New Skills in GS4

From the website

At the heart of the upcoming changes are the new Character Manager skills. The current skills coupled with the new skills and Lore skills will be the backbone of your character?s mechanics.

Every character has the option of training in a Lore skill(s). A Lore skill is the defining area of study for your character. Training in a particular Lore can enhance both skills and spells.

New Skills

Dodging

Mental Lore - Telepathy

Elemental Lore - Fire

Mental Lore - Divination

Elemental Lore - Earth

Mental Lore - Transference

Elemental Lore - Water

Mental Lore - Transformation

Elemental Lore - Air

Mental Lore - Manipulation

Harness Power

Sorcerous Lore - Necromancy

Mana Control, Elemental

Sorcerous Lore - Demonology

Mana Control, Spiritual

Spiritual Lore - Religion

Mana Control, Mental

Spiritual Lore - Blessings

Survival

Spiritual Lore - Spirit Summoning

Dodging

A character training in this skill learns combat techniques to deflect or avoid blows, provided that the character is not completely incapacitated (sleeping, paralyzed, etc.). The character?s Defensive Strength (DS) and ability to avoid many maneuver attacks take the Dodging skill into account.

Note: More information on the influence of Dodging can be found on the Combat page.

Elemental Lores

More information on the different lores can be found on the Lores page.

Fire

A character training in this skill will be more adept in the use of fire-related magic. This can include casting more powerful fire spells, better control over spells that are normally random in elemental effect, and access to spells that are not available to those ignorant of the secrets of Fire magic.

Earth

A character training in this skill will be more adept in the use of earth-related magic. This can include casting more powerful earth-related spells, better control over spells that are normally random in elemental effect, and access to spells that are not available to those ignorant of the secrets of Earth magic.

Water

A character training in this skill will be more adept in the use of water-related magic. This can include casting more powerful water and ice spells, better control over spells that are normally random in elemental effect, and access to spells that are not available to those ignorant of the secrets of Water magic. When coupled with training in Air Lore, a character may also become more adept in using Storm/Electrical magic.

Air

A character training in this skill will be more adept in the use of air-related magic. This can include casting more powerful air and wind spells, better control over spells that are normally random in elemental effect and access to spells that are not available to those ignorant of the secrets of Air magic. When coupled with training in Water Lore, a character may also become more adept in using Storm/Electrical magic.

Harness Power

By training in this skill, the character becomes more capable of tapping into the mana weave that encompasses and infuses Elanthia. Each training will increase the character?s maximum Mana capacity. There will no longer be an automatic increase in mana each training. Mana capacity will only increase with training in the Harness Power skill.

In numbers, every rank up to the character?s level will yield 3 mana points. Each rank above that gives 1 mana point. Characters will have more mana in the beginning, however, as starting mana is calculated as the average mana stat bonus/2. Each character?s mana stats can be found on their Profession?s page.

Mana Control

The Mana Control skills will replace Mana Share. Additionally, it will