Skills, list

[Thanuir]

Acrobatics; rogue; difficulty 1; dexterity
This is the skill for doing all fancy acrobatic stuff. Have fun.
In combat, this skill can be used for dodging, but it takes 2 AP. Changing distance can also be done at DC 20 and 2 AP; it does not give a reaction to anyone but allows shifting the distance by one category only.
Is a weak source of income.
Training cycle: 1 week.

[Thanuir]

Acting; urban; difficulty 2; charisma
Being like someone else. Minimum DC for personating a generic member of some social class is 15. For particular professional, 20. A known person, 25.
These will go up when you are trying to trick someone who is familiar with the one you are impersonating.
Skill can be used as a source of income in large settlements.
It can help many other social skills.
Training cycle: 1 week.

[Thanuir]

Alchemy; arcane; difficulty 5; intelligence
This is a craft and can be used for income in large cities.
Characters automatically start with one recipe per 5 ranks. Up to one recipe per rank. Learning and casting according to magic paradigm (if not applicable, default to potions in arcane environment). DC to craft stuff should be approximately the same as the creation of said effect as magic.
A weak source of income.
Learning cycle: 1 year

Alertness; nature, rogue; perception
The fine art of noticing stuff. Players can proactively use this by asking questions like "Do I see any kobolds there?". It will significantly increase the chance of actually finding kobolds there. If kobolds exist at all, that is.
Usually opposed by stealth or sleight of hand.
1 AP in melee can be used to assess the situation, which means the GM will be telling what is going on in addition to the guy in front of you trying to put the pointy end of the stick in your precious organs (and you get a bonus for the next roll). Does not allow a reaction.
Learning cycle: 1 week

Anatomy; arcane; difficulty 4; intelligence
This is a knowledge skill.
It can be used to help bash/precision (no longer called archery to avoid confusion) for 1 AP in ranged or 2 in melee. No reactions.
A weak source of income.
Learning cycle: 1 month

Anthropology; arcane, urban; difficulty 4; intelligence
A knowledge skill.
Finding out complex social structures of people mainly by living with them. Reading is a close favourite.
Learning cycle: 1 month

Appraise; arcane, rogue, urban; difficulty 1; perception
Buy with intelligence.
The fine art of knowing how much stuff is worth in your culture.
A weak source of income.
Learning cycle: 1 month

[Area] lore; general; intelligence
Buy with perception.
Includes finding stuff to eat, drink, and live in. Also streetwise if applied to a city. Scope should be around one large settlement or larger swath of unpopulated area.
1 AP can be used in ranged fight to find cover with area lore. This does not provoke reactions.
Learning cycle: 1 week

[Art]; divine, urban; difficulty variable (1 to 5); attribute variable
Arts can be used as a source of income in large settlements.
A source of income.
Learning cycle: 1 month

[Thanuir]

Astrology; arcane, divine; difficulty 4; intelligence
A knowledge skill.
Astrology can be used to aid almost any roll or occasion, but the right time will be in d6 weeks. Taking another moment after finding the right time will give a penalty based on the check result, not bonus. The astrology helps one specific skill for one day. This can be a martial skill (if a battle is happening) or ritual (for important rites) or knowledge (for achieving a breakthrough in the relevant field).
A weak source of income.
Learning cycle: 1 year

Awareness; arcane, divine, rogue; difficulty 2; perception
Buy with mana.
This skill lets the character sense powerful magic and especially use of it around him. It can manifest in many ways, such as seeing auras or spirits. Based on magic paradigm and the way magic works. When in doubt, use ominous feelings.
Learning cycle: 1 week

Axe; martial, nature; difficulty 2; dexterity
Buy with strength.
This skill ought to be used by putting an axe into the head of your meek opponents. Axes tend to be a tad slow but damaging.
Learning cycle: 1 week

Balance; nature, rogue; dexterity
In addition to walking on dangerous areas, this skill is useful for resisting some melee manoeuvres. Balance can be used to resist pushing and tripping. Some dangerous terrains may require balance to move effectively.
A weak source of income in a circus or with mummers.
Learning cycle: 1 week

