Primary Skills Compendium

The body as instrument — trained to move through space with precision that looks effortless and is anything but. Acrobatics covers the gap between what the battlefield gives you and where you need to be: vaulting obstacles, running across surfaces that shouldn't hold weight, threading gaps that shouldn't fit a person. Roll 1d10 + Acrobatics Points against the GM's DV for all tests involving dynamic movement, balance, and precision athletics. Every 3 points increases your Agility characteristic by 1.

• Passive — Fluid Movement: You suffer no movement penalty for difficult terrain that can be vaulted, climbed over, or navigated dynamically. You treat unstable surfaces (ship decks, icy slopes, rooftops) as firm ground for the purposes of movement and attack.
• At 3 points — Wall Run: Once per turn, you may run along a vertical surface for up to 15 Ft as part of your movement — crossing a wall face or scrambling over a sheer obstacle through momentum alone. This is lateral or upward travel across the surface, not inverted movement; you cannot run along ceilings. You must end your movement on a surface that supports weight, or you fall.
• At 6 points — Aerial Strike: When you attack an enemy after vaulting or dropping from height, add +1 To-Hit and +1d10 damage to the attack — the momentum translates directly into killing force. Once per turn.
• At 9 points — Perfect Form: Falling damage is reduced by half (you land rolling, never quite right but never broken). Additionally, once per encounter you may use Acrobatics to move through an occupied space — passing through enemy lines or over a target — as a 2 AP action without triggering opportunity attacks, provided you succeed on an Acrobatics test against the highest enemy Awareness in the path.

The body is the ultimate weapon, forged not in the armory but through exhaustion, sweat, and sheer physical exertion. Each point improves jumping and running distances. Every 3 points increases your Agility characteristic by 1.

• Passive: Each point improves jump distance and sprint capacity. Roll 1d10 + Skill Points for physical feat tests.
• At 3 points — Physical Force: Ranged weapon wounds are increased by your Awareness modifier — your conditioning translates directly into throwing and firing power.
• At 6 points — Sure-Footed: Ignore all movement penalties from difficult terrain — rough ground, mud, rubble, shallow water. You move through it at full speed.
• At 9 points — Burst: Once per encounter, double your movement distance for one turn — a sudden explosive sprint that carries you across the battlefield before anyone can react.

Identity is a costume worn over a skeleton, and you have learned to change costumes faster than most people change their minds. Disguise is not merely prosthetics and dye — it is posture, gait, voice, and the specific quality of confidence that makes an assumed identity feel inevitable rather than performed. Roll 1d10 + Disguise against a scrutineer's 1d10 + Insight (untrained: Dis.d10 + Awareness) when maintaining a disguise under scrutiny. Every 3 points increases your Agility characteristic by 1.

• Passive — Second Skin: Maintaining a passive disguise (moving through a crowd, conducting routine business) requires no roll — only active scrutiny or prolonged close interaction triggers a test. You know how to make your disguise survive the glance.
• At 3 points — Voice Work: Your disguise now extends convincingly to voice, accent, and mannerism. Impersonating a specific known individual requires a Disguise test against observers' Awareness + 1; impersonating a type (a guard, a merchant, a clerk) is a standard test. Written documents, signatures, and official seals can be forged with a Disguise test against a DV the GM sets by the forgery's complexity and the scrutiny it will face.
• At 6 points — Field Kit: You can construct a functional disguise from available materials in 10 minutes with a DV 8 Disguise test rather than requiring specialist supplies. A natural environment with clothing and basic tools is sufficient. The disguise is good enough to withstand casual inspection and a single roll of scrutiny.
• At 9 points — Perfect Mirror: Once per session, after observing a target for at least 10 minutes, you may assume their identity so precisely that people who know them well require an Awareness test against DV 12 to detect the deception. You replicate their speech patterns, movement habits, and social rhythms. The disguise holds until the target themselves appears in the same space.

The study of restraint — not how to apply it, but how to refuse it. Manacles, rope, grapples, nets, magical binding, and the grip of something three times your size: none of these are permanent if you know where the give is. Escapology is half anatomy, half engineering, and half the cold certainty that you will find the weakness before your captor realises you're looking. Roll 1d10 + Escapology for all escape and slip attempts; against a living captor it is opposed by their 1d10 + Brawling (untrained: Dis.d10 + Physique). Every 3 points increases your Agility characteristic by 1.

• Passive — Read the Bind: When restrained by any means, you immediately gain a mental assessment of the restraint's weakest point. The GM must tell you the type of restraint and its approximate difficulty to escape — you cannot be kept ignorant of what holds you.
• At 3 points — Slip: Once per encounter, when successfully Grappled, spend 1 AP as a reaction to immediately attempt an escape roll against the grappler's Physique + 1. On success, you are free and may move up to 5 Ft. On failure, the grapple continues normally.
• At 6 points — Patience: Given time and no active supervision, you can attempt to escape any non-magical restraint — chains, manacles, rope, locked rooms — over the course of minutes to an hour depending on complexity, with an Escapology test at +3 against a DV the GM sets by complexity. You may retry as time allows. With supervision, you escape as soon as the supervisor's attention lapses.
• At 9 points — Counter-Lock: Once per encounter when an enemy attempts to Grapple you, you may counter-grapple as a reaction — turning their attempt into your grapple at no AP cost. Make an opposed Physique test; on success, they are now Grappled by you. On failure, they complete their grapple normally.

Tactical flexibility in combat — the difference between a blade that bites and one that meets empty air. You read where the strike is going before it arrives, slipping just enough to turn lethal into survivable. Your Evasion bonus applies to both Defense and Damage Mitigation, reduced by your armor's Agility penalty.

• Passive: Every 3 points adds +1 Defense and +1 Damage Mitigation against physical attacks. This bonus is reduced by your armor's Agility penalty for the Defense component, but always applies fully to Damage Mitigation.
• At 3 points — Dodge: Once per encounter, spend 1 AP as a reaction to completely negate all wounds from one physical attack that hits you. Declare after the hit is confirmed but before wounds are applied. Does not work against spells.
• At 6 points — Roll Clear: Whenever you are caught in an AoE effect, you suffer only half wounds — your instinct carries you to the edge of the blast.
• At 9 points — Impossible to Pin: Your dodge reaction now applies to spells targeting you directly. When a spell hits, spend 1 AP as a reaction to suffer only half wounds as you twist clear. Does not apply to AoE spells.

Mastery of rapid movement — fluid, economical, terrifyingly fast. Every 3 points increases your Action Pool by 1 and your Agility characteristic by 1.

• Passive: +1 AP per 3 points invested. Swap weapons or drink a potion for 1 AP rather than a full action.
• At 6 points — Fluid Motion: Once per turn, swap weapon or drink a potion as a free action — your hands move faster than the cost of thought.
• At 9 points — First Blood: You always act before any enemy of equal or lower Initiative — ties in Initiative always resolve in your favour.

The hand is faster than the eye, and the eye sees what it expects to see. Sleight of Hand is the discipline of misdirection — making the audience look at the wrong thing while the interesting event happens somewhere they aren't watching. In combat, it translates to concealed weapons, palmed items, and the ability to introduce objects into spaces that should be impossible to reach undetected. Roll 1d10 + Sleight of Hand against an observer's 1d10 + Acute Senses (untrained: Dis.d10 + Awareness) for all concealment, palming, and misdirection tests. Every 3 points increases your Agility characteristic by 1.

