POV Ansgar
As promised by the god Lumos, Michael, Jonathan, Jessica and I are together again. The four of us are the heroes of humanity, which sounds really cool. And as befits heroes, we get all the support we need. This also means that we receive lessons. In the first few years we do physical exercises, which I really enjoy. I am extremely strong and durable for my age, just as I wanted. Unfortunately we also have theory lessons and unfortunately they take up around 20% of my training time. In the beginning, in addition to reading and writing, we learn a lot about the world, the empire and the like, which I would summarize as common knowledge. We're sitting in the boring room again, which means we have theory lesson annoyingly. But today there is a topic that interests me at least somewhat. The basics of skills. Not something dull like history or magic. The first doesn't interest me and since I can't do the second, it doesn't interest me either. I take a look at my fellow heroes. Eleonore once again only has eyes for Cornelius, who enjoys being adored as always. Javier, on the other hand, waits eagerly. He was always the one among us who was most interested in improvement. He just likes to learn a lot of things and always complains that he doesn't have enough XP for too many options.
Then our teacher enters the room. As is often the case, it is a member of the Imperial Wizard Guard. He also teaches us magic theory. This doesn't promise to be very interesting. He leans his long wand against the desk and bows to us.
“Dear heroes, it is a pleasure for me to be able to introduce you to the basics of skills today. I will briefly summarize what you have learned so far. We divide the skills into several categories. The categories are Weapons, Armor, Magic, Perception, Resistances, Combat, Crafting, General and Special. Weapon skills indicate how well someone can use a particular type of weapon. These include swords, axes, spears, staffs, blunt weapons, daggers and bows, but also the unarmed fighting style. The armor skills include light armor such as the gambeson or leather of all kinds. Heavy armor represents chain or plate mails whereas no armor means clothing at maximum. The usage of a shield is also placed in this category.
You will be taught all about magic in another lecture.
Perception abilities include Mana Sense, Presence Sense and Danger Sense. Rumor has it that dwarves have an additional sense that allows them to smell things of value and find hidden things. But since I don't know anyone who has such a sense, it probably belongs in the realm of myths.
A very important category is resistance. Each base magic has its own resistance. There are also other resistances such as mind resistance, which protects you from the harmful effects of mental attacks. Pain Resistance allows you to endure pain without falling unconscious and, at higher ranks, even reduces physical damage taken. Poison resistance helps with poisoning. If it level is high enough, you will no longer be poisoned. Otherwise it reduces damage and poison duration. Paralysis and petrification protect against the respective effects, with paralysis resistance also helping against the stun effect from lightning magic. With sleep resistance you can stay awake longer without receiving penalties and hunger resistance allows you to go longer without food.
Combat skills should be interesting for the fighters among you. They are the skills that separate a real fighter from a clumsy thug. They make the chosen weapons really effective and creates your own fighting style. Many are known, so I will introduce a few of the most important ones here. Combat skills are based on four basic skills, power strike, feint, parry and two-handed. The power strike increases the damage and the advanced skills knock over an opponent or attack several opponents at the same time. With the feint, the opponent defends less well, you specifically attack unprotected areas or attack several times in quick succession. When parrying, you defend more easily, tying up your opponent's weapon and thus hindering them, or defending for someone else. Two-handed combat is the basic requirement for either fighting with two weapons at the same time or being able to attack with a shield. In addition, there are no disadvantages if you don't have to attack with your main hand because it is injured, for example. This skill is not necessary in unarmed combat. It should also be noted that not every type of weapon can use every weapon skill. Weapons that are meant to be wielded with two hands have no option for two-handed combat. Heavy weapons cannot use a feint and pure stabbing weapons cannot use power strikes. Only the true masters of a weapon talent still have the opportunity to do so.
Let's move on to the crafting skills. Everything that has to do with the processing of raw materials and their further processing is categorized here. This includes skills such as blacksmithing, alchemy, tailoring or cooking. Important skills such as Butchery, for gaining magic cores from defeated monsters, or Jewelery for making jewelry items are also included.
Next we will come to the largest category, general skills. In here are skills that give the owner attribute enhancements or allows certain actions. This includes physical, mental and social skills. This includes body strengthening, body building and body control, which are essentially to improve strength, endurance and agility, but also something like climbing, swimming or horse riding. There is no known skill that exists solely to increase the three basic mental attributes. Pure knowledge skills such as magic theory, herbalist or mechanics are also included in this category. Another part are all-round skills such as animal handling, oratory, hunting or survival in the wilderness. It also includes many dubious skills such as stealth, seduction or pickpocketing. Importantly, building traps, disarming traps and pick locks also belong to this category.
The last category I will talk about are special skills. They usually require mana to activate. This means that all magical abilities, such as magic control, enchantment or mana vessels, count in this category. There are some abilities that do not require mana to activate, but can still only be used by magicians. Above all, this includes the ability to shorten the spells of a spell, i.e. to complete them more quickly. They are similar in effect to the combat skills of fighters. There are also numerous options here. Often the effect of the spell is reduced until you master the skill. There is also the opposite case, ritual magic. The duration of the spell is deliberately extended in order to strengthen the effect. Many spells can only be used meaningfully as a ritual. This includes, for example, many prayers, but also summoning comrades in arms.
Then there is a category that includes skills that are so little known that they are rarely listed individually. Nevertheless, the abilities within it are even more powerful. They contain bonus skills and before you were born only two even fell into this. I'm talking about appraisal and concealment. These skills cannot be learned regularly like any other skills. From what we know, you're either born with it or you choose specific upgrades to your class. Through your birth we were able to learn of the existence of a third bonus skill. I'm talking about Limit Break, which unfortunately we don't yet know exactly what it can do. You will find out in a later lecture how you can acquire the relevant knowledge.”
Wow, really now? He talks and talks and talks. After the combat skills I switched off mentally and dozed with my eyes closed. When I open my eyes again, the wizard is gone. I certainly didn't miss anything important, huh?
