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| shared_worlds:thick_as_thieves_skillsets [2016/06/06 20:29] – [Visual stealth] petike | shared_worlds:thick_as_thieves_skillsets [2023/11/10 15:37] (current) – [Diplomatic skills] petike |
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| **Health:** The overall medical status of a character at a given moment. Dependent on various factors. Can be damaged by injuries, illnesses, combat, poisons, can be restored/healed via medicines, resting, a particular diet and certain magical healing items.\\ | **Health:** The overall medical status of a character at a given moment. Dependent on various factors. Can be damaged by injuries, illnesses, combat, poisons, can be restored/healed via medicines, resting, a particular diet and certain magical healing items.\\ |
| **Strenghth:** The overall physical strenghth of a character, especially in more demanding activities such as hard physical labour, melee combat and archery, lifting and carrying objects, etc.\\ | **Strength:** The overall physical strength of a character, especially in more demanding activities such as hard physical labour, melee combat and archery, lifting and carrying objects, etc.\\ |
| **Endurance (Stamina):** The overall capability of a character to perservere and withstand various stresses, injuries, and Fatigue.\\ | **Endurance (Stamina):** The overall capability of a character to perservere and withstand various stresses, injuries, and Fatigue.\\ |
| **Agility (Dexterity):** The overall masterry a character has over his/her common movement skills and movement speeds.\\ | **Agility (Dexterity):** The overall masterry a character has over his/her common movement skills and movement speeds.\\ |
| Please keep in mind that even thieves skilled in combat are not professional warriors or soldiers. Evading a threat or running away from it isn't cowardly, it's a reasonable and natural choice. Defending yourself is valid, but killing people because they're in your way is not. | Please keep in mind that even thieves skilled in combat are not professional warriors or soldiers. Evading a threat or running away from it isn't cowardly, it's a reasonable and natural choice. Defending yourself is valid, but killing people because they're in your way is not. |
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| **Draw weight:** Only important for bows and hand-spanned crossbows. Depends on a character's Strenghth, Agility, and also the degree of Fatigue. With the sole exception of hand-spanned crossbows, crossbows and firearms do not require draw weight consideration, since they are reloaded via more mechanical means, rather than directly by hand. Draw weight for bows and hand-spanned crossbows is not a replacement for the reloading skill, but runs parallel to it.\\ | **Draw weight:** Only important for bows and hand-spanned crossbows. Depends on a character's Strength, Agility, and also the degree of Fatigue. With the sole exception of hand-spanned crossbows, crossbows and firearms do not require draw weight consideration, since they are reloaded via more mechanical means, rather than directly by hand. Draw weight for bows and hand-spanned crossbows is not a replacement for the reloading skill, but runs parallel to it.\\ |
| **Reloading:** Deals with a character's capability of reloading missile weapons during a certain amount of time. Does not affect throwing weapons. Bows and hand-spanned crossbows are drawn, mechanical crossbows and crossbow-derived weapons are spanned, firearms are reloaded. In the case of bows, Reloading and Draw weight are always counted together, as they are used concurrently while drawing a bow before the arrow is released/shot.\\ | **Reloading:** Deals with a character's capability of reloading missile weapons during a certain amount of time. Does not affect throwing weapons. Bows and hand-spanned crossbows are drawn, mechanical crossbows and crossbow-derived weapons are spanned, firearms are reloaded. In the case of bows, Reloading and Draw weight are always counted together, as they are used concurrently while drawing a bow before the arrow is released/shot.\\ |
| **Throwing:** Deals with a character's capability of throwing objects, either mundane objects used as improvised decoys and weaponry, or purpose-built throwing weapons. It is a skill similar to the draw weight or reloading skills, but isn't directly related to either of them.\\ | **Throwing:** Deals with a character's capability of throwing objects, either mundane objects used as improvised decoys and weaponry, or purpose-built throwing weapons. It is a skill similar to the draw weight or reloading skills, but isn't directly related to either of them.\\ |
