Questions and answers: Skills and Abilities

"So, I think the elephant in the room is--" You stop as Brighid looks up sharply. "Sorry, that's an Earth expression. It means an overwhelmingly large topic lingering in the air but which everyone sort of talks around instead of addressing directly." She gives you a you are a strange, strange man sort of look, but nods, and you continue, "Anyway, the really big topic which we haven't really discussed is my Limitless Trait. I understand some of why it is a big deal, but why don't you try and explain it to me fully?"

The redhead reaches up to brush a strand of hair out of her eyes and chews on a corner of her lip as she thinks. "Skills are the very cornerstone of how the Realms function; you will never do something really well without levels in an appropriate Skill. We can sort of make do in a way even with no affinity at all, at least for basic every day Skills, but if you want to do more than just barely get by, you need to use a Skill. In order to reach even level 1 in a Skill, you must have a non-zero affinity for that Skill. There is no way to know for sure what your affinity is until you actually have that first level, at least for us mere mortals." She says teasingly. "The average person with no special Traits or other sources of bonus affinity only have any affinity at all for a few dozen Skills at most, and only one or two of those Skills will have an affinity above 50%. Of the Skills they do have affinity for, many might be ones they never have an opportunity to learn in their entire lifetime. The vast majority will go through life with levels in no more than twenty or so Skills, and only reach Apprentice or Journeyman rank in one or two." She leans back a bit and looks up towards the ceiling thoughtfully.

"The thing is, affinity is deceptively simple, and that is probably why you do not really understand the power of your Trait. All affinity really does is affect the amount of work you need to put into practicing or being taught a Skill in order to get a level out of it. With a low affinity, you need to put in more work than with a high affinity, but a person with 1% affinity and a person with 100% affinity can both reach the next level of the Skill, given enough effort. The trick is that affinity always, always decreases as your level in a Skill decreases -- well, not yours, you jerk, but everyone else's. It isn't always a noticeable amount, and it does not decrease at the same rate for every person, but it is inevitable for everyone but you that eventually, somewhere down the line, you will hit 0% affinity and no longer be able to advance that Skill any further." She turns to you, and her face holds both wonder and concern. "Vanishingly few people even have the ability to reach Master rank in a single Skill. I have never heard of anyone achieving any further ranks because experience gain is so slow past level 100 that with the affinity anyone else has by that time, it takes them years to advance a single level. If one exists, the next logical rank past Master would be at either 125 or 150 levels, but it is hard to imagine anyone ever making it that far. Mother reads books constantly, trading them through Gerwyn with other people across the region so she always has something new to read, and she listens to every story and myth she can, and she has advanced from level 100 in History, Master rank, to level 101 and 11% over the course of the last five years. Even if she lives to be 200, she will not reach level 125 in History. Aidan, that is no barrier to you. Your levels will still slow down because each level takes more base skill experience than the one before it, but you will not have that dramatic, exponential slowdown as your affinities decrease. You may be the first and only person to reach the next rank after Master -- and not just in one Skill. You can do it in every Skill. Every. Single. One." She emphasizes her point with a jabbing finger to your sternum.

You laugh and fend off her attack, waving your hands in surrender. "Alright, alright, I have a little better idea of just how much bullshit that Trait is. But there's still a lot I don't know about how Skills work. I see in the descriptions that every Skill has one or more associated Attributes; what is that all about?"

"Every Skill gets bonuses from one of your Attributes, or sometimes a partial bonus from multiple Attributes. The exact bonus changes entirely from Skill to Skill; for example, I have 24 Endurance, so I gain an extra 24% to the defense provided by Medium Armor. For Skills with more than one associated Attribute, they're usually averaged together, although there are a few Skills where each associated Attribute will modify something different. You can find out your exact bonus by focusing on it, same as with most other things."

"Okay, sounds straightforward enough. What about Skill levels? I haven't really seen any effect from those except for unlocking ranks."

