Skills

By now, if you've been reading the information threads in order, you've come across the term "Skills" more than a few times. Skills are basically talents or traits of a character that improve them or benefit them in some way. There are skills you get from your Race, your Class, and then there are some other skills. Some are classified as "General" skills while others have more unique, special classifications like "Pact" skills. Each character starts with 1 Racial skill and 1 General skill. The former represents something they get from their race's inherent talents, while the latter is something more specific to your character. You cannot buy skills like you would Tiers in a class or abilities, but you can earn them from events and special quests (non-combat quests are also a good way to attempt to earn skills). You can also get them from specific canon roles.

A lot of skills give bonuses to things in combat, like Attack Damage or Status condition immunity. Then there are others, like the Elven Awareness skill or the Educated and Artisan skills. Now, why would you take anything other than the ones that improve your ability in combat? Well for one, something like Elven Awareness can counter the Concealment skill of the Rogue, preventing you from getting shanked before the combat even begins. However, there are other benefits. Not every event is going have combat, or be purely combat versus non-combat. Sometimes it takes a little brawn and a little brain to get through, and sometimes those skills that you thought only had roleplaying applications may come in handy on a quest.

To throw an example, let's say you took on a quest to investigate some robberies. Perhaps while you are investigating, you find one of your witnesses to be a little girl who saw the criminal, but is so distraught over her broken basket from her late Grandmother that she can't remember anything else. Luckily, you happened to be a basket weaver on the side and had the Artisan of Basket Weaving skill, and by mending the girl's basket convinced her to tell you what she saw.

The above may be a bit extreme, but you get the idea. There are a lot of jobs in the world and not everybody can be macho man "I DO ALL THE FIGHTING" because otherwise there's nobody left to make the roof over your head at the inn, or forge the very sword you slew the dragon with. So don't strictly focus on what makes you a better combatant, but what adds to your character more.

Now with all that out of the way, below will be a list of all the General skills and other skills that aren't specific to a class or race.

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Skill Name: Immunity to ?
Skill Type: General
Skill Effect: Immune to a single status condition (chosen at the time of acquiring this skill).

Skill Name: Educated in ?
Skill Type: General
Skill Effect: Demonstrates knowledge about a particular topic (chosen at the time of acquiring this skill).

Skill Name: Artisan of ?
Skill Type: General
Skill Effect: Demonstrates skill at a particular craft (chosen at the time of acquiring this skill).

Skill Name: Draconic
Skill Type: General
Skill Effect: Able to speak and understand Draconic tongue.

Skill Name: Riding
Skill Type: General
Skill Effect: Able to effectively use a mount in combat (required to use larger Animals/Phantasms as Companions).

Skill Name: Efficient Alchemist
Skill Type: General
Skill Effect: Able to get 1 extra use out of a consumable item.

Skill Name: Speechcraft Submitted by Nightmare Darklight
Skill Type: General
Skill Effect: By appealing to one's nature and with just the right words, obtain a favorable outcome to almost any form of negotiation or weave the perfect lie. Two people using this skill against each other cancel out.

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Skill Name: Pact Initiate
Skill Type: Pact
Skill Effect: Able to use Magic-type Abilities determined by your Patron. Gain a mana pool of 1 point. Regain 1 point of mana every other turn.

Skill Name: Pact User
Skill Type: Pact
Skill Effect: Requires Pact Initiate. Increase maximum mana by 1 point.

Skill Name: Pact Maker
Skill Type: Pact
Skill Effect: Requires Pact User. Increase maximum mana by 1 point.

Skill Name: Pact Giver
Skill Type: Pact
Skill Effect: Requires Pact Maker or being a Phantasm. Able to grant the Pact Initiate skill to other characters. Increase maximum mana by 1 point. Regain 2 points of mana every other turn (replace the regain rate from Pact Initiate).