Bash; martial, nature; difficulty 1; strength
This skill adds to melee weapon damage (skill/5, round down) and can be used to smash stuff. Thrown weapons get bash/10 (round down) to their damage, and also get help from precision.
In melee, bash can be used to push people around (by one category; critical allows another category or tripping the sorry bastard) which takes 1 AP and can be resisted with many skills (acrobatics, balance, bash and dodge, at least). Brawl can do this, too, and better.
Learning cycle: 1 week

Bloodletting; arcane, urban; difficulty 3; intelligence
Treating disease and poisons. Unless DC 20 is reached, 1 con damage.
Can be used as a source of income.
Learning cycle: 1 month

Bow; martial; difficulty 3; dexterity
Buy with strength.
To use great bow, 7 strength is required. Otherwise, -4 per each point of insufficient str.
Using a hunting bow in melee: 1 AP to nock an arrow, 1 to draw, 1 to aim, 1 to release. Great bow requires 3 to draw. All steps allow reactions. IOW, do not do this in melee.
This skill does not include melee combat where bow is used as a club. See brawl.
Learning cycle: 1 week

Brawl; general; difficulty 1; strength
Brawl includes such diverse weapons as bare fists, gauntlets, clubs and most other improvised weaponry. As a rule, the damage is 0 without tools and 1 with them.
Specific melee stuff: trip for 2 AP (the other guy falls, taking -4 to most actions) and push for 2 AP (the other guy staggers back a few range categories)
Learning cycle: 1 week

[Thanuir]

Climb; nature, rogue; strength
Scale walls and trees and ladders and other such formidable obstacles. May be used for movement in battle situations, occasionally. Slower than running (DC20 gives segment/category, DC40 gives two, etc.).
Learning cycle: 1 week

Clockworks; arcane, rogue; difficulty 3; dexterity
Buy with intelligence.
Making, fixing, jamming and such of complex mechanical devices, including locks, clocks and some traps.
A source of income.
Learning cycle: 1 month

Concentration; arcane, divine; difficulty 2; willpower
Concentration can be used to help most actions (generally takes 1 AP in situations where they matter; may up to double the actual time).
Also mandatory when being interrupted and trying to continue some intense actions, like spellcasting.
Learning cycle: 1 month

Contacts; urban; difficulty 1; charisma
Having and establishing contacts, getting info from them. Failures often result in bitter contacts.
A weak source of income.
Learning cycle: 1 year

[Craft]; variable; difficulty variable; attribute variable
Buy with intelligence.
Craft is the art of taking raw materials and turning them into finished goods.
Craft can be used as a source of income.
Learning cycle: 1 month

Crossbow; martial, urban; difficulty 1; dexterity
Firing a crossbow takes 1 AP in melee, likewise aiming. Loading takes a lot of APs; 5 to 10, probably. Everything allows for reactions.
In ranged, loading a crossbow takes from 1 to 3 actions.
Learning cycle: 1 week

Dagger; general; difficulty 2; dexterity
Daggers are fast and short and pointy. Use them with this skill. Includes throwing.
Learning cycle: 1 week

Dance; divine, urban; difficulty 2; dexterity
Dancing is an art.
Use this skill to dance. Many rituals have dancing in them, hence the divinists getting the skill, too.
A weak source of income.
Learning cycle: 1 week

Decipher script; arcane; difficulty 4; intelligence
Secret messages; discerning and coding them. Understanding lost or foreign languages, given time.
Learning cycle: 1 year

Digging; martial, nature, urban; strength
Umm...yeah. Making holes in the ground, often with tools. Mining is part of this. Burrowing is very efficient part of this.
A weak source of income.
Learning cycle: 1 week

[Thanuir]

Disguise; rogue, urban; difficulty 2; dexterity
Buy with intelligence.
This is the skill of making disguises. The more elaborate act of not being noticed to do it is part of acting or bluff.
Learning cycle: 1 month

Dodge; martial, nature, rogue; difficulty 1; dexterity
1 AP is used to dodge something nasty coming your way, in both melee and ranged. Dodge also provides the base DV which you default to when surprised or unable to defend for other reasons.
Learning cycle: 1 week