• Passive — Always Prepared: You may conceal up to 3 items smaller than dagger-size on your person that cannot be found by a standard search — only a thorough strip-search with at least 1 minute of inspection discovers them. A single concealed weapon of up to shortsword size can be drawn as a free action once per combat.
• At 3 points — The Pass: Transfer an item to or from another person within arm's reach as a free action without detection. Both parties must be willing for a transfer; a forced extraction from an unwilling target (picking a pocket in combat) requires a roll against their Awareness.
• At 6 points — Poisoner's Touch: During melee combat, you may apply a contact poison, a picked pocket, or swap an object within an enemy's reach as a 1 AP action alongside an attack. The target must succeed on an Awareness test against DV 8 + your Agility modifier to notice.
• At 9 points — Now You See It: Once per encounter, you may cause a weapon, potion, or small object being held or worn by an enemy to simply vanish from their possession — transferred to your own — during a moment of contact. The target does not notice until they reach for the item. No test required if the target is currently engaged in combat with another creature; a test is required if you are their primary focus.

Locks are puzzles waiting for a solution and pockets are temporary storage for gold that hasn't found a better home. Roll 1d10 + Thieving for all larceny. Against locks and traps this is set against a GM difficulty; against a living mark (pick pocket, cut purse) it is opposed by their 1d10 + Acute Senses (untrained: Dis.d10 + Awareness). Every 3 points increases your Agility characteristic by 1.

• Passive: All thieving actions use 1d10 + Skill Points. Pick Pocket is an opposed test vs the target's Acute Senses (untrained: Dis.d10 + Awareness).
• At 3 points — Nimble Fingers: Gain +1 bonus to all lock picking attempts and halve the time required to pick any lock — your hands know where the pins sit before you find them.
• At 6 points — Arcane Deft: Gain +2 bonus to disarm magical traps. This bonus only applies if you possess at least 1 point in Wizardry, Devotion, or Runecraft — understanding the magical signature is half the work of neutralising it.
• At 9 points — Lift: As a 2 AP action, attempt to steal one equipped item from a target. Opposed test: your Thieving roll vs their Awareness + Agility modifier. On success the item is in your hand. On failure they notice immediately.

The art of controlled falling and dynamic evasion — rolling clear of danger before it arrives, landing without losing your footing, and denying the battlefield the satisfaction of putting you on the ground. Where Evasion avoids a targeted strike, Tumble handles the chaos: explosions, knockbacks, grapples, and every force that tries to rob you of your position.

• Passive Resistance: Each point in Tumble grants +1 to any test made to avoid being knocked Prone, Pushed, or Grappled.
• At 3 points — Emergency Roll: Once per turn, spend 1 AP as a reaction to roll clear of any AoE effect, moving up to 10 Ft in any direction before it resolves.
• At 6 points — Sure Footing: Falling no longer knocks you Prone. You ignore the first Prone condition applied to you each encounter.
• At 9 points — Death Roll: Once per encounter, when reduced to 0 wounds by a physical impact, make a Tumble test against TN 12. On success, remain at 1 wound on your feet.

The world speaks in whispers, shifting shadows, and the metallic tang of drawn steel. While others are blind to the subtle warnings of the environment, your instincts are honed to a razor's edge. Roll 1d10 + Skill Points for all sensory detection tests. Every 3 points increases your Awareness characteristic by 1.

• Passive: Gain +1 bonus to all sensory detection tests per point invested — spotting hidden threats, detecting ambushes, noticing concealed objects.
• At 3 points — Sharpened Edge: Gain an additional +1 bonus to all sensory tests on top of your existing skill points — your senses have crossed a threshold beyond the merely attentive.
• At 6 points — Combat Awareness: Gain Advantage on all tests made to detect or resist an ambush attempt — and when you succeed at detecting one, you learn its specifics: the number of attackers and their positions. Where instinct only whispers that something is wrong, your trained senses read the whole trap. You read the stillness before the strike.
• At 9 points — Predator Sense: You can sense the direction and approximate distance of any living creature within 60 Ft even through walls and darkness — not sight, but a primal awareness of presence that no concealment fully blocks.

Something moves wrong in the corner of your vision. The silence is the wrong quality. The air smells like iron half a second before anyone has bled. Danger Sense is not prophecy — it is the body's accumulated experience compressed into a signal faster than conscious processing, and the discipline of trusting it. Every 3 points increases your Awareness characteristic by 1.

• Passive — Threat Radar: You are never caught flat-footed. Even when surprised, you act in the surprise round at half initiative rather than being locked out entirely. Your instincts register the threat before your mind does.
• At 3 points — Ambush Instinct: Your instincts sound a silent alarm near prepared ambushes within 50 Ft — the GM must tell you that something is wrong, but never what, where, or how many. This is a gut-warning, not a sighting; reading the trap's specifics is the work of Acute Senses. It triggers before you enter the kill zone. In addition, you are never the target of an automatic flanking bonus — your Danger Sense registers the flanker's movement before it completes.
• At 6 points — Sixth Sense: Once per encounter, when an attack would reduce you to 0 wounds, you may spend 1 AP as a reaction to interpose — throwing yourself aside and reducing the damage by Danger Sense pts × 2. This triggers on instinct: you do not need to declare it in advance.
• At 9 points — Precognitive Edge: Your initiative is permanently increased by +Danger Sense pts. Additionally, once per session, you may declare that your Danger Sense has screamed loudly enough to stop you doing something catastrophic — walking into a lethal trap, opening a cursed container, drinking a poisoned drink. The GM must confirm the threat was real. You learn nothing beyond the fact that stopping was correct.

Unlocks the Druidic magical discipline. Each point allows you to learn one spell. Every 3 points increases your Awareness characteristic by 1. At 6 points, you must choose a specialized Path.

The world narrows to a single point. The frantic rhythm of the melee slows as your pulse steadies. You do not merely strike — you choose exactly where the blade will bite. Your total Focus points form a pool you distribute between Potency (flat wound/heal bonus) and Penetration (armor pierce) when you take the Focus action for 1 AP. Every 3 points grants +1 To-Hit whenever you use Focus and increases your Awareness by 1.

• Passive: Every 3 points grants a passive +1 To-Hit on any action that follows a Focus action. Distribute your pool freely between Potency and Penetration each use.
• At 6 points — Instant Focus: Once per encounter, use the Focus action as a free action at no AP cost — your mastery allows one moment of perfect clarity without breaking your rhythm.
• At 9 points — Total Commitment: When you Focus before an attack or spell, you may apply your entire Focus pool to both Potency and Penetration simultaneously rather than splitting — your concentration so complete that the full force of your mind bears down on both wound power and armor denial at once.

Every face is a ledger of small tells, and you have learned to read the entries others think are private. Insight is the counter to the social blade: when a target attempts to Deceive, Charm, Intimidate, Seduce, or Disguise against you, add your Insight points to your opposed test to see through it. You also sense hostile intent a beat early — a hand drifting to a hilt, the wrong kind of smile. Every 3 points increases your Awareness characteristic by 1.

• Passive: Add +1 per point to any opposed test made to resist or detect a social skill used against you.
• At 3 points — Read the Room: Once per scene, the GM tells you whether a specific statement made to you is a deliberate lie (not the truth behind it, only that it is false).

Mouths are a second ledger kept by the inattentive. What people say aloud is the version they've decided to share — what their lips form when they think no one is watching is closer to the truth. Lip Reading extends your intelligence range across a room without requiring proximity, letting you attend two conversations simultaneously: the one happening in front of you and the one happening thirty feet away. Roll 1d10 + Lip Reading against a GM difficulty for unclear or fast speech; a target deliberately concealing their words opposes with 1d10 + Stealth. Every 3 points increases your Awareness characteristic by 1.

