Skills

Skills are one of the most basic ways to develop a character. Nearly everything that a character can do is defined by what skills they possess ranks in. Beyond the simple fact that most of the dice rolled by a character are skill checks, many feats are dependent on skills, many supernatural abilities are based on skills, and being able to do almost anything is based on skills.

Skill Cost
Skills are something of a costly investment, but almost the entire game runs off of them, and so they are very useful. Skills increase in price in a somewhat nonlinear fashion, based on what tier (explained below) they are in and how many ranks they are. The prices are listed below,

The skills are listed, with a simple summary, below. The first column lists the skill's rank, the second the price to increase to that rank, and the third includes the total cost to increase to a certain rank, for ease of reference.

The Skills
The skills are listed below, with a simple summary after them.

Acrobatics (Dex)
You can keep your balance while traversing narrow or treacherous surfaces. You can also dive, flip, jump, and roll, avoiding attacks and confusing your opponents.

Appraise (Int)
You can evaluate the monetary value of an object.

Bluff (Cha)
You know how to tell a lie.

Climb (Str)
You are skilled at scaling vertical surfaces, from smooth city walls to rocky cliffs.

Compel (Cha)
You are skilled at coercing and demanding others to listen to you, and to do the things you want them to do.

Concentration (Con)
You are particularly good at focusing your mind.

Craft
You are skilled in the creation of a specific group of items, such as armor or weapons.

Detect
You can detect supernatural auras and sense the innate powers of others.

Diplomacy
You can use this skill to persuade others to agree with your arguments, to resolve differences, and to gather valuable information or rumors from people. This skill is also used to negotiate conflicts by using the proper etiquette and manners suitable to the problem.

Disable Device
You are skilled at disarming traps and opening locks. In addition, this skill lets you sabotage simple mechanical devices, such as catapults, wagon wheels, and doors.

Defense
You are adept at avoiding blows in combat.

Disguise
You are skilled at changing your appearance.

Escape Artist
Your training allows you to slip bonds and escape from grapples.

Firearms
Your skill in using firearms to strike tiny moving targets.

Fitness
Your athletic training and overall conditioning.

Force
You are greatly able to use your momentum and mass to affect objects.

Fortitude
Your ability to shrug off toxins, disease, and bodily supernatural influences.

Fly
You are skilled at flying, either through the use of wings or magic, and you can perform daring or complex maneuvers while airborne.

Ghost Sound
You are capable of creating different volumes of sound, which can rise, fall, move or change.

Grapple
You are talented at grasping other people and holding them steady.

Handle Animal
You are trained at working with animals, and can teach them tricks, get them to follow your simple commands, or even domesticate them.

Heal
You are skilled at tending to the ailments of others.

Intimidate
You can use this skill to frighten your opponents or to get them to act in a way that benefits you. This skill includes verbal threats and displays of prowess.

Intuition
Your ability to use your common sense and recognize subtle patterns without overly thinking.

Knowledge
You are educated in one field of study and are capable of answering both simple and complex questions.

Linguistics
Your ability to speak and understand a particular language.

Memory
Your ability to recall specific pieces of information or knowledge about a particular person, place or thing.

Perception
Your senses allow you to notice fine details and alert you to danger. Perception covers all five senses, including sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell.

Perform
You are skilled at one form of entertainment, from singing to acting to playing an instrument.

Pilot
You are capable in operating many forms of vehicles.

Power
Your ability to use your raw strength to break, bend or move objects with your body.

Prestidigitation
You can perform minor magical tricks.

Profession
You are skilled at a specific job.

Projectile
You are able to use kinetic-propelled objects to strike other objects.

Reason
Your ability to think critically and solve problems.

Reflex
Your ability to avoid sudden changes in environment.

Ride
You are skilled at riding mounts, usually a horse, but possibly something more exotic, like a griffon or pegasus.

Sense Motive
You are skilled at detecting falsehoods and true intentions.

Sleight of Hand
Your training allows you to pick pockets, draw hidden weapons, and take a variety of actions without being noticed.