Drive [vehicle]; variable; difficulty variable (1, 2); dexterity
This is the group of skills for moving gracefully with chariot or wagon. May sometimes be used in ranged to change distance.
Learning cycle: 1 week

Endurance; martial, nature; constitution
Hit points equal endurance/3, round up.
Endurance is also rolled for some stuff which requires pure endurance, such as forced marching or uncomfortable conditions.
Learning cycle: 1 week

Escape artist; martial, nature, rogue; difficulty 3; dexterity
This is used to get through tight places and rid of the ropes around your wrists.
In melee, a successful roll gets you out of brawl, to close range. This takes 1 AP.
Learning cycle: 1 week

Etiquette; urban; difficulty 3; intelligence
A knowledge skill.
This lets you to not act like a fool in social situations. Useful among the educated. Can discern certain forms of communication not open to the uninitiated.
A weak source of income.
Learning cycle: 1 month

First aid; martial, urban; difficulty 1; intelligence
Check DC 20 heals 1 hp. This takes 5 AP in melee, 2 in ranged, and provokes reaction in melee. Can also slow down the effects of poisons and disease.
Learning cycle: 1 month

Flexible weapons; martial; difficulty 3; dexterity
Using flails, whips and such.
Learning cycle: 1 week

Fortitude; nature; constitution
Resisting poison, disease and some magic.
Learning cycle: 1 year

Handle animal; nature; difficulty 2; charisma
Training animals. Also works as sense motive and occasionally persuade on the fauna.
A source of income.
Learning cycle: 1 month

Healing; general; consitution
Healing denotes the number of hit points and attribute damage (key to will for mental ones, to mana for mana) healed per month.
Also, bleeding is not quite as dangerous if you happen to have high healing.
Learning cycle: 1 year

Herbalism; arcane, nature; difficulty 3; intelligence
A knowledge.
Identifying and handling herbs.
A source of income.
Learning cycle: 1 month

Intimidate; martial, urban; charisma
Useful skill for scaring people witless.
In melee, 1 AP to intimidate (resisted with iron will), when successful, causes a penalty (check result/10) to the target's next check. Does not allow a reaction.
Learning cycle: 1 week

Iron will; arcane, divine, urban; willpower
Resisting mental influence.
Can be used in ranged to just charge, closing in someone. Even if they hit you, you get closer. They must run to maintain the distance. All cover is lost.
Protects in social conflicts as toughness does in martial ones.
Learning cycle: 1 month

Jump; nature, rogue; strength
Both high and long jump, and also landing after a leap.
In melee, can be used to change distance; 2 AP to do so.
Learning cycle: 1 week

Knots; rogue, urban; difficulty 1; dexterity
Tying stuff and people together. Useful for climbing, too.
Learning cycle: 1 week

[Knowledge]; arcane; difficulty usually 3; intelligence
Knowing some stuff. Theoretical, but often has practical applications. Very good for aiding rolls.
Learning cycle: 1 month

Leadership; urban; difficulty 2; charisma
Inspiring and leading people. Keeping their morals or fear up.
A source of income.
Learning cycle: 1 week

Learning; arcane; intelligence
Experience checks are done with learning. Check result/10 experience. Skill needs exp equal to the new score to advance by one, attribute equal to the square of the new score.
Learning cycle: 1 month

Lift; general; strength
Carrying and lifting stuff.
Learning cycle: 1 week

[Lore]; variable; difficulty 2; intelligence
Buy with perception.
Practical counterpart of the knowledge.
A weak source of income.
Learning cycle: 1 week

Mace; martial; difficulty 1; dexterity
Buy with strength.
Smashing stuff with clubs, maces and hammers.
Learning cycle: 1 week

Meditation; divine, nature; difficulty 3; willpower
Spell point recovery equals meditation per week. Triggering the relevant conditions as determined in your paradigm lets you roll meditation and recover check result/10 spell points.
And yes, it is intentional. Arcanists do not have mediation grouped with them.
Learning cycle: 1 month

Mysticism; arcane, divine, nature; difficulty 4; mana
The maximum capacity for spell points equals mysticism.
Learning cycle: 1 year