• Passive — Silent Read: You can read the lips of any speaker you can clearly see within 50 Ft who is speaking a language you know. In standard lighting and calm conditions this requires no roll. Poor light, a beard, or a speaker turned partially away increases DV by 2–4.
• At 3 points — Cross-Language: You may attempt to lip-read speakers of languages you do not know fluently — extracting individual words, names, or numbers on a DV 10 test. On a natural 10 you reconstruct the grammatical structure of the sentence. Over time and repeated exposure, this can serve as functional language acquisition for spoken languages.
• At 6 points — Double Audience: You may conduct a conversation normally while simultaneously lip-reading a different conversation across the room with no penalty to either — your attention splits cleanly. This is the skill at full function: you become the room's second pair of ears without being audible in either channel.
• At 9 points — The Unguarded Moment: Once per session, when you observe a target at an unguarded moment — speaking to themselves, reacting silently, mouthing words in thought — the GM must give you one truthful piece of information the target has not consciously chosen to reveal. What a person says when they think no one is watching is the most honest thing about them.

Deadly accuracy that extends your explosion chain on melee and ranged attacks. Precise Strike points apply to the second and all subsequent explosion rolls — replacing the To-Hit bonus that does not carry over to those rolls.

• Explosion Roll Bonus: Add all Precise Strike points to each explosion roll, allowing you to meet or beat high Defense values a raw d10 alone could not reach.
• Passive — To-Hit: Every 3 points adds +1 To-Hit on your initial attack roll.
• Passive — Wounds: Every 3 points adds +2 bonus wounds on every confirmed hit.
• Advanced Skill Triggers: Any Advanced Skill that activates "on a natural 10" still requires the explosion roll to meet or beat Defense. Precise Strike points count toward that threshold.

The ability to extract information faster than it can be hidden. A document left on a desk, a letter being sealed, a ledger opened during a tense negotiation: Swift Read is the skill of consuming text at a rate that turns a glance into a complete briefing. In a world where information is power and most powerful people do not expect to be read in real time, this is a weapon that never runs out of ammunition. Every 3 points increases your Awareness characteristic by 1.

• Passive — Speed of Comprehension: You read at Swift Read pts × 3 times normal speed with full retention and comprehension. At 1 point, a ten-page document takes two minutes. At 9 points, you can absorb a full legal document while it is being passed across a table.
• At 3 points — Photographic Glimpse: On a successful Awareness test against DV 9, you may retain the full, word-for-word content of any written text you have seen — even briefly. This functions as perfect recall: the text is stored in memory as if you had it in front of you, and can be recalled and transcribed accurately later.
• At 6 points — Structural Analysis: When reading any document, you automatically identify redactions, forgeries, substituted pages, added marginalia, or alterations — anything that was not part of the original composition reads to you as a discordant note. You cannot be fooled by sophisticated document manipulation without an opposed test against your Swift Read + Awareness.
• At 9 points — Living Archive: Your reading retention is now absolute and permanent. Any text you have ever fully read can be recalled and reproduced verbatim, in full, at any time — every book, every contract, every intercepted letter. Additionally, once per session you may cross-reference your stored information to produce a connection between two texts you have read that yields a piece of intelligence the GM confirms as accurate.

Some lead by the grace of kings, but you lead by the absolute weight of your presence. To force a command, roll 1d10 + Authority against the target's resist roll of 1d10 + their resist skill (Zealotry for the strong-willed; an untrained target rolls Dis.d10 + Willpower). If your total wins, they must comply with your demand. Every 3 points increases your Charisma characteristic by 1.

• Passive: Your command forces a single target to comply with your demand on a failed Willpower resist test.
• At 3 points — Voice of Command: Your authority can now affect up to 3 creatures simultaneously with a single action — your presence fills the room rather than targeting one soul.
• At 6 points — Crushing Weight: Any target that fails their resist test not only complies but also suffers 1 Shaken condition — the psychological weight of your command rattles them beyond mere compliance.

Natural social influence and magnetism — weaving words and presence into a subtle snare. To charm a target, roll 1d10 + Charm against their resist roll: the target defends with 1d10 + Zealotry to shrug off the emotional sway, or 1d10 + Insight to spot the manipulation (defender's choice). An untrained defender rolls Dis.d10 + the relevant characteristic. Every 3 points increases your Charisma characteristic by 1.

• Passive: On a success, the target is immediately charmed — they regard you as a trusted acquaintance and are unlikely to act against your obvious interests.
• At 3 points — Lingering Allure: A successfully charmed target suffers a cumulative -1 penalty to their resist test each subsequent round — the longer you hold their attention the harder it becomes to shake. The effect ends when they finally succeed or the encounter ends.
• At 6 points — Willing Hand: A charmed target will perform one reasonable task for you before the charm wears off — carry a message, open a door, vouch for you to a guard. The task cannot be obviously suicidal or deeply against their interests.

Where the Light-Souled burn the corrupt, the Dark-Souled have let the corruption in and learned to wield it. A spirit marked by the void — by the Vraxxal register, by the Titan-Blood that unmade Birn Uluhm, or simply by a will that chose the shadow — becomes a conduit for profane power. The pure recoil from you; the holy struggles to find purchase on a soul already given over. Every point grants +1 damage against the pure and the consecrated by any means — melee, ranged, or magical. Every 3 points increases your Charisma characteristic by 1.

• Passive: Deal +1 damage per point to Good-aligned and consecrated creatures — celestials and the divine (Archangels, Seraphim, Cherubim), the faithful (paladins, clerics, the blessed), and the sacred-natural (treants, fey, unicorns, Pyreborn, woodland spirits, and others bound to the light or the living order) — by any means of attack. As Light burns the corrupt and unnatural, the void in you burns the pure and the hallowed. (Ordinary unaligned mortals and spiritually-neutral monsters are unaffected — the bonus strikes the sacred, not the merely living.)
• Corruption Resource: Dark-Soul is the prerequisite that gates the fallen path. Profane blessings, necrotic leeching, and command of the lesser undead draw on your Dark-Soul points the way the Crusader's powers draw on Light-Soul.
• At 3 points — Profane Dread: Once per encounter as a free action, exude the wrongness of the void. All Good or consecrated creatures within 20 Ft must surpass Willpower TN 6 + Resist bonus or become Shaken — your unmade soul is a physical affront to them.
• At 6 points — Profane Ward: Gain +1 Damage Mitigation per 3 points specifically against attacks from Good and consecrated creatures — the righteous blow meets a soul already burned, and finds less to catch. (Mirrors Light-Soul’s Sanctified Bastion, which wards against the attacks of Evil creatures.)

The lie that lands is the one that contains more truth than the target can immediately verify. Deception is not the art of fabrication — fabrications unravel under pressure. It is the art of constructing narratives that feel real because they are adjacent to something real, told by someone who believes them in the moment. Roll 1d10 + Deception against the target's 1d10 + Insight (untrained: Dis.d10 + Awareness) for all deceptive social interactions. Every 3 points increases your Charisma characteristic by 1.

• Passive — Baseline: You never reveal tells under passive social observation — nervous habits, micro-expressions, vocal stress, tells that betray lying. A target can only detect your deception through active scrutiny and an opposed Awareness test.
• At 3 points — The Confident Lie: Once per encounter, you may state a falsehood as an absolute fact with such conviction that the target must beat your 1d10 + Deception with their own 1d10 + Insight (untrained: Dis.d10 + Awareness) or act on it as if it were true for 1 turn. This functions even in combat — a false call of "Cease fire!" or "They're retreating!" can redirect enemies for a turn.
• At 6 points — Plausible Deniability: Retroactively, once per session, you may decide that something you said earlier in the session was deliberately misleading rather than simply wrong — reframing a statement you made in good faith as intentional misdirection. The GM must allow the retroactive interpretation if it is narratively plausible.
• At 9 points — Deep Cover: You may construct a false identity so thoroughly that even magic designed to detect lies finds nothing — the deception has been internalised to the point where it is not a lie to you in the moment of speaking. This does not protect against abilities that read thoughts rather than words, but defeats all aura-based and verbal truth-detection effects while the identity is active.

Unlocks divine blessings. Each point allows you to learn one blessing. Every 3 points increases your Charisma characteristic by 1.

