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--- skills [2026/07/02 06:05] – appledog
+++ skills [2026/07/09 14:56] (current) – external edit 127.0.0.1
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 == How training works
-* **train** -- also **practice**, **prac**, or **pr** -- on its own shows your skill points,
+* **train** -- also **practice**, **prac**, or **pr** -- on its own shows your skill points, the skills you already know (with your current %), and, if a trainer is here with you, what that trainer can teach.
-  the skills you already know (with your current %), and, if a trainer is here with you, what
+* **train //skill//** learns a skill you don't yet have, or improves one you do, for one skill point. Each session nudges your proficiency upward (most skills by a random slice) toward 100% mastery.
-  that trainer can teach.
+* **train all** spends **one** skill point but **scatters it across several of the skills you already know**, a percent at a time and at random -- so one point trains a handful of skills a little each. Nothing is ever pushed past a skill's cap, and a percent is only wasted once every skill you know is already maxed. Run it again to spend the next point. It never learns anything new -- use **train //skill//** for that.
-* **train //skill//** learns a skill you don't yet have, or improves one you do, for one skill
-  point. Each session nudges your proficiency upward (most skills by a random slice) toward
-% mastery.
 * **train //str|int|wis|agi|con|cha//** instead spends a point to raise an ability score by 1.
-* You earn skill points as you level (a couple at the big milestones), so spend them with a
+* You start with **5** skill points (Adventurers **7**) and earn **1 more every level**, so spend them with a little care.
-  little care.
 Each profession has its own guildmaster, who teaches that class's skills. The **Adventurer**
 is the generalist: an adventurer -- and the Adventurer guildmaster -- can learn //any// class's
-skill, so long as it is a **level 5 skill or below**. A level-6-and-up skill is class-only --
+skill that is **level 5 or below**, //except// a skill a class keeps for its own (a class's
-the deep craft the jack-of-all-trades never quite reaches.
+deep craft, and the whole wizard spellbook, are locked away). In practice the shared basics an
+adventurer can pick up are **hit**, **dodge**, **dual wield**, **sneak**, **bandage**,
+**track**, **identify**, and the wizard's **recall**.
 == The guildmasters
@@ Line 28: / Line 26: @@
 * **[[ec:Elara Swift|Ellie]]** -- the Woodsman trainer, in her shop on **Main St. East**.
 * **[[ec:Gorin Ironbar|Gorin]]** -- the Warrior trainer, in his shop on **Main St. East**.
-* **[[ec:Wizzy the Wizard|Wizzy the Wizard]]**, Master of Magic -- in his emporium ("Wizard
+* **[[ec:Wizzy the Wizard|Wizzy the Wizard]]**, Master of Magic -- in his emporium ("Wizard Stuff") on **Moss St.**, just south of market square.
-  Stuff") on **Moss St.**, just south of market square.
 == The skills
-A //class// is the profession whose guildmaster teaches the skill natively. An **adventurer** --
+A //class// is the profession whose guildmaster teaches the skill natively. "Level" is the
-and the Adventurer guildmaster -- can also learn any class's skill that is **level 5 or below**
+character level you must reach before a trainer will teach it; "Cost" is in skill points. A
-(hit, dodge, identify, sneak, dual wield, healing, mana), but not the deeper level-6-and-up
+skill marked //Adventurers can learn it too// is one of the shared basics the generalist may
-craft. "Level" is the character level you must reach before a trainer will teach it; "Cost" is
+borrow; everything else is that class's own craft.
-in skill points.//
-The higher skills are each class's own deep craft: a woodsman's stealth chain (**stealth
-attack**, then **ambush**), a fighter's flurry (**fury**) and level-12 specializations
-(**weapon**, **strength**, **armor**). **Level 5** is the line past which the adventurer's
-borrowed breadth gives way to the specialist's edge.