Persuade; rogue, urban; charisma
Getting your way with people without them feeling cheated. And without cheating them.
A weak source of income.
Learning cycle: 1 week

[Thanuir]

Polearm; martial, nature; difficulty 2; dexterity
Polearms tend to be long. This skill includes throwing javelins, which are not that long.
Learning cycle: 1 week

Prayer; divine; difficulty 1; mana
There are two significant ways to use praying; pure luck which manifests after rolling the dice (help the check with luck), or actual short prayer before the roll, which makes rolling 1 open-ended upwards, like rolling 20 normally is.
Characters have a stock of divine favour (no more than their prayer is). It can be restocked by sacrifices (one for minor offering, up to ten for major one, even more for extremely large offerings).
When praying before the roll, the player must tell something about the prayer, and different part each time (who it calls for, for example).
Learning cycle: 1 month

Precision; martial; difficulty 2; perception
The important factor for ranged damage. Precision/5 for ranged weapons, precision/10 for thrown ones (and bash/10, too).
Learning cycle: 1 month

Reaction; martial, nature, rogue; perception
AP for martial conflict equal 1 + reaction/5 (round down). Initiative is also rolled with reaction.
Learning cycle: 1 month

Read; arcane, divine, urban; difficulty 4; intelligence
The art of understanding written word, specific to a language. In literate societies, this may start with 0 difficulty for the native language.
Learning cycle: 1 month

Resolve; divine, urban; willpower
The difficulty of persuading you. In social conflict, determines the number of successes that are needed for such a deed. Either resolve/3, round up, or resolve per 2, round up, or equal to resolve.
Learning cycle: 1 year

Ride; general; difficulty 1; charisma
Buy with dexterity.
Commanding your mount and not falling down. Key to dex for fancy tricks, or use acrobatics. Helps the mount's run when used for movement in ranged combat.
Learning cycle: 1 week

Ritual; arcane, divine; difficulty 5; mana
Casting spells. DC equals 15 + 5*spell level, or (3 + spell level)*5. Criticals increase the spell level by 1.
A weak source of income.
Learning cycle: 1 month

Rowing; general; difficulty 2; strength
Making a water-going vessel move by exercising one's muscles.
A weak source of income.
Learning cycle: 1 week

Run; martial, nature, rogue; strength
Use to change distance in melee and ranged. Outrun foes.
Learning cycle: 1 week

Sailing; arcane, urban; difficulty 3; intelligence
Commanding a ship and getting it somewhere.
A source of income.
Learning cycle: 1 month

Search; rogue, urban; perception
Find stuff when searching for it.
Learning cycle: 1 month

Sense motive; urban; intelligence
Buy with perception.
The skill of seeing when someone is hiding something, or finding out the motives someone has.
Learning cycle: 1 week

Shield; martial; difficulty 2; dexterity
Blocking and bashing with shields. Provides passive defence against melee attacks with a small shield and against all attacks with a large shield. Blocking takes 1 AP in ranged.
Learning cycle: 1 week

Sleight; rogue; difficulty 3; dexterity
Pickpockets and mages who do not bother to use magic can make good use of this skill. Takes 3 AP in melee combat, range: brawl, if you ever try to do it.
A weak source of income.
Learning cycle: 1 week

Speak [language]; arcane, urban; difficulty variable (3 to 5); charisma
Buy with intelligence. Key to perception when trying to understand.
People start with 15 + intelligence ranks in their native language.
10 is needed for smooth communication.
Learning cycle: 1 month

Spell knowledge; arcane; difficulty 5; intelligence
Caster knows one spell per point of spell knowledge. See magic paradigm. Up to half of the slots can be left unfilled, if wished.
Learning cycle: 1 year

Stealth; nature, rogue; difficulty 1; dexterity
In addition to obvious uses, this skill can be used to advance stealthily in ranged. The effects are like those for running, but stealthy advancement takes 2 AP.
Learning cycle: 1 week

Streetwise; urban; difficulty 1; intelligence
Buy with perception.
Terrain lore wrt cities, basically.
A weak source of income.
Learning cycle: 1 week

Swim; nature; difficulty 2; strength
In addition to not drowning (DC 5), this skill can sometimes be used to change distances. It takes 2 AP.
Learning cycle: 1 week