The ability to rally the weary and drag the dying back to the fight. A successful Charisma test grants bonuses to all allies within 25 Ft. Every 3 points increases your Charisma characteristic by 1.

Fear is the oldest currency and you have learned to spend it efficiently. Intimidation is not rage, not size, and not the volume of your voice — it is the specific quality of presence that makes a target run an internal calculation and conclude the math does not favour them. The most effective practitioners barely raise their voice. Roll 1d10 + Intimidation against the target's resist roll of 1d10 + their resist skill (Zealotry for the resolute; untrained targets roll Dis.d10 + Willpower) for all intimidation attempts. Every 3 points increases your Charisma characteristic by 1.

• Passive — Weight of Reputation: Any target who has witnessed you successfully Intimidate someone this session suffers −2 Willpower on their own resist test against your Intimidation — the demonstration is its own argument. This stacks once.
• At 3 points — Stand Down: As a 1 AP action in combat, you may direct a single Intimidation attempt against one enemy within 30 Ft: roll 1d10 + Intimidation against their 1d10 + resist skill (untrained: Dis.d10 + Willpower). On success, they must spend their next action on a withdrawal action rather than attacking — they cannot be compelled to flee entirely, but they cannot advance toward you. This has no effect on mindless creatures or creatures immune to Fear.
• At 6 points — Break the Line: Once per encounter, direct your Intimidation at all enemies within 20 Ft simultaneously. Each must make a Willpower test against DV 8 + your Intimidation points or suffer the Ψ Shaken condition for 1 turn. A result of natural 1 on the resist roll causes Ψ Fear instead.
• At 9 points — The Last Offer: Once per session, you may make an Intimidation attempt against a single target that functions as a binding ultimatum — if they fail the resist, they comply completely with one demand you state, provided compliance does not mean their certain death. They know what will happen if they refuse. So do you. So does everyone watching.

The darkness does not merely fear your blade — it fears the light that guides it. Your consecrated spirit burns the corrupt, turning your very presence into a ward against shadow. Often found in the devoted, but the divine light recognises no prerequisite beyond genuine conviction — a warrior who has faced enough darkness develops their own. Every point grants +1 wound against Evil creatures by any means — melee, ranged, or magical. Every 3 points increases your Charisma characteristic by 1.

• Passive: Deal +1 wound per point to Undead, Daemons, Beastmen, Chaos Beasts, and Cultists by any means of attack.
• At 3 points — Holy Light: Once per encounter as a free action, radiate divine light. All Undead within 20 Ft must surpass Willpower TN 6 + Resist bonus or become Shaken — the purity of your soul is a physical force to them.
• At 6 points — Sanctified Bastion: Gain +1 Damage Mitigation per 3 points specifically against attacks from Evil creatures — their blows meet something more than flesh.

The crowd is a single creature with a hundred eyes and Performance is the art of feeding it exactly what it wants before it knows what that is. Music, theatre, oratory, storytelling, religious ceremony, political address — the mechanism is the same in all of them: a calibrated emotional transfer from practitioner to audience that leaves the audience feeling what you intended rather than what they arrived with. Roll 1d10 + Performance Points + Charisma modifier against the GM's DV for all performance and oratory tests. Every 3 points increases your Charisma characteristic by 1.

• Passive — Command the Room: In any social situation involving more than five people, you automatically draw attention — you are the focal point of any space you inhabit when you choose to be. All Charisma-based tests made while performing or addressing a crowd gain Advantage.
• At 3 points — Cover: A performance in progress provides active concealment for other party members operating in the area — the audience's attention is locked onto you. Other party members gain Advantage on all Stealth and Thieving tests made while your performance is active. The moment the performance ends or you are interrupted, the cover evaporates.
• At 6 points — Crowd Reading: Over the course of a performance, you can assess the emotional state, hidden concerns, and likely behaviour of your audience with the precision of a political survey. After 10 minutes of performance, the GM provides you with one significant piece of accurate intelligence about the crowd — who the powerbroker is, what the room is afraid of, what they want to hear that would move them.
• At 9 points — The Rally: Once per session, you may deliver a performance of sufficient force to alter the morale state of all allies within earshot. All allies who hear you gain +2 To-Hit, +2 Damage Mitigation, and immunity to Fear effects for 3 turns. This requires 1 full turn of uninterrupted performance to activate and ends if you are Silenced, Stunned, or Unconscious.

Desire is the oldest lever and Seduction is the art of finding it in people who believe they do not have one. This is not primarily a romantic skill — it is the skill of making a target want to give you what you need because giving it to you is the most appealing option available. A merchant seduced toward a bad deal. A guard seduced toward inattention. A commander seduced toward confidence. The application is negotiation, intelligence gathering, distraction, and access. Roll 1d10 + Seduction against the target's resist roll of 1d10 + Zealotry (untrained: Dis.d10 + Willpower). Every 3 points increases your Charisma characteristic by 1.

• Passive — Read the Want: You automatically identify what a target most desires within the first minute of interaction — not a specific object, but the category: recognition, security, power, belonging, relief, escape. The GM tells you the type. You choose how to present yourself as the source of it.
• At 3 points — The Opening: A successful Seduction test creates a Receptive state in the target for the rest of the scene — they are favourably disposed, lower their guard, and answer questions without suspicion. This is not compulsion; they will still resist requests that conflict with their values, but the initial social barrier is gone.
• At 6 points — Exploit: Against a target already in the Receptive state, you may make one request that they would normally refuse — extract a secret, gain access to a restricted area, receive a significant material favour. Roll 1d10 + Seduction against the target's 1d10 + Zealotry (untrained defender: Dis.d10 + Willpower; the GM may have the target add situational resolve for a request that cuts hard against their interests). On a success they comply and do not realise the request was unusual until later, if at all.
• At 9 points — Loyal Tool: Once per session, after at least one hour of interaction with a non-hostile target, you may attempt a full Seduction: roll 1d10 + Seduction against the target's 1d10 + Zealotry, with Advantage — the hours of groundwork tilt the odds in your favour. On success, the target becomes a reliable social asset — providing information, access, or cover on request for the remainder of the session without requiring further tests. This creates a genuine temporary alignment of interest rather than mind control; the target believes the arrangement benefits them.

Chemistry applied to lethality, healing, and the grey space between them. Alchemy is not magic — it does not require a tradition or a mark or the Church's tolerance. It requires access to materials, a stable workspace, and the specific kind of patience that does not flinch when something explodes. Roll 1d10 + Alchemy Points against the formula's DV when crafting compounds. Every 3 points increases your Intellect characteristic by 1.

• Passive — Identification: You can identify any alchemical compound, poison, or reagent by inspection. You know whether a substance is magical in origin, its general class, and its approximate potency. This requires no test for compounds of DV 8 or below; higher complexity requires a roll.
• At 3 points — Field Synthesis: Given basic reagents (available in any market or most wilderness environments), you can craft Alchemist's Fire, basic Antitoxin, Acid Flask, or Healing Draughts (restoring Alchemy pts × 2 wounds) over 30 minutes. The crafted item functions identically to purchased versions. You can produce up to 3 items per long rest.
• At 6 points — Advanced Compounds: You can craft complex formulas: contact poisons (Physique TN 9 or Poisoned + one condition of your choice), sleep agents (inhaled, Willpower TN 8 or Unconscious for 1 hour), and alchemical grenades (2d10 fire or acid in a 10 Ft AoE on impact). Crafting advanced compounds takes 1 hour and requires specific reagents the GM determines are available in the region.
• At 9 points — Masterwork Formula: Once per long rest, you may craft a Masterwork compound — a single-use alchemical item of significant power. Examples: a Philosopher's Draught that restores all wounds and clears all conditions; a contact compound that renders a target unconscious on skin contact for 8 hours; a hardening agent that grants +3 Damage Mitigation to armour for one encounter. The GM determines appropriate DV for each Masterwork (typically DV 12–16).

