Skills
From Library of Aethora
Whenever an action is used, the skill or skills pertaining to that action are looked up for that character. Each skill has an active and a passive level. The character taking the action uses their active skill level. The character who is defending against an action uses their passive skill level.
Now then - it's important to point out that a skill does not stand alone. A skill is really the leaf on a tree, and so each skill has a parent and a grandparent. When your skill level is looked up, really what you get is a total of the skill level plus the levels of it's parent and grandparent.
Observe the skill tree:
What does this mean? Well, if you're taking a stab with the Short Blades skill, the true skill factor used in the action formula will take the sum of your skill levels in Short Blades, Blades, and Melee. What the heck is the point of this? The reasoning behind this skill tree is to give a player character a shot at picking up something they haven't used before without getting stuck with a low level of skill. Huh? Consider the following:
Bob is a character who has used a shortsword for a long time now, and nothing else. His Short Blades skill is 30, his Blades skill is 30, and his Melee skill is 30. This gives him a skill factor of 90 when using his shortsword. Recently, he found a nice longsword and would like to use it, but since he's never touched one, his Long Blades skill is 10 (as we said above, the first time you use a skill, it's set at 10, because that's the minimum). This makes his total skill factor 70 - so he's not so bad off. He's not great with a longsword, but he's gotten enough fighting in with a shortsword to get a head start. Likewise, if he were to pick up a club, he'd be looking at a Clubs skill of 10 and a Blunt Weapons skill of 10, but he's still got his Melee skill at 30, so he's looking at a skill factor of 50 the first time he swings his club. On the other hand, since he's never used anything under the Metatherics side of the tree, he has to start from the bottom if he were to pick up something like a frost cylinder.
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