Rule: Skills

Summary

All creatures have substats that are based off of and scale with their Attribute Scores, called Skills. If a creature is trained in that skill, they add their proficiency bonus. If a skill is keyed to more than one attribute, a creature will use the higher of the two. Other modifiers may apply.

In addition to various general parts of the game, Skills also give mini-feats every so often that vastly change the game for the creature. These are called Skill Talents.

There are two kinds of Skills in the game. Primary Skills, and Secondary Skills. Primary Skills are more generalized, but harder to gain proficiency in after the start of a game. Secondary Skills are more numerous and niche, but can be learned during the adventure with training, patience, and progression. Languages are considered Secondary Skills in their own right.

All creature's, including the player characters, have stats that infer raw potential. Beyond that, however, are another form of the game pertinent to it's social and exploratory aspects. These are Skills Each skill provides an array of related actions and avenues to further the game along, and usually come during character creation or from a feature or otherwise.

Using a Skilll

Calculating a Skill

Before everything, one has to know how to calculate a skill before using it. A skill will use an Attribute Score at all times. If a creature is 'trained' in a skill they will add its Proficiency Bonuses where appropriate.

Some skills are keyed to only one Attribute, but not always. If a skill has two attributes listed next to it, the creature will use the higher of the two key attributes. each attribute represents an aspect of the skill and informs how the creature goes about using it.

Once the modifier is figured out, a creature would roll a Skill Check, rolling a 1d20 vs a set DC. The check itself will be called, or needed, when applied.

Putting it all together

For example, the Adventuring skill uses INT / Intelligence or WIS / Wisdom, and is often used for receiving hints from the Game Master, Dungeoneering and all that may entail while exploring the unknown, or using Survival training to get by in the wilderness.. Such a narrative driven skill would rely on any number of a creature's skillset that can explored and represented with the higher stat. This could be due to a creature's past knowledge in passing interests that can be applied to the adventure, their powers of deduction and genre savviness when modern situations compare to stories and tales of old, or their innate ability to use logic and reasoning to notice patterns in fauna or puzzles.

As a more mechanical example, A level 3 creature with +4 INT and +3 WIS and proficiency in Adventuring would roll 1d20+4+2 , vs a DC set by the GM or the Adventure.

Kinds of Skill

Primary Skills

A Primary Skill is a major mechanic in this game that represents a creature's ability to interact with the world. Primary skills are often given at character/creature creation. For players, they are only given by Ancestries, Backgrounds, Classes, or features. They are seldom given by other means, and while they can be changed via @[Character Progression](article:f564534a-98fe-4a69-ac76-36099658a825, a player usually can't get more than they're initially allotted.

Secondary Skills

A Secondary Skill is a tertiary skill given by a source, but can be learned over time and is, therefore, not considered 'important' for the sake of balance in many cases. While Secondary skills are needed for many parts of the game, they can be ignored or supplanted with Primary Skills, except in a few cases.

Many Secondary Skills have multiple offshoots for specific subjects, such as Profession and Lore. Rather than being one generalized skill, each individual subject is an individual skill. This is also what makes Secondary Skills somewhat infinite.

To learn Secondary Skills, you use Activity: Learning a Secondary Skill.

Skill Talent

A Skill Talent is a talent, or minifeat, that you can gain if you have the qualifying skill or skills. All skill talents scale with a creature's Proficiency Bonus or variation thereof, allowing them to be taken at any time in an Adventurer's career, and be useful no matter when they are obtained.

Classes and subclasses of the like in the Expert Class Group gain more skill talents than others.