Structures do not fail at random — they fail at precisely the point where load exceeds design, and the engineer is the person who can read that point in advance. Engineering covers construction, demolition, trap design, siege mechanics, and the structural analysis of anything built by human or inhuman hands. Roll 1d10 + Engineering Points against DV for all construction and analysis tests. Every 3 points increases your Intellect characteristic by 1.

• Passive — Structural Eye: You automatically identify the structural weaknesses of any building, bridge, wall, or constructed surface within your line of sight — the GM tells you the load-bearing points, the collapse sequence, and the minimum force required to trigger a failure. In dungeons and underground spaces, you sense instability in ceilings, floors, and tunnels before anyone else does.
• At 3 points — Rapid Construction: You can construct functional field fortifications — barricades, palisades, covered positions — in half the time of an unskilled crew, and your constructions provide double the standard cover bonus to those behind them. Traps you design grant Advantage to the opponent's roll to detect them and deal an additional Engineering pts wounds on activation.
• At 6 points — Controlled Demolition: Given access to a structure's foundation or a key load-bearing point — and the appropriate tools, charges, or equipment for the job — you can bring down a building, collapse a tunnel, or breach a wall in a controlled manner — directing the collapse with Engineering pts × 5 Ft of precision. Uncontrolled collapse creates a 30 Ft AoE of debris; controlled collapse can target a specific area as small as 10 Ft across.
• At 9 points — Master Siege: You understand every siege weapon, fortification design, and military engineering application in the known world. You can command siege operations at full effectiveness, design fortifications that add +Engineering pts to the effective Defense of any position you have had 24 hours to prepare, and analyse any magical or mundane barrier to identify whether it can be physically bypassed and how.

The trained eye that reads history, craftsmanship, and arcane signatures in every object. Roll 1d10 + Skill Points against the GM's DV to identify items, assess value, and detect enchantments. Every 3 points increases your Intellect characteristic by 1.

• Passive: Removes Disadvantage when identifying or appraising obscure and magical objects. Your first point alone is the difference between guessing and knowing.
• At 3 points — Curse Sight: On a successful test, detect whether an object is cursed or carries a negative enchantment — the malignant resonance is visible to your trained eye before anyone touches it.
• At 6 points — Arcanist's Eye: Identify the full magical properties of any item without a test — inspection alone is sufficient. What others need rituals to discover, you read in the construction.

A sword can be shattered and gold can be stolen, but a secret once learned is a weapon that never dulls. Each point represents deep expertise in one specific field — Bestiary, History, Lore, Magic, Races, or Religions. Roll 1d10 + Points in that field against the GM's DV. Every 3 points increases your Intellect characteristic by 1.

• Passive: Each point purchased must be assigned to a specific field. Roll 1d10 + field points to recall information, identify weaknesses, or translate texts.
• At 3 points — Total Recall: Once per session, recall one obscure fact within your field as a free action with no roll required.
• At 6 points — Authority: Within your field of Knowledge, gain +2 to all related tests.

Every script is a lock, and every language a key cut to a different age. Where Read/Write grants fluency in living tongues, Linguistics is the deeper study of decipherment — codes, ciphers, dead languages, and writing that predates the current Age. Each point lets you attempt progressively older and stranger scripts, rolling 1d10 + Linguistics points against the GM's DV to wring meaning from the unreadable. Every 3 points increases your Intellect characteristic by 1.

• Passive: Attempt to decipher unknown languages, codes, and ciphers; higher point totals unlock older and more alien scripts.
• At 6 points — Tongue of the First Age: You may attempt scripts that no living scholar has cracked — though some things were written to stay unread, and the GM decides what answers back.

The body is a system, and systems have known failure modes. Medicine is the empirical discipline of understanding those failure modes well enough to interrupt them — setting bones, managing infection, identifying disease, and extracting foreign objects from places they were never supposed to be. Where Mending is field instinct, Medicine is methodology. Roll 1d10 + Medicine Points against DV for all medical diagnosis and treatment tests. Every 3 points increases your Intellect characteristic by 1.

• Passive — Diagnosis: On examination of a patient, you immediately and accurately identify all injuries, diseases, and conditions — their cause, severity, and progression. You know exactly what is wrong and what is required to address it. You never waste resources treating the symptom instead of the cause.
• At 3 points — Clinical Treatment: Out of combat, you restore Medicine pts × 3 wounds to a patient over 10 minutes of treatment. This can be repeated once per long rest per patient. You can also remove any non-magical Disease or Poison condition with a Medicine test against DV 8 — the treatment takes 30 minutes and basic medical supplies.
• At 6 points — Surgery: With 1 hour, appropriate tools, and a stable environment, you can address injuries that would otherwise be permanent — restoring lost function, repairing internal damage from massive wounds, or counteracting the secondary effects of extreme physical trauma. A successful Medicine test against DV 12 allows a patient to recover from injuries that the standard wound system would treat as permanent consequences of 0-wound events.
• At 9 points — Battlefield Clarity: Once per encounter, you may spend 2 AP to perform emergency medicine on an adjacent ally at 0 wounds — restoring them to Medicine pts × 2 wounds and removing the Unconscious condition. This is not standard stabilisation; it is emergency intervention. The patient can act normally from their next turn. This functions even in active combat.

The world has a geometry if you know how to read it — stars, currents, prevailing winds, the angle of shadows, the way moss grows and rivers cut. Navigation is the translation of environment into position, and position into direction. At its highest levels it extends beyond physical space into the reading of political geography, trade routes, and the kind of situational awareness that tells you which direction threat comes from before it arrives. Roll 1d10 + Navigation Points against DV for all orientation, charting, and route-planning tests. Every 3 points increases your Intellect characteristic by 1. Navigation is domain-specific: you must hold the relevant Knowledge for the environment you are navigating (e.g. Knowledge: Seas for ocean voyaging, Knowledge: Forests for wildwood travel, Knowledge: Skies for aerial routes). Without the matching Knowledge, you can read a compass and follow obvious landmarks but gain no Navigation bonus in that domain.

• Passive — Orientation: You are never lost. In any environment — underground, at sea, in magical obscurement, or in an unmarked city — you maintain accurate awareness of your position and direction. You always know which way north is. You can always retrace a path you have travelled.
• At 3 points — Route Planning: Given a destination and basic geographic information, you identify the optimal route with regard to speed, safety, or concealment — your choice. Your travel time for any overland journey is reduced by 25% through efficient path selection. You automatically identify ambush-prone terrain, chokepoints, and positions of tactical advantage along any planned route.
• At 6 points — Dead Reckoning: At sea or in completely unmapped territory, you can determine your precise position through environmental observation alone — star angle, water temperature, wind direction, geological markers. You can produce an accurate sketch-map of any area you have moved through. Your estimates of position are accurate to within 5% of actual distance, regardless of how long you have been without landmarks.
• At 9 points — The Long View: Your Navigation extends into strategic cartographic intelligence. Given 24 hours of study of any region — maps, reports, locals' accounts, aerial observation — you can identify the three most likely invasion routes, the two most defensible positions, the single most critical supply chokepoint, and the location any army would most plausibly establish as a headquarters. This is strategic military intelligence extracted from geography, and it is accurate.

The ability to see through lies, illusions, and the subtle currents of magic. Perception serves both the warrior's eye and the caster's instinct. (This is a combat and casting precision skill — it sharpens spell, blessing, and ranged output. For sensory detection — spotting threats, hidden objects, and ambushes — see Acute Senses.)

