Base Skills
The following are the six base skills, how to determine them, their purposes, and how to use them in general.
The general formula for the Base Skills is as follows:
Skill Name:
Stat 1 + Stat 2 - 80
2
The basic intent of these skills is to bolster your current skills on a temporary level. They act as points that you can spend to temporarily give a skill a single time bonus. To improve a combat or magic skill, the ratio is 1 for 1. For general skills, one point equals 5%. Also, sometimes, a Base Skill check is called for. That is simply a roll based off of your current total of whichever Skill you are being required to check for. The Base Skills essentially represent your natural capacity and raw talent to do things, thus they don't last for every situation. After a good night's sleep, you can usually recover your Base Skill points completely.
Fighting:
Strength
Wisdom
The Fighting skill is mostly used for attacking in combat. You would use it to bolster your skill with whatever melee weapon you were using at the time, and it would last only for a single attack, regardless of whether or not you hit. When you are having a contest of combat prowess, without the intent of actually hitting each other, or when generally showing off, a Fighting skill check may be called for.
Thief Skills:
Dexterity
Luck
The Thief Skills skill is generally used to improve your chances at any theft type of skill. Since all skills of that type are General ones, one point equals 5% for your chances. As always, this bonus would only last for a single attempt, reguardless of sucess or failure. A general Thief Skills check may be called for if you attempt a theft style action that doesn't have a corresponding skill for it.
Spellcraft:
Intelligence
Wisdom
Spellcraft is generally used to bolster any magic related skill. Improving a skill with a rune does not, however, allow a spell to be cast at a higher level. It can also be used to bolster a Magical Theory check, at a rate of 1=5%. A possible situation in which a Spellcraft check would be called for would be to cast a 0-level spell.
Accuracy:
Dexterity
Strength
Accuracy is essentially the same as Fighting, but for ranged weapons. It would be used to improve the level of your missile weapon for one shot. When aiming for a specific location, ie a bullseye, or a goblin eye, for that matter, an Accuracy check may be called for.
Dodge:
Dexterity
Wisdom
The dodge skill is, obviously, used to improve your chances to avoid something. Generally, that will be Footwork, Parry, or Tumbling, depending on what you're trying to avoid. A Dodge check might be called for if you attempt something above and beyond the capacity of the Tumbling skill (enter: Matrix maneauvers).
Diplomacy:
Charisma
Intelligence
Diplomacy will improve your chances to influence other's opinions and decisions. This ranges from intimidation to genuine convictions. It can also sometimes overlap with certian theft skills, such as Disguise. One situation where you might make a Diplomacy check is to gather information from people about a topic or an area.
click here to go back to the index
click here to go to the character generation page