 === Fighter
 ^ Skill ^ Class ^ Level ^ Cost ^ What it does ^
-| **hit** | Fighter | 1 | 1 | Open combat with a +1 hitroll bonus. |
+| **hit** | Fighter | 1 | 1 | **Passive.** Once learned, a flat **+1 hitroll in every fight** -- always on, no command and no roll (it applies even on a backstab). //Adventurers can learn it too.// |
+| **dodge** | Fighter, Woodsman, Adventurer | 3 | 1 | Sidestep a blow -- a chance in combat to make an attacker miss outright. //(Trains +1% per point, capped at 5% for every class that can learn it -- Wizards can't.)// |
 | **dual wield** | Fighter | 5 | 1 | Wield a weapon in each hand (see **offhand**) for a chance each round at a bonus off-hand strike, at full off-hand damage. Off-hand weapons are the light blades -- daggers, knives, shortswords. //Adventurers can learn it too.// |
 | **fury** //(second attack)// | Fighter | 7 | 1 | A chance each round at a second main-hand attack. Train it as **fury** or **second attack** -- the very same skill. |
+| **whirlwind** //(whirl)// | Fighter | 9 | 1 | A toggled stance: while on, every swing flies at a **random** foe in the room and wakes it -- you carve through a pack but rouse everything present. Hit two or more in a round for a bonus strike at half damage. Toggle it out of combat only. |
 | **weapon spec** | Fighter | 12 | 1 | A chance on any attack for **+2 hitroll**. |
 | **strength spec** | Fighter | 12 | 1 | A chance on any hit for **+1 damage**. |
 | **armor spec** | Fighter | 12 | 1 | A chance, when struck, for **+10 armor** (harder to hit) -- the exact mirror of weapon spec, and it cancels one. |
-| **dodge** | Fighter, Woodsman, Adventurer | 1 | 1 | Sidestep a blow -- a chance in combat to make an attacker miss outright. //(Trains +1% per point, capped at 5% for every class that can learn it -- Wizards can't.)// |
 ==== A note on the fighter's specializations
@@ Line 59: / Line 51: @@
 cancels a weapon-spec attacker. **Strength spec** adds flat damage instead -- kept to +1 on
 purpose, since flat damage on every hit is worth far more than a like-sized swing to a roll.
 === Woodsman
 ^ Skill ^ Class ^ Level ^ Cost ^ What it does ^
-| **identify** | Woodsman | 1 | 1 | Read an item's nature -- what it is, what it does, what it's worth. |
+| **sneak** | Woodsman | 1 | 1 | Slip into stealth (type **sneak**); your opening strike from stealth is a **2x weapon hit** -- the first blow of the //stealth burst// (see below). Any action but moving breaks stealth. //Adventurers can learn it too.// |
-| **sneak** | Woodsman | 5 | 1 | Slip into stealth (type **sneak**); your first strike from stealth deals **+sneak%** damage (up to double at 100%). Any action but moving breaks stealth. //Adventurers can learn it too.// |
+| **bandage** | Woodsman | 1 | 1 | Field medicine. Type **bandage** to bind **2 wool** into a **gauze** pad (a skill roll can spoil a wool), then **apply gauze** to heal **1d2**. Each takes a moment. //Adventurers can learn it too.// |
-| **stealth attack** | Woodsman | 7 | 1 | From a stealth opener, a chance at a **second** backstab -- same weapon, same sneak boost. |
+| **dodge** | Fighter, Woodsman, Adventurer | 3 | 1 | Sidestep a blow -- a chance in combat to make an attacker miss outright. //(Woodsmen, nimbler, also cap at 5%.)// |
-| **ambush** | Woodsman | 9 | 1 | After a stealth attack lands, a chance at a **third** backstab. Years of hunting to survive teach the woodsman to lie in wait for the perfect moment. |
+| **track** | Woodsman | 1 | 1 | Read the land: **track //creature//** senses the direction to the nearest creature you name -- a ring-by-ring search out from you, only where you could walk (no secret or puzzle shortcuts). //Adventurers can learn it too.// |
-| **dodge** | Fighter, Woodsman, Adventurer | 1 | 1 | Sidestep a blow -- a chance in combat to make an attacker miss outright. //(Trains +1% per point, capped at 5% for every class that can learn it -- Wizards can't.)// |
+| **identify** | Woodsman | 5 | 1 | Read an item's nature -- what it is, what it does, what it's worth. //Adventurers can learn it too.// |
+| **stealth attack** | Woodsman | 1 | 1 | The **second** strike of the stealth burst (//free//): after the sneak opener lands, a chance at another blow for **3x** a weapon roll. Landing it carries the chain on to ambush. |
+| **ambush** | Woodsman | 6 | 1 | The **third** strike of the stealth burst (//free//): only after a **landed** stealth attack, a chance at another **3x** blow. Landing it carries the chain on to poison. Years of hunting teach the woodsman to lie in wait for the perfect moment. |
+| **sneak spec** //(sneak specialization)// | Woodsman | 6 | 1 | **Passive.** Mastery of the shadows, two ways. //After a fight ends,// a free chance -- your **sneak %** -- to slip straight back into stealth, no move and no command. And //looting a corpse no longer breaks stealth// (but **sac**/**recycle**-ing one still does -- destroying a body is noisy work). |
+| **poison** | Woodsman | 10 | 1 | The **fourth** (last) strike of the stealth burst (//free//): only after a **landed** ambush, a chance at a **3x** envenomed blow (a poisonable blade in hand). Outside stealth, **poison** instead coats your blade so your next landed hit deals **double**. |
+==== The stealth burst
+You open the burst by //backstabbing// -- **backstab** (or **bs**) with a **sneak-marked blade** (a
+knife, dagger, or short sword) in hand while hidden. A plain **kill** or **attack** never opens a
+stealth strike, even when you're stealthed: to assassinate you must **backstab**.