• Casting Explosion Chain: When a To-Cast roll (any of the six disciplines) is a confirmed success and the d10 showed a natural 10, roll a second 1d10. No casting bonus applies to this roll — only Perception points. If the raw roll + Perception points meets or beats the TN, you gain an extra 1d10 wounds or healing. Chain continues on each subsequent natural 10 by the same rule.
• Passive — Cast Wounds: Every 3 points adds +1 bonus wound to all offensive spell and blessing output.
• Passive — Ranged To-Hit: Every 3 points adds +1 To-Hit on ranged attacks.
• Passive — Intellect: Every 3 points increases your Intellect characteristic.
• Counter Charm/Illusion: Roll 1d10 + Perception points to resist or see through social manipulation and magical deception.

To speak is to ripple the air — to write is to carve your will into history. Each point represents full proficiency in one language: reading, writing, and speaking. This skill is a prerequisite for most advanced academic and magical studies. Every 3 points increases your Intellect characteristic by 1.

• Passive: Each point purchased grants fluency in one language of your choosing. You can accurately copy scrolls, translate documents, and author original works in any language you know.
• At 3 points — Ancient Script: You can decipher ancient, damaged, or partially destroyed texts that would defeat others entirely — piecing together meaning from fragments, archaic script, and deteriorated parchment.
• At 6 points — Scroll Scribe: Transcribe a magical scroll accurately enough that it can be cast once by any character with the relevant discipline — your understanding of the written form is precise enough to preserve the enchantment.

The study of the arcane threads. Each point allows you to learn one spell. Every 3 points increases your Intellect characteristic by 1.

The oldest form of combat — no weapons, no rules, and the deeply practical understanding that most fights happen in spaces too small for a sword. Brawling is the skill of making your body itself into a weapon: elbows, knees, headbutts, improvised grips, and the specific economy of violence that operates in taverns, alleys, and anywhere else that combat becomes immediate and close. Every 3 points increases your Physique characteristic by 1.

• Passive — Always Armed: Your unarmed strikes deal 1d10 + Physique modifier + Brawling pts wounds. Against an unprepared or unarmed-untrained opponent, your attacks impose Disadvantage on their defence — though this edge is lost against any opponent wearing armor, whose protection blunts the close-quarters tricks that work on the unguarded. You suffer no penalty for fighting in confined spaces where weapons cannot be freely swung — tight corridors, grapples, and crowd situations are your natural habitat.
• At 3 points — Opportunist: Whenever an adjacent enemy fails an attack roll against you, you may spend 1 AP as a reaction to immediately deliver one unarmed strike against them. The missed attack opened a gap. You fill it.
• At 6 points — Dirty Fighter: Once per turn, alongside your normal attack, you may attempt one of the following as a 1 AP action: eye gouge (target suffers −2 To-Hit for 1 turn), kidney shot (target loses 1 AP on their next turn), or leg sweep (target must make a Physique test against a DV the GM sets by the target's footing and size — roughly DV 8 for a typical humanoid on even ground, higher for the braced, heavy, or many-legged — or be Prone). No roll required on your part — only a test for the target.
• At 9 points — Brawler's Finish: Once per encounter, when an enemy is Prone, Stunned, or Grappled by you, you may make a Brawling attack as a 2 AP action that deals 3d10 + your melee damage bonus (the physical Damage figure shown in your Combat Mastery) wounds bypassing all mundane Damage Mitigation. This is not a finisher — it is simply what happens when you have someone where you want them and no reason to stop.

Gravity is the most democratic of opponents. Climbing is the art of refusing to acknowledge its authority over you — reading surfaces for purchase, distributing weight across holds that would crumble under anything but expert technique, and covering vertical distance that tactical planning always fails to account for. Roll 1d10 + Climbing Points against DV for difficult ascents. Every 3 points increases your Physique characteristic by 1.

• Passive — Vertical Movement: You move vertically at half your standard movement speed without a test in standard conditions — rough stone, timber framing, cliff faces with natural features. Sheer surfaces, wet stone, or extreme angles require a test. You are never surprised while climbing — you always have at least one free hand available.
• At 3 points — Free Climber: You can ascend surfaces that offer minimal purchase — smooth stone, brick walls, worked marble, ship hulls — with a Climbing test against a DV the GM sets by how little purchase the surface offers. The surfaces listed here sit around the middle of that band (roughly DV 9); a flawless marble face or a slick, weathered hull climbs harder, a brick wall with deep mortar lines easier. On success you move at half speed. Ropes, pitons, and climbing gear give you Advantage on all tests and allow normal movement speed on any climbable surface.
• At 6 points — Combat Climber: You may attack and cast spells at full effectiveness while climbing. You no longer need to find a stable platform — a wall hold is sufficient. In addition, you may drop from any height as a free action to land adjacent to an enemy and immediately make one attack as part of the same action, adding Climbing pts as bonus wounds from the impact.
• At 9 points — The Impossible Wall: No surface is unclimbable. You can scale surfaces that offer zero natural purchase — glass, ice, water-soaked stone — by reading micro-variations in texture, pressure, and thermal differential that are invisible to everyone else. Tests against these surfaces are never at Disadvantage. You automatically identify the fastest and most tactically useful climbing route in any environment.

Every point grants +1 permanent Wound. The body that doesn't stop is the body that wins. Endurance is not strength — it is the systematic refusal of the nervous system to register that stopping is an option. The practitioner runs further, fights longer, absorbs more, and continues operating in conditions that have already rendered everyone else non-functional. Every 3 points increases your Physique characteristic by 1.

• Passive — Iron Constitution: +1 wound per point. You require half the normal recovery time between encounters to recover to full wounds — your body's baseline repair rate is elevated. Exhaustion conditions that would remove AP or impose Disadvantage take one additional stack to apply against you.
• At 3 points — Second Wind: Once per encounter, as a free action, recover Endurance pts × 2 wounds. This does not require any action expenditure and can be used even at 0 wounds before collapsing — it functions as the body's emergency reserve kicking in.
• At 6 points — Sustained Effort: You may maintain peak physical performance indefinitely without fatigue penalties. Forced marches, extended swims, sustained combat, and any other activity where other characters accumulate Exhausted conditions over time do not stack on you until the activity has continued for twice the normal threshold. When they do begin, they stack at half rate.
• At 9 points — Tireless: You can no longer be Exhausted. The ⊛ Exhausted condition cannot be applied to you from any source — forced marches, sustained combat, sleeplessness, magical fatigue, or otherwise — and any existing Exhausted stacks are cleared the moment you reach this mastery. Where lesser practitioners merely resist or delay the body's collapse, yours has forgotten how.

Deep wells of physical stamina that most people simply do not possess. Every point grants +10 permanent Wounds. These wounds are added before Size Multipliers are applied. Every 3 points increases your Physique characteristic by 1.

• Passive: +10 wounds per point invested. Size Synergy — a Large creature gains +20 wounds per point, Giant +30, and so on.
• At 6 points — Immovable: Ignore the first Stunned condition applied to you each encounter — your body absorbs the impact and keeps functioning through sheer mass.
• At 9 points — Last Stand: Once per session, when you would be reduced to 0 wounds, you instead remain at 10% of your total wound threshold (rounded down, minimum 1). Your body simply refuses to go down when it matters most.

Some men bleed at the first sign of steel. You simply refuse to acknowledge the pain. Every point grants +2 permanent Wounds and +1 Damage Mitigation against physical attacks for every 2 points invested. Every 3 points increases your Willpower characteristic by 1.

• Passive: +2 wounds per point. +1 Damage Mitigation vs physical attacks per 2 points invested.
• At 3 points — Iron Constitution: Your body begins resisting the arcane as stubbornly as steel resists rust. You gain Damage Mitigation against spell and blessing damage equal to half your Hard as Nails points (rounded down). Stacks with your physical WM separately.
• At 6 points — Bloody Minded: Once per encounter, ignore all Bleeding damage for 1 turn — you grit through it and keep moving, dealing with it after the immediate threat is handled.

