another is still fresh. Your presence is what carries it, and what shortens the wait.

Channeling

A caster’s economy with the power they draw: how quickly a spell is brought to the point of release, and how well the working holds when somebody hits them in the middle of it. Every cast trains it, whether or not the words come out. It is never called for by name.

Charge

Hurl yourself across whatever ground is between you and hit what is at the end of it. A charge is worth most when there is ground to cover.

Chi

What a Monk has instead of a weapon and instead of armor: breath, timing and the willingness to be hit. It is never called for by name.

Climbing

Getting up and across rock that has no path. Rolled for you whenever you move onto a mountainside; strength carries the haul. A failed climb costs you your footing and leaves you where you started.

Cunning

The Rogue’s eye for footing: which way a man’s weight is going, and the half-second when it is going the wrong way. It is never called for by name.

Deception

The Rogue’s whole argument: that where a blade goes matters more than how hard it is swung, and that the man watching you can be persuaded to watch the wrong place. It is never called for by name.

Demoralizing Shout

A bellow that takes the confidence out of everything facing you. They swing no slower, they simply connect less.

Distract

Kick dust into somebody’s face. It deals no damage - what it buys is a rung of ground for you and a rung off them - and your cunning is what lands it and shortens the wait before the next handful.

Doublestrike

Strike with both weapons in one practiced motion. When the blow lands your off hand comes round with it - bought and certain, not chanced - and every attempt hones your dual wielding.

Dual Wield

Fighting with a weapon in each hand. Wear one in your off hand and every plain attack may bring it round as well - the better you get, the more often it lands and the harder it hits.

Elemental harmony

The other half of a battle mage’s argument with the elements - not what they throw, but what they mend and turn aside with. It is never called for by name.

Elemental magic

Magic worked with a weapon still in hand - cruder than an Arcanist’s and usable while somebody is trying to kill you. It is never called for by name.

Fervor

The Warrior’s own way of fighting - the habit of turning a fight’s momentum into something that hurts. It is never called for by name; it is what charging, rending and whirling all draw on, and it sharpens as you use them.

First aid

The habit of keeping people alive with what is to hand: knowing which wounds will close on their own, and how to dress the ones that will not stop bleeding. It is never called for by name - mending is what draws on it, and what sharpens it.

Haggle

Talking a merchant round - a better price when you buy, a better offer when you sell. Rolled for you at the counter, sharpened by how charming you are, and every attempt teaches.

Heavy Armor

Wearing mail and plate so the weight works for you rather than against you. It improves as blows land on it; there is nothing to type.

Hide

Going still in whatever cover a place offers, and not being noticed. A fumbled attempt is one the whole room watches you make; a good one is caught only by somebody sharp enough, and they can point you out. It holds until somebody searches you out, until you swing or are struck, or until you leave the room - and every attempt teaches, whether or not it worked.

Holy magic

A Paladin’s competence at turning an oath into something that burns. What a verdict weighs is how much of this they have - and it is what a second verdict weighs more than the first by. It is never called for by name.

Light Armor

Moving in light armor so it does its work - keeping cloth and leather between a blow and yourself. It improves as blows land on it; there is nothing to type.

Mark

Read the ground around somebody at a glance - it costs you no time in a fight - and leave yourself a sign you can follow. For two minutes you know which way they went out of every room they leave, so track can walk their trail, and arrows you loose at them land a little truer. It does not see through hiding, and marking somebody new forgets the last one.

Medium Armor

Carrying studded leather and scale as though it were part of you. It improves as blows land on it; there is nothing to type.

Mend

Clean and bind the wounds on one part of yourself - mend legs, or any of head, torso, arms, hands, legs and feet; mend alone looks your injuries over for nothing. A good dressing holds a deep wound’s bleeding closed for a time that grows with your first aid - it never heals the wound itself, and when it gives out the bleeding returns. Only a healer can remove a deep wound.

Multishot

Draw three at once and let them go together. Each arrow is a shot in its own right, so a Ranger with three enemies in front of them is worth three Rangers for a moment - and one with a single enemy is worth exactly one. It takes longer to draw than it does to loose.

Nature Magic

What the wild will do for a Ranger who asks it properly - mending, cover, and the roots under a fleeing enemy. It is never called for by name.

Perception

Noticing what a room is not showing you - the passage that is not in the listing, and whoever is pressed into the corner of it. Rolled when you search, and again whenever somebody near you goes into cover. Only searching teaches it; catching somebody hiding is a thing you got for standing there.

Performance

A Bard’s competence is holding a room - which works on people trying to kill you rather better than it has any right to. It is never called for by name.

Presence

A Paladin’s competence at holding others to the line. What a planted banner is worth is how much of this they have. It is never called for by name.

Quick Shot

Snap off a shot without taking the time to aim it. It costs an arrow and very little else - the damage is slight and the point is the tempo - and your wayfinding is what makes it land.

Rally Cry

A cry that puts the spine back into whoever is fighting beside you. Everyone in your group swings truer for it, yourself included.

Rend

A tearing blow that opens a wound rather than merely landing one - and what it tears keeps bleeding after.

Second Wind

A moment to find your feet. For a while after, your breath comes back quicker - weariness unwinds and your stamina returns faster than any rest - and it is worth most to whoever still has a fight to spend it on.

Shadow Step

Step sideways through whatever shadow the fight offers and come out of it with the better angle: you gain a rung of ground. It deals no damage - what it buys is position - and it spends Shadow, which you bank by hideing before the fight starts. Your deception is what lands it, and what shortens the wait before you can step again.

Shouts

The Warrior’s other half: the voice that turns a fight without a blow being struck. It is never called for by name - it is what every shout draws on, and it sharpens as they are used.

Skinning

Taking the hide off something that has been killed, in one piece. Rolled when you work a corpse with a skinning knife; deft hands make the difference between a hide and a ruin. A corpse is worked once, so a botched cut ruins what it carried.

Sneak

Moving without being heard, and carrying a hiding place with you instead of leaving it behind. Every room crossed this way teaches, whether or not anybody looked up.

Snipe

Draw from cover, take the time to aim, and put one arrow exactly where you meant it. It hits harder and truer than any shot you can snap off - and loosing it steps you out of the shadows, hit or miss, so a fight is worth one of these unless the wilderness closes around you again. You must be hidden to take the shot at all.

Spellcraft

The discipline an Arcanist trades armor and endurance for. It is never called for by name - it is what every working they know draws on.

Staggering Shout

A shout timed to break somebody’s rhythm. Everything they do afterwards takes them longer to come back from.

Swimming

Keeping your head above water and making headway through it. Rolled for you whenever you move into water; strength powers the stroke. A failed crossing leaves you floundering where you started.

Track

Follow the sign you left on somebody, one room at a time. You have to have marked them, and the trail has to run from where you are standing - a shut door, deep water or a cliff stops you exactly as it would stop you walking, and following somebody out of a room means leaving the fight you were in. Every step you make good renews the sign.

Trip

Take somebody’s footing out from under them. It deals no damage - what it buys is the moment they spend getting up, and the ground they lose doing it. Your cunning is what lands it, and what shortens the wait before you can try again. Miss and it is your own footing that goes.

War Shout

The shout a Warrior has been building to all fight. You swing truer for it, and while it lasts the fight takes less out of you.

Wayfinding

The Ranger’s own competence: reading ground, picking a moment, and making the shot that moment allows. It is never called for by name.

Whirlwind

A turn on the spot with the weapon out, at everything close enough to reach.