+The burst is a chained flurry of up to four blows: **sneak** (2x) -> **stealth attack** (3x) ->
+**ambush** (3x) -> **poison** (3x). It is a strict **chain** -- each strike rolls its own skill and
+fires **only if the one before it landed** (and you've trained that skill): miss a link, or lack it,
+and the flurry ends there (no ambush without a landed stealth attack, no poison without a landed
+ambush). Against an unaware foe a landed strike can't be dodged. Only the opening **sneak** strike
+costs a move (**1**); every chained follow-up is **free**. A fresh woodsman lands just the sneak
+strike, adding the later links as those skills are trained -- so a true assassin trains all four,
+in order. //(Too winded for that one move? A hidden opener via a plain **kill**/**attack** falls back
+to a single strike with a **+sneak%** bonus instead -- but an explicit **backstab**/**bs** refuses
+("out of breath") until you rest.)//
 === Wizard
+A wizard learns //differently// from the martial classes: **every wizard spell is available
+from level 1**. A wizard's power isn't in unlocking new spells over the levels -- it's in how
+deeply each spell is **trained** (its %). A fresh wizard can reach for the whole spellbook at
+once, but each spell is feeble until the points go in. Casting a spell costs **mana** (see
+**[[Classes]]**) and takes a brief beat afterwards where you can't act. Of the whole kit, only
+**recall** can be borrowed by an Adventurer -- and //not// **mana**, so a non-wizard who learns
+recall must fuel it from a **mana-granting item** (Wizzy sells a wand and a hat that grant mana).
 ^ Skill ^ Class ^ Level ^ Cost ^ What it does ^
-| **healing** | Wizard | 1 | 1 | A healing spell that restores 1d6 hit points for 1d6 mana. Use **cast heal**. |
+| **mana** | Wizard | 1 | 1 | Attune to magic: your usable mana becomes this skill's % of your full pool (which grows 10 per level). The pool every other spell spends. |
-| **mana** | Wizard | 1 | 1 | Attune to magic: your usable mana becomes this skill's % of your full pool (which grows 10 per level). |
+| **mana spec** //(mana specialization)// | Wizard | 1 | 1 | Deepen the mana **pool** itself: a flat **+1 max mana per %**, up to **+100** at mastery, stacking on top of what **mana** makes usable. |
+| **healing** //(heal)// | Wizard | 1 | 1 | A healing spell that restores **1d6** hit points for **1d6** mana. Use **cast heal**. |
+| **energy shield** //(shield)// | Wizard | 1 | 1 | Cloak yourself in **+20 armor** until you fall or log out (recast to refresh) -- a wizard's stand-in for the armour they can't wear. **cast energy shield**. |
+| **magic bubble** //(bubble)// | Wizard | 1 | 1 | Raise a ward that **completely absorbs the next blow**, then bursts. Only **once per fight** in combat -- but a bubble cast //before// a fight doesn't count, so you can walk in warded and still raise one more once the first pops. **cast magic bubble**. |
+| **affliction** //(afflict)// | Wizard | 1 | 1 | Curse a foe to wither in combat, taking damage every round with no armour to stop it. Damage scales with your **Intelligence** (up to 9/round). You may **stack** it -- once per combat round -- to deepen the rot, and each cast's mana cost equals the damage it adds. **cast affliction //target//**. |
+| **blink** | Wizard | 1 | 1 | Dart in a straight line up to **10 rooms** one way, stopping at the first blockage (and skipping any monsters in between). **cast blink //dir// [distance]** -- e.g. **cast blink e 5**. |
+| **teleport** | Wizard | 1 | 1 | Fold space to the **nearest creature you name**, landing in its room -- only where you could actually walk (no secret or puzzle shortcuts). **cast teleport //creature//**. |
+| **recall** | Wizard | 1 | 1 | **cast recall** to teleport home to the fountain for **10 mana**. Unlike the free low-level recall, a wizard's own spell keeps working at any level. //Adventurers can learn it too.// |
 == See also
 * **[[Classes]]** -- the four professions and how they play
-* **[[How to Play]]** -- moving, looking, fighting, the basics
+* **[[How to Play]]** -- moving, looking, fighting, resting, the basics
-* **[[Social]]** -- chat, channels, and customising your character
+* **[[Social]]** -- chat, channels, and customizing your character