Channeling the spirit through the body. Each point unlocks one Ki power. Every 3 points increases your Physique characteristic by 1.

The mountain does not move because the wind asks it to. Steadfast is the discipline of the planted foot — the counter to every shove, charge, grapple, and arcane shunt that would move you against your will. Add your points to any test made to resist forced movement, knockback, push effects, grapples, or being knocked Prone. Every 3 points increases your Physique characteristic by 1.

• Passive: Add +1 per point to all tests to resist being moved, shoved, pushed, pulled, grappled, or knocked Prone.
• At 6 points — Immovable: Forced movement against you is halved (round down) before any test is rolled.

Physical power training that translates raw strength directly into lethality. Every point grants +2 permanent Wounds. Every 3 points increases your Physique characteristic by 1 and grants +2 bonus to all melee weapon wound rolls.

• Passive: +2 wounds per point. Iron Grip: every 3 points adds +2 to all melee wound rolls. Advantage on all Bending Bars, Breaking Doors, and Grapple tests.
• At 6 points — Wrestler: Grapple attempts cost only 1 AP instead of a full action, and you have Advantage on the grapple test — your training makes seizing control of a body feel effortless.
• At 9 points — Slam: While grappling a target you may move with them at half speed, dragging or carrying them. If you drive them into an obstacle — wall, pillar, or another creature — they take 1d10 + Physique modifier impact wounds in addition to any other effects. The obstacle's occupant (if any) takes the same.

Water is not a barrier — it is a medium, and those who have trained in it treat it accordingly. Swimming covers open water, rough seas, strong currents, underwater navigation, and the specific combat applications of a three-dimensional space where most opponents have stopped thinking tactically. Roll 1d10 + Swimming Points against DV for difficult water conditions. Every 3 points increases your Physique characteristic by 1.

• Passive — Water Competency: You move through water at Swimming pts × Ft per AP (minimum your standard land speed at 5 points). You can hold your breath for Swimming pts × 2 minutes and suffer no panic or disorientation while submerged. Armour penalty to Swimming: worn armour drags in water and applies a penalty to all Swimming tests and to swimming speed — Mithril/Elven, Padded, or Gambeson −1; Leather or Studded −2; Chain −3; Plate −5. A character in Plate who fails a Swimming test risks sinking; the GM may require the armour be shed to continue.
• At 3 points — Subsurface Combat: You fight underwater without penalty. Standard attacks, spells with audible components (where relevant), and tactical positioning all function normally while submerged. Enemies without Swimming skill suffer Disadvantage attacking you underwater — the medium is alien to them and familiar to you.
• At 6 points — Powerful Current: In rough water, currents, or tidal conditions that would sweep an unskilled swimmer off course, you move freely. Additionally, once per encounter when in water or an adjacent water source, you may drag a creature into the water as a 2 AP grapple action — the target is Grappled and must contend with water conditions while you operate freely. A target without Swimming skill is immediately Stunned by the transition.
• At 9 points — Aquatic Predator: In water, your movement speed is doubled and you may move in three dimensions at full speed. Any creature without Swimming skill that is Grappled by you in water must make a Physique test against DV 10 + your Swimming points each turn or gain one Exhausted condition from the effort of fighting the water and you simultaneously. At 3 Exhausted conditions, they begin drowning.

Mental tenacity so dense it borders on the physical. Grants +2 permanent Wounds and allows you to survive, while Unconscious, for a number of turns equal to your Iron Will points when reduced to 0 Wounds before death takes you — each active Bleeding stack reducing this window by 1 turn (see Unconscious & The Collapse). (Designer note: this 1-point-per-turn survival window may be revisited for scaling.) Every 3 points increases your Willpower characteristic by 1.

The disciplined mind holds its shape under pressure that scatters an untrained one. Meditation is the systematic discipline of the inner space — sustaining a working's structure across the breath between turns, recovering from the toll of exertion, and reaching, at its peak, a focus so total the world itself seems to pause. Where other skills resist the mind being broken, Meditation governs the mind's capacity to hold. Every 3 points increases your Willpower characteristic by 1.

• Passive — Composure: Your trained stillness is the bedrock on which the later disciplines are built — the longer you hold the inner space, the more the mind can carry without slipping. (Resisting fear and mental coercion is the province of Zealotry and Resolve; Meditation no longer duplicates that save.)
• At 3 points — Meditative Recovery: During a short rest (10 minutes of undisturbed quiet), recover Meditation pts × 2 wounds and clear one mental condition — Fear, Shaken, Confused, or Exhausted. This requires genuine stillness; combat situations prevent it.
• At 3 points — Channeling: You are the disciplined exception to the No Channeling Iron Constraint. You may carry AP into a multi-turn spellcasting sequence — beginning a working whose AP cost exceeds a single turn's actions and completing it on the next turn (e.g. a 4-AP cast when you have only 3 AP available). The standard Two-Turn limit still applies: the carried AP must be spent on the immediately following turn or it bleeds away, and the working fails. Only one cast may be channeled at a time.
• At 6 points — Unbroken Focus: A cast you are channeling across turns is not easily knocked loose. When you take damage, suffer fear, or are otherwise disrupted while channeling, add Meditation pts to the test to hold the working together. (This protects an in-progress, banked cast — distinct from Willpower Reserve, which guards already-active sustained effects.) Additionally, if the optional Essence rule is in play, your pool is increased by +1.
• At 9 points — The Eye: Once per encounter, as a free action, you may enter a state of absolute concentration for 1 turn. During this turn: you are immune to all conditions, your next action costs 0 AP, and any test you make is rolled with Advantage. The Eye cannot be maintained — it lasts exactly one turn and then the ordinary world rushes back in.

Every point grants +1 permanent Wound. An oath is an anchor, and an anchor holds against current. Oathkeeper is the discipline of binding oneself to a stated commitment — a pledge, a vow, a covenant — and deriving mechanical power from the act of maintaining it. The character who has sworn does not fight the same fight as the character who merely intends. Every 3 points increases your Willpower characteristic by 1.

• Passive — The Sworn State: +1 wound per point. At character creation or with GM approval, declare one active Oath — a specific obligation, prohibition, or commitment. While the Oath is intact, you gain +Oathkeeper pts bonus to all Willpower resist tests and +1 To-Hit per 3 Oathkeeper pts when acting directly in service of the Oath. If the Oath is broken, all bonuses are lost until the Oath is renewed or a new Oath is sworn.
• At 3 points — Oath-Bound Strike: Once per encounter, when attacking a creature or in a situation that directly violates your Oath, your attack deals an additional Oathkeeper pts × 2 wounds — the conviction behind the blow makes it land differently.
• At 6 points — Unbreakable: While your Oath is active, you are immune to compulsion effects — Dominated, Charmed, and mind-control effects that would cause you to act against your Oath fail automatically without a test. Your sworn intent is a structural barrier that external will cannot navigate around.
• At 9 points — Martyr's Force: Once per session, when you would be reduced to 0 wounds while acting in direct service of your Oath, you instead remain at 1 wound. Additionally, all allies who can see or hear you witnessing this moment gain +2 To-Hit and +2 Willpower resist for the remainder of the encounter — the sight of someone who will not fall for a reason they believe in changes the arithmetic for everyone around them.

Every point grants +2 permanent Wounds. Pain is data. Pain Tolerance is the training that separates the signal from the noise — allowing the body to continue functioning under conditions where the nervous system's interrupts have fired and most organisms have stopped. This is not numbness; it is the precise calibration of what requires stopping for and what does not. Every 3 points increases your Physique characteristic by 1.