| **Decoy:** Something of a more advanced cousin to the Confuse spell. It creates the titular decoy, which can take on the form of any number of visual or aural illusions. These are usually very short and subtle examples instead of anything grandiose, as their briefness makes them more confusing or even frightening to an affected NPC character. If used wisely and sparringly, it can create enough of a temporary distraction to be a nice trump card for solving trickier challenges to one's sneaking around. This spell is particularly useful to conman and stealth expert character builds. \\ | **Decoy:** Something of a more advanced cousin to the Confuse spell. It creates the titular decoy, which can take on the form of any number of visual or aural illusions. These are usually very short and subtle examples instead of anything grandiose, as their briefness makes them more confusing or even frightening to an affected NPC character. If used wisely and sparringly, it can create enough of a temporary distraction to be a nice trump card for solving trickier challenges to one's sneaking around. This spell is particularly useful to conman and stealth expert character builds. \\ |
| **Repel:** A spell that creates an invisible power barrier or wave blast that can push back an attacking adversary, or attempt to knock him off his feet, etc. The only real combat spell worth the name, but its limitations make it ideal only for defensive purposes instead of offensive combat. This is a generally useful spell.\\ | **Repel:** A spell that creates an invisible power barrier or wave blast that can push back an attacking adversary, or attempt to knock him off his feet, etc. The only real combat spell worth the name, but its limitations make it ideal only for defensive purposes instead of offensive combat. This is a generally useful spell.\\ |
| **Enhance:** A spell that enhances a character's //movement-related// Agility, Endurance and Concentration skills, and ocassionally, his/her Strenghth skill. Be warned though, this spell __cannot be used__ to enhance one's //combat-related// Strenghth, Endurance, Agility and Concentration. This spell can make you jump a little higher or turn around swifter or run slightly faster in an emergency, but it cannot make you wield oversized weapons or reload instantaneously. This is a generally useful spell.\\ | **Enhance:** A spell that enhances a character's //movement-related// Agility, Endurance and Concentration skills, and ocassionally, his/her Strength skill. Be warned though, this spell __cannot be used__ to enhance one's //combat-related// Strength, Endurance, Agility and Concentration. This spell can make you jump a little higher or turn around swifter or run slightly faster in an emergency, but it cannot make you wield oversized weapons or reload instantaneously. This is a generally useful spell.\\ |
| **Heal-up:** A spell that actually //doesn't// heal wounds or injuries, but it speeds up the natural healing processes in a tiny area, such as the area of said wounds or injuries. In essence, it shortens the time needed for a wound and/or injury to heal itself. Bear in mind that restoring lost health still requires proper medicine and old-fashioned healing/resting. This is a generally useful spell.\\ | **Heal-up:** A spell that actually //doesn't// heal wounds or injuries, but it speeds up the natural healing processes in a tiny area, such as the area of said wounds or injuries. In essence, it shortens the time needed for a wound and/or injury to heal itself. Bear in mind that restoring lost health still requires proper medicine and old-fashioned healing/resting. This is a generally useful spell.\\ |
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| ==== Diplomatic skills ==== | ==== Diplomatic skills ==== |
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| **Persuasion:** The most basic and most often used of all diplomatic skills is simply that with which you persuade others to see things your way. It's the backbone of all conmanship and diplomacy - to many people, things that are one and the same. Beware, there's no guaranteed recipe for how to go about using this skill. Every person you're trying to sway is a unique individual, and the situations you're trying to persuade that person in always offer a unique context (even broadly similar situations). But don't fret. There might not be a recipe, but there are many, many different bits of advice for getting good mileage out of this skill. Good advice time-tested by entire generations worth of experience gathering by others.\\ | **Persuasion:** The most basic and most often used of all diplomatic skills is simply that with which you persuade others to see things your way. It's the backbone of all conmanship and diplomacy - to many people, things that are one and the same. Beware, there's no guaranteed recipe for how to go about using this skill. Every person you're trying to sway is a unique individual, and the situations you're trying to persuade that person in always offer a unique context (even broadly similar situations). But don't fret. There might not be a recipe, but there are many, many different bits of advice for getting good mileage out of this skill. Good advice time-tested by entire generations worth of experience gathering by others. Overusing Persuasion on a regular basis can negatively effect the Trust scale.\\ |
