= Skills

Skills are the trained abilities that set the professions apart -- a fighter's opening
strike, a woodsman's eye for an item's true worth, a wizard's spells. You learn and sharpen
them at a **trainer** (a guildmaster) by spending **skill points**.

== How training works
* **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.
* **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.
* **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 //str|int|wis|agi|con|cha//** instead spends a point to raise an ability score by 1.
* You start with **5** skill points (Adventurers **7**) and earn **1 more every level**, so spend them with a 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 that is **level 5 or below**, //except// a skill a class keeps for its own (a class's
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

Seek out the trainer for the craft you want:

* **[[ec:Silas Mossthorn|Silas]]** -- the Adventurer guildmaster, on **Main St. West**.
* **[[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 Stuff") on **Moss St.**, just south of market square.

== The skills
A //class// is the profession whose guildmaster teaches the skill natively. "Level" is the
character level you must reach before a trainer will teach it; "Cost" is in skill points. A
skill marked //Adventurers can learn it too// is one of the shared basics the generalist may
borrow; everything else is that class's own craft.

=== Fighter
^ Skill ^ Class ^ Level ^ Cost ^ What it does ^
| **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. |

==== A note on the fighter's specializations

**Weapon spec** and **armor spec** are a matched pair on the same to-hit maths: +2 hitroll is
+10 on the attack roll, and +10 armor is +10 the other way, so an armor-spec defender exactly
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 ^
| **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.// |
| **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.// |
| **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%.)// |
| **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.// |
| **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 ^
| **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 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, resting, the basics
* **[[Social]]** -- chat, channels, and customizing your character