• Passive — High Threshold: +2 wounds per point. The wound total at which you suffer mechanical penalties (Disadvantage, AP reduction) is increased by Pain Tolerance pts × 3. The body's protest is registered and set aside. You fight at full effectiveness until significantly closer to 0 than most characters.
• At 3 points — Ignore It: Once per turn, negate the mechanical effect of one Stunned condition — the AP cost is not applied this turn. You register the hit; you simply refuse to give it the attention it is demanding.
• At 6 points — Tectonic: Conditions that impose wound penalties — Bleeding, Poison dealing ongoing damage, and burns — deal half their stated damage per turn against you. The ongoing damage mechanism still functions, but your body processes it at reduced rate. Additionally, you add Pain Tolerance pts to all tests made to resist torture, interrogation, or prolonged physical duress.
• At 9 points — Won’t Stay Down: Once per session, when you reach 0 wounds, you do not become Unconscious. Instead you remain at 1 wound for one full round — acting normally and ignoring all incoming wounds during this time — before the damage catches up and you collapse unless healed. You cannot be killed during this round by direct damage; only by effects that state “cannot be saved from death” or equivalent. The body has not consented to being finished yet.

When the mind screams to surrender and the soul feels the cold pull of the void, it is Resolve that holds the line. Not training — stubbornness. The bedrock refusal to be moved. Resolve is the will that endures the supernatural: the dread a spell presses into you, the compulsion that would seize your mind, the magical despair that hollows lesser souls. Every point grants +1 permanent Wound, and the sheer refusal to fall grants +1 additional Wound for every 3 points invested — a body that outlasts what should have broken it. Every 3 points increases your Willpower characteristic by 1. (Mundane coercion — being talked, charmed, or pressured by people — is the province of Zealotry.)

• Passive: +1 wound per point, plus +1 wound per 3 points (stubborn toughness). To resist Fear, Terror, magical compulsion, Dominate, and other hostile mind-magic, roll 1d10 + Resolve against the effect (untrained: Dis.d10 + Willpower). The will refuses what the spell demands.
• At 3 points — Shake It Off: Remove the Shaken condition from yourself as a free action once per turn. Where Discipline prevents it, Resolve recovers from it — the reactive iron rather than the proactive steel.
• At 6 points — Unbiddable Mind: Gain a flat +2 bonus to all rolls made to resist magical compulsion and Dominate effects. A will the arcane cannot redirect.
• At 9 points — Iron Bulwark: Once per turn as a free action, extend your full Resist bonus to one adjacent ally until the start of your next turn — your presence alone steadies those beside you against the arcane.

Your body is not a closed vessel but a cathedral of the soul — open to the restorative currents of the world and resistant to the arcane forces that seek to corrupt it. Every point grants +1 wound whenever healed by any Blessing. You gain +1 Damage Mitigation against Blessings and Spells per 2 points invested, and every 3 points increases your Willpower characteristic by 1 (the Power of Three). Spirit is now the sole home of magical damage mitigation — the warding once split with Resolve gathers here, where the soul’s resilience belongs.

• Passive: Gain +1 wound on every Blessing heal. Gain +1 Damage Mitigation against magical damage (Blessings and Spells) per 2 points invested.
• At 3 points — Arcane Sensitivity: You can sense the presence of active magic within 30 Ft — a subtle awareness of the weave, not its details. You know something magical is present, not what it is.
• At 6 points — Resonant Vessel: Once per encounter, the next Blessing that heals you grants +Willpower modifier additional wounds on top of the normal roll — your spirit draws the healing deeper than flesh alone allows.

The wilderness does not care for your titles. You have lived where others perished — wringing water from stone and warmth from wind. Every point grants +1 permanent Wound and resistance to natural extremes. Every 3 points increases your Willpower characteristic by 1 and grants +1 Damage Mitigation against magical damage.

• Passive: +1 wound per point. Gain Advantage on all tests to resist extreme Cold, Heat, or Hunger. Gain +1 WM vs magical damage per 3 points invested.
• At 3 points — Efficient: You require only half the standard rations to survive and avoid Exhaustion — your body has learned to run lean.
• At 6 points — Trail Rest: You gain full rest benefits in half the normal time — your body recovers with the efficiency of something that has done it under far worse conditions.
• At 9 points — Death's Patience: Once per encounter, when reduced to 0 wounds, you may take 1 additional turn before collapsing — acting normally on that turn before succumbing. Your survival instinct simply will not let you fall yet.

The trained mind holds more than it needs for ordinary circumstances — a reservoir that exists for the moment when ordinary circumstances have ended. For a disciple of any tradition, that reservoir is what lets the casting continue after the body and will should have given out. Willpower Reserve does not make spells stronger; it determines how long you can keep casting when everything else has run dry. Every 3 points increases your Willpower characteristic by 1. (Its higher tiers benefit only those who can cast a discipline — Wizardry, Ki, Druidism, Devotion, Shaman, or Vibhuti. A non-caster still gains the Wounds and the Composure-style resilience of the passive.)

• Passive — Deep Well: You add Willpower Reserve pts to any test made to resist losing concentration on a sustained effect (from damage or disruption). (Resisting fear itself is the province of Zealotry and Resolve.)
• At 3 points — Sustained Efficiency: You weather the toll of casting better than most — the per-turn AP upkeep of your sustained spells and blessings is reduced by 1 (minimum 0).
• At 6 points — Push Through: Once per encounter, when a To-Cast roll fails, you may immediately re-roll it, drawing on the reserve to force the working into being. If the re-roll also fails, you suffer the ⊛ Fatigued condition. This works for any discipline you can cast.
• At 9 points — The Last Cast: Once per session, you may cast a single spell or blessing whose TN you would normally be unable to meet — treat your To-Cast result as automatically equalling its Target Number (a bare success, never a critical). The reserve provides exactly enough and no more. Immediately afterward you suffer the ⊛ Exhausted condition for the remainder of the encounter and cannot cast again until you have rested.

Conviction is its own armour. Where Resolve endures the supernatural, Zealotry is the fire that makes the mind unbreakable against people — faith, fanaticism, or sheer ideological certainty that leaves no purchase for a silver tongue or a raised fist. Zealotry is the counter to mundane coercion: the charmer finds no vanity to flatter, the bully no fear to seize, the seducer no want to exploit. Every 3 points increases your Willpower characteristic by 1. (Magical fear and compulsion are endured with Resolve; seeing through a social lie is Insight’s work — Zealotry is the refusal to be moved by ordinary persuasion.)

• Passive: To resist mundane Charm, Intimidation, or Seduction — any non-magical attempt to sway, frighten, or entice you — roll 1d10 + Zealotry against the attempt (untrained: Dis.d10 + Willpower). Conviction offers persuasion nothing to hold.
• At 3 points — No Purchase: Mundane Intimidation and Seduction attempts against you are made at Disadvantage. The threat and the temptation both break on a will already spoken for.
• At 6 points — Unshakable: The first mundane coercion attempt against you each encounter — Charm, Intimidation, or Seduction — automatically fails; the approach simply finds nothing to hold.
• At 9 points — Conviction’s Banner: Once per turn as a free action, extend your Zealotry resist to all allies who can see or hear you, until the start of your next turn — they add your Zealotry pts to their own rolls against mundane coercion. Faith held openly steadies everyone who shares the field with you. (The mundane-social mirror of Resolve’s Iron Bulwark.)

The foundation of the butcher's work. Removes the Disadvantage penalty when using specific melee weapon proficiencies. You must purchase this for each weapon category (Swords, Axes, Hammers, etc.) to attack without penalty.

Advanced, punishing training for fighting from horseback. Enables lance charges while moving and removes the Disadvantage penalty for attacking while stationary on a mount.

The discipline of death from afar. Removes the Disadvantage penalty when using specific ranged weapon proficiencies (Bows, Crossbows, Slings, etc.).

The favour of the gods or the blind chance of the universe. Each point grants one Reroll per game session. Fortune points refresh only at the start of a new adventure.