| **Haggling:** Trading things, whether with money or via barter methods, can often be quite the hassle. This is where your bargaining skill can really come in handy, saving you some additional money or items you might have otherwise been forced to trade. Whether you're haggling with shop owners operating among the thieves' guilds, or those that are part of the regular (and mostly legal) commerce of the city, a skill like this is one that money can't buy.\\ | **Haggling:** Trading things, whether with money or via barter methods, can often be quite the hassle. This is where your bargaining skill can really come in handy, saving you some additional money or items you might have otherwise been forced to trade. Whether you're haggling with shop owners operating among the thieves' guilds, or those that are part of the regular (and mostly legal) commerce of the city, a skill like this is one that money can't buy. Overusing Haggling on a regular basis can negatively effect the Trust scale.\\ |
| **Deception:** \\ | **Compassion:** The skill at performing acts of empathy, understanding and selfless acts, all in a manner that could potentially raise the player's reputation and thus also the Trust levels of an individual NPC or even a group of NPCs. The downside of using this skill is that insincere attempts at compassion can be potentially revealed, either quickly or gradually, based on the perceptiveness of an NPC, or that certain NPCs might not think highly of the player showing compassion in a certain context or even at all. Using Compassion on a regular basis will (generally) positively effect the Ethics scale.\\ |
| **Distraction:** The skill at orchestrating situations (simple or complex) via social means, all in order to take away a certain person's or group's attention away from one thing, then refocus it on another thing. From fooling someone into looking the other way or falling for a (seemingly) mundane accident happening nearby, to providing temporary plausible cover for fellow thievy operatives during a heist or getaway, well-used examples of distraction can make or break many situations where potential success hangs by a thread. Successful distractions are objectivelly hard to pull off, especially for prolonged amounts of time, but fooling people's immediate reflexes by psychologically outsmarting them is one of the ultimate tricks up any experienced thief's sleeve.\\ | **Deception:** The skill at creating ruses, half-truths, false impressions or just straight-up cunning fibs about some situation or about some individual or place. This skill can be used by more upstanding players as well as more manipulative-minded ones, but is trickier to use than most. The major downside is that attempts at deception can be potentially revealed, and the resulting repercussions do not bode well for the player, particularly his reputation in terms of the Ethics and Trust scales. Using Deception on a regular basis will negatively effect the Ethics scale.\\ |
| **Intimidation:** Sometimes, when all other diplomatic skills and milder methods fail, a professional thief has to resort to something... harsher. The intimidation skill doesn't necessarily mean you have to rough someone up. Really knowledgeable thieves will tell you that playing on another person's fear or weak spots can do wonders, whereas directly threatening or even harming that same person would probably yield little. One needs to find the right balance between sBare that in mind when using this skill. \\ | **Distraction:** The skill at orchestrating situations (simple or complex) via social means, all in order to take away a certain person's or group's attention away from one thing, then refocus it on another thing. From fooling someone into looking the other way or falling for a (seemingly) mundane accident happening nearby, to providing temporary plausible cover for fellow thievy operatives during a heist or getaway, well-used examples of distraction can make or break many situations where potential success hangs by a thread. Successful distractions are objectivelly hard to pull off, especially for prolonged amounts of time, but fooling people's immediate reflexes by psychologically outsmarting them is one of the ultimate tricks up any experienced thief's sleeve. Using Distraction on a regular basis does not have an effect the Ethics scale.\\ |
| | **Intimidation:** Sometimes, when all other diplomatic skills and milder methods fail, a professional thief has to resort to something... harsher. The intimidation skill doesn't necessarily mean you have to rough someone up. Really knowledgeable thieves will tell you that playing on another person's fear or weak spots can do wonders, whereas directly threatening or even harming that same person would probably yield little. One needs to find the right balance between using Intimidation in an almost surgically accurate manner. Use Intimidation too much and too often, and Ethics and Trust ratings plummet like a stone, too little and the player is laughed off by NPCs for behaving like a wannabe tough guy and a fool. Bare that in mind when using this skill. Using Intimidation on a regular basis will negatively effect the Ethics scale.\\ |
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