Spellcraft
Your ability to contol and recognize the subtle flow of magic.

Stability
Your ability to resist a force exerted upon you.

Stamina
Your ability to maintain rigerous physical activity.

Stealth
You are skilled at avoiding detection, allowing you to slip past foes or strike from an unseen position.

Survival
You are skilled at surviving in the wild and at navigating in the wilderness.

Swim
You know how to swim and can do so even in stormy water.

Taunt
You ability to get under someone's skin, to rattle them and humiliate them.

Throw
You are trained in the art of chucking objects at other people.

Trick
You can use your weapons to confound your opponent.

Unarmed
You are capable of using your natural body parts to beat other creatures.

Use Mystic Device
You are skilled at activating supernatural items, even if you are not otherwise trained in their use.

Weaponry
You are talented in using objects to kill people up close.

Willpower
Your ability to resist mental impressions and inversions.

Skill Mastery
Skills are invested in with points, slowly building up their ranks. Ranks are important, because they allow greater capabilities when making skill checks. But, there are also levels of capability in skills. This is determined by how many ranks you have in a particular skill.

Untrained: If you are untrained in a skill, you have no ranks whatsoever in it. Any check you make is essentially luck.

Trained: If you have 1 to 5 ranks invested in a skill, you are considered trained. As normal, there are various different levels of training, and so some are better than others. The term 'trained' is used her just to designate that there's more than simple blind luck guiding your abilities.

Expert: If you have 6 to 9 ranks in a skill, you are considered an expert in your field. This is because, at this point, the lowest possible non-imploding roll will still result in an average result.

Master: If you have 10 to 12 ranks in a skill, you are considered a master in your chosen field. At this level, nearly everything you do with a skill is impressive.

Grandmaster: If you have 13 to 15 ranks in a skill, you are considered a grandmaster in that skill. At this level, the lowest possible non-imploding roll will still be higher than what an untrained individual can achieve without getting an exploding roll.

Epic: If you have at least 16 ranks in a skill, you have achieved an epic designation in that skill. At this level, an average imploding roll will still be an average check for you.

Higher Than Epic
It is technically possible to get skills higher than Epic, and there are tiers of power, but at this point the game becomes rather bizarre. Still, for posterity's sake, they will be recorded here.

Mythic: If you have at least 20 ranks in a skill, you have achieved a mythic level in that skill. At this point, any imploding roll which does not explode still results in an average check for you.

Demigod: If you have at least 28 ranks in a skill, you are considered to have achieved demigod status in that skill. At this level, even an average implosion-explosion check still results in an average check for you.

Divine: If you achieve at least 52 ranks in a skill, you are truly divine in that skill. At this level, things which seem impossible to other creatures don't even require thought for you to accomplish. Even a nearly impossible implosion-explosion-explosion-explosion results in an average roll for you.

Beyond Divine: Things just completely break down after this point. Honestly, it's recommended that, at this point, you simply downgrade normal creatures to the insignificant level of insects in comparison to characters who achieve this level. By this point, the characters are receiving a +73 simply from ranks and ability bonuses. Getting results of at least 100 are commonplace, and the entire game seems strange.

Skill Groups
In addition to there being skills, the skills themselves are also lumped into groups. These groups can be invested in as if they were a skill, allowing those trained in several skills to become better at all of them.

Skill groups do not have ranks like skills do; instead, they have tiers, intimately related to the tiers of skills. Each tier provides a slight bonus to all skill checks within the skill group. This is based on what tier has been purchased.

To purchase a skill group, all three skills within the skill group must be at or above the minimum rank to be considered part of that tier. So, to purchase the Trained Tier of the Mental skill group, Intuition, Memory and Reason would all need to have at least 1 rank in them. To then raise that skill group to Expert Tier would require all three skills to have at least 6 ranks in them. This continues for as many tiers as there are allowed in play.

If a skill group includes a skill that has many possible sub-skills, such as Knowledge or Profession, then use the sub-skill with the highest rank to determine what tier the skill group qualifies for.

The Skill Groups The following are the different skill groups, and which skills are included within them.