Brighid smirks at you and says, "Oh, yes, you have, you just are overlooking it. Tell me, when you used Flame Jet on the Boar Manikin, how much damage did it do?"

You ponder, then open your combat log to check. "Hmmm... 17.85 damage twice per second. 5 base damage, plus ... oh! I see! Plus 19% damage from fire spell power. Charisma is the associated Attribute for Fire Magic, so I assume my 14 Charisma gave me 14% spell power, and having level 5 in Fire Magic gave me the other 5%?"

She smiles back at you and says, "Exactly right! Just like with associated Attributes, the bonus is different for most every Skill, although the magic school Skills all give spell power. And before you ask, exactly what spell power does varies based on the spell, usually damage, duration, or cost."

"Got it. One last question on Skills, I think. What about subskills? Do they work the same way as normal Skills? I know they are capped to the level of the parent Skill, but what happens to all that skill experience if you practice a subskill when it's the same level as the parent Skill?"

"That's two questions, not one. I guess you have not leveled up in Mathematics yet!" You meet her merry giggle with a dour, just answer the questions please, look, which only makes her giggle harder. Once she gets herself under control, she says, "Subskills are a little different. Usually they have an affinity close to what the parent Skill had at the current level of the subskill, although it still varies and sometimes wildly. I doubt I have an awful lot of affinity for Dominance, although..." She blushes and looks at you, then shrugs. "My affinity for Sex is 95% and my affinity for Submission is 84%." She clears her throat, still blushing, and continues, "For practicing subskills while they are at the same level as the parent Skill, I believe that it basically splits the skill experience between the two skills so that they advance at exactly the same pace. It is not usually an issue since you would have to use the subskill far more often than the main Skill."

You nod and say, "Okay, let's go somewhere a little different. Abilities. I have an Ability called Analyze I which says it will give me detailed information on the world around me, but I have never figured out how to activate it. The description just says to concentrate while looking at something but ... concentrate on what? How?"

Brighid frowns a little and shakes her head. "Every Ability is a little different. Usually we gain the Ability upon using it properly for the first time, so we already know how to use it. Abilities are very individualistic things. Some are completely passive, some are active, some have a duration, some are instantaneous. Using myself as an example, I have three Abilities from my Paladin Class: Fiery Aura, Firebrand, and Stoke the Flames. Fiery Aura allows me to channel the heat of Brigantia's cleansing fire and burn enemies who are close to me without hurting my allies; I activate it and it remains active, at a cost of Concentration, until I turn it off. Firebrand allows me to wreath the striking surface of any weapon I use with fire immediately before it hits, causing fire damage. It has a Stamina cost every time I use it and only lasts for a split second, just enough time to deal the damage. Stoke the Flames is completely passive; it provides bonus Health and Stamina regeneration and resistance to fire damage to every person in my party. It just automatically functions whenever I am in a party and affects myself and my party members who are close by me. Unfortunately, I do not really know what to tell you about your Analyze Ability, except to suggest that maybe you should try to experiment with exactly what you are concentrating on. If intentionally attempting to activate Analyze does not trigger it, then maybe try just concentrating on the knowledge you wish to gain, or focus on a question, something like that. Mother might be able to help you more. Sorry!" She kisses you in apology, which is probably the second-best form of apology you can think of after make-up sex.

"No reason to apologize, you still gave me a lot of great information and some things to try. I have another question about Abilities, though. How do you get them? Is it only from Classes?"

"No, almost anything can give Abilities. Races, Traits, Classes, Professions, pretty much everything. They mostly come from Classes and Professions, but there even magical items which can temporarily grant Abilities. And the nice thing about Abilities is that they do not have an affinity, you just use them and they work. Some of them have more powerful effects with higher Attributes and so on, but an Ability is an Ability."

You nod and thank Brighid for the answers, then eat some more of the delicious breakfast and consider more questions to ask.