Sword; martial; difficulty 3; dexterity
Stabbing and slashing with swords, of course.
Learning cycle: 1 week

Teach; arcane, divine, urban; difficulty 2; charisma
The student rolls his learning. If the result is higher than teaching, teaching is added to it. If not, the learning result is doubled.
A source of income.
Learning cycle: 1 month

[Terrain] lore; nature; difficulty 2; intelligence
Buy with perception.
Surviving in and reading the selected terrain type. Can be used to find cover in ranged.
Learning cycle: 1 month

Throwing; martial; difficulty 3; dexterity
Buy with strength.
The universal skill with which different items can be thrown.
Learning cycle: 1 week

Toughness; martial, nature; difficulty 3; constitution
Add toughness per 10, round down, to PV.
Learning cycle: 1 year

Unarmed; martial; difficulty 4; dexterity
The art of fighting without weapons. Base damage is 1 even for bare fists and foot.
Following manoeuvres use unarmed: push for 1 AP, move result/10; trip for 2 AP; critical allows moving the target 1 category. Fallen target takes -4 on most checks.
Learning cycle: 1 month

Wealth; urban
This skill starts equal to highest skill that can be used for income the character has, when keyed to charisma. Alternatively, take half the highest weak income skill.
Used for acquiring stuff and hirelings. Failure takes away 1 experience, fumble 1 rank.
Learning cycle: 1 year

Wits; urban; charisma
Provides action points in social conflict (1 + ranks/5); also initiative.
Learning cycle: 1 month

Write; arcane, urban; difficulty 3; dexterity
Buy with intelligence.
Needed on a per language basis.
A source of income.
Learning cycle: 1 month

[Thanuir]

I consider it done, for now. Any problems with the skills?

[Thanuir]

Added resolve.

[Thanuir]

Advanced skills have no default difficulty (the source reveals is any is present). They are grouped with no class.

Elementalism
Keyed to mana, buy with mana
This skill is a pool. It starts evenly divided among the classical elements (player distributes any excess points, but as evenly as possible). Whenever casting a spell keyed to certain element (player keys spells upon taking this spell), the amount of pool dedicated to that element is added to the check. Furthermore, one point per level of the spell cast from the opposite element moves to the spell just cast. If there are no points in the opposing element, player decides the element reduced.
E.g. Elementalism 13, air 4, earth 3, fire 3, water 3. Character casts 2nd level fireball (+3 bonus for the fire pool on the check) and 2 points from water migrate to fire (A4 E3 F5 W1). Another fireball is cast, this time at third level and at +5. Water pool is insufficient, so 2 points must be taken from air or earth or combination. So, the pools are, for example, A3 E 2 F8 W 0.

Geomancy
Keyed to mana, buy with int
Geomancy does not provide mana beyond that provided by mysticism.
This skill is a pool. It starts evenly divided among the five Chinese elements (wood, fire, earth, metal, water), excess placed by the player. All spells of the character must be keyed to these elements.
Geomancy provides spell points. Casting a spell reduces a number of points equal to the spell level from the element that the spell's elements overcomes and adds those points to the element the spell's element generates. If there are no points to overcome, the used element itself suffers. To cast a spell of given element, that element must have a pool equal to the spell's level.
Example: Mysticism 13, geomancy 14 (so only 13 points to spread).
Wood 2 Fire 3 Earth 2 Metal 3 Water 3; wants to cast 2nd level haste (deemed as water spell). There are at least 2 points in water, so this is possible. It changes 2 fire (which water overcomes) into wood (which water generates), making the new pools Wo 4 Fi 1 Ea 2 Me 3 Wa 3. Next spell probably should be metal (to overcome wood) or wood to generate fire. Casting 3rd level water spell changes the pools into Wo 7 Fi 0 Ea 2 Me 3 Wa 1. This restricts water spells to thsoe of first level. Doing which makes the pools be Wo 8 Fi 0 Ea 2 Me 3 Wa 0. No more water spells until something else is cast to produce fire or water (wood or metal would do the trick).

[Thanuir]

Here is the latest version of nonadvanced skills.