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- Information Gathering (Mental 1, Intelligence/Reason, Charisma/Appearance) — Through
the use of this skill a character can gain information about a
specific person, place or thing. Under appropriate circumstances
a character will be aware of major rumors circulating a settled
area. By making a successful skill check, specific information
can be gleaned.
- For rogue characters this skill also represents the ability to
gather information from the underworld, most commonly about roguish
“jobs” and characters. A character with this skill, under appropriate
circumstances, will be aware of any major rumors circulating in
the lower-class and slum areas of a given locale and with a successful
skill check, specific information can be gathered. (The DM must
decide how specific the information is.)
- The following modifiers may adjust the skill check:
- Thieves’ guild members and others who belong to underworld organizations
receive a bonus of +10% to their skill because they are assumed
to have more and better-informed contacts than free-lancers. Also,
their “territory (see below) is considered to be that of the guild,
not just their own area of operation.
- Since this skill depends on a network of informants and contacts,
a character will be at a disadvantage trying to use it in an area
other than his own territory. “Territory” refers to his regular
base of operations — a town, one neighborhood of a city or even
a whole province or countryside. Outside this territory the character
does not hear rumors automatically (a normal skill check is required)
and an attempt to gather specific information is penalized by
at least -15%. The DM may apply a stricter penalty if the character
is operating in a truly foreign area (e.g., a thief of Ro trying
to gather information in Lydia), due to great differences in language, culture or race.
- Finally, any time a skill check is required for Information Gathering,
a small investment of money for drinks, bribes and so forth must
be made or an additional penalty of -15% is imposed. A total of
1d10 gp is typical and it is lost whether or not the desired information
is found. (If the information is still unknown, the character
can continue his search the next day, spending more money and
making another skill check.) The DM is free to increase the cost
of using this skill if it suits the campaign situation.
- Intrigue (Mental 1, Charisma/Appearance -1) — The Intrigue skill simulates
the ability of a character to capture a target’s attention, usually
with a conversation or a “look.” On a successful skill check,
the character can capture the target’s attention for one round.
If the character wishes to keep the target’s attention, each subsequent
round the check is at -5% (cumulative) penalty. If the skill check
succeeds, the character wins initiative automatically the next
round. If the success margin is 25 or more, the character gains
automatic surprise the next round.
- An intrigued character will have to make a successful Wisdom/Intuition
check at a -4 penalty to have a chance to notice anything except
the character using the Intrigue skill. For example, a thief’s
accomplice uses Intrigue to capture the attention of a watchman.
The thief fails his Move Silently roll. The watchman, (an NPC
with a Wisdom of 10) fails to notice because the DM rolled a nine
on a d20. If the DM had rolled a five, the watchman would have
noticed. A character can use Intrigue on only one target at a
time.
- Note, unlike many Charisma-based skills, the Intrigue skill can
be used directly on player characters. The DM can determine that
a PC is intrigued and adjust surprise, initiative or his own narrative
accordingly.
- Investigation (Mental 1, Intelligence/Reason -2) — This is the art of discovering
the truth through careful examination of a problem or situation.
A character with this skill is familiar with the process of interviewing
witnesses, searching scenes for clues or information, and the
general execution of a logical and thorough investigation. Characters
who are associated with the local government may be called upon
to solve common crimes against the state, while others, especially
priests, may be inquisitors or theological investigators.
- The DM may allow the PC to attempt a skill check when the player
is missing an obvious line of inquiry or step of deductive reasoning,
although this should be a rare use of this ability. An Investigation
skill check can also be used to discover clues at the scene of
a crime or to extract information from a witness or suspect.
- Iron Will (Mental 2, Ego/Willpower -2) — Some people are possessed of an
amazing ability to drive themselves on despite injuries or exhaustion
that would stop another person in his tracks. A character with
the Iron Will talent gains a +1 bonus to saving throws vs. mind-affecting
spells or effects, including charms, holds, hypnotism, fascination, suggestion and other such spells.
- In addition, a character with Iron Will has the unique ability
to keep fighting even after being reduced to negative hit points.
Each round that the character wishes to remain conscious, he must
roll a successful skill check with a -10% penalty to his check
for every hit point of damage the character has suffered below
zero hit points. For example, a character reduced to -5 hit points
can try to stay on his feet and keep moving and fighting by making
a successful skill check at -50%. As long as a character remains
conscious, his condition normally does not worsen — in other words,
until he actually passes out, he does not begin to suffer one
additional hit point of damage per round. However, bleeding damage
caused by critical hits and other means, poison damage, acid damage
or any other extraordinary continuing damage is not negated by
the use of this skill. When a character is reduced to -10 hit
points, by any means, he dies immediately.
- Languages, Ancient (Mental 1, Intelligence/Knowledge) — The character has mastered
a difficult and obscure tongue, now primarily found in the writings
of pedantic sages and sorcerers. The main use of the language
is to read tomes of ancient secrets written by long-dead mystics.
This skill enables the character to read, write and speak the
language.
- Known ancient languages of Fälgorna include: Ancient Adian, Rune (Ancient Fälgornian), Eldar (Ancient Elfin),
and Dulthor (Ancient Dwarven). There are, of course, other less
common tongues.
- Barbarians: The barbarian with this skill has mastered an obscure language
associated with his homeland. Ancient barbaric languages don’t
necessarily involve words; they may consist of grunts, snorts,
tongue clicks or whistles. This skill enables the barbarian to
vocally reproduce the language; he can’t write or read it. The
player should provide an explanation for the barbarian’s fluency.
- Languages, Modern (Mental 1, Intelligence/Knowledge) — The character has learned
to speak a language of the known world. To do so, there must be
a teacher available. This could be another player character, an
NPC hireling, or simply a local townsman. A skill check is only
required of a character with a skill score of 50% or higher if
the character is trying to communicate with exacting precision
A character with a Modern Language skill score of less than 50%
must make a skill check to communicate all but the most simple
messages.
- Characters begin play speaking their native tongue as a bonus
skill. The Trade Tongue (common) is considered a recommended skill
for all character classes and races not otherwise prohibited from
taking Trade Tongue as a starting skill.
- Spelljamming: Only a character who has experience in wildspace may learn the
languages of wildspace.
- Law (Mental 1, Intelligence/Reason) — A character with this skill
is thoroughly familiar with the legal system of his homeland and
is skilled in representing cases before judges, officers, nobles
and magistrates. This is a working knowledge of the law, as opposed
to the theoretical knowledge of the sage area of study.
- With a successful skill check, the character can build a strong
defense for a person accused of a crime; if the judge or jury
are fair-minded and honest, he stands an excellent chance of winning
his client’s case. Of course, corrupt or intimidated officials
can still deliver unjust verdicts despite the character’s best
efforts.
- A character with the Oratory skill gains a +5% bonus to his Law skill.
- Leadership (Mental 1, Charisma/Leadership) — A character with this skill
has a commanding manner that makes others of his own kind inclined
to respond favorably. The character adds his level of experience
to his Charisma/Appearance score when determining reaction adjustments
and to his Charisma/Leadership score when determining loyalty
and command radius. The reaction and loyalty bonus do not affect
those of evil alignment, but the command radius affects those
of any alignment.
- Example: Grog, a 7th-level barbarian, has a Charisma/Appearance and Charisma/Leadership
score of 13 and the Leadership skill. According to Table 1.12
and 1.13 in Chapter 1, he has a standard reaction adjustment of
+1, loyalty base of 0, and command radius of 0. But when dealing
with people from his homeland, he has an effective Charisma/Appearance
and Charisma/Leadership score of 20 which gives him a reaction
bonus of +9, a loyalty base modifier of +12 and a command radius
modifier of +12. When dealing with evil characters from his homeland,
however, he uses his standard bonus for reaction adjustment and
loyalty base, but retains the special bonus to command radius.
- A character who makes successful skill check in battle may increase
the moral of his troops by +2.
- Linguistics (Mental 2, Intelligence/Knowledge +1) — This skill is only available
to someone who speaks at least three languages (minimum 50% skill
score). The contrasts of the different styles of languages give
the character knowledge to base this skill on. A character with
this skill is adept at quickly picking up enough of a new language
to be understood. Characters who choose this skill do not select
any languages. Instead, there are four open slots in this skill.
The PC must spend a week in a location where a language he does
not presently know is spoken. After this week, the character makes
a skill check to pick up enough of the language to be understood
and carry on daily activities. Spending a week with a tutor also
grants this roll. If the roll is failed, the character can try
again the next day, and each subsequent day until the roll succeeds.
This allows the character to converse, albeit with a terrible
accent, in the new language and is not a replacement for the normal
Modern Language skill. Traders with Linguistics can make themselves
understood, and understand basic dialog.
- A character may learn these languages “on the fly,” so to speak,
but may never have more than four at one time. If a character
has used the full allotment for, say, Dwarven, Peradian, Orcish,
and Gnomish, and wants to learn to converse in far-off Täghorn,
the PC must drop one of the existing languages. It should be the
language that the character has not used for the longest amount
of time. The dropped language is considered out of practice and
forgotten. For ever 15 skill points over a skill score of 50,
the character can add an additional language to the number of
languages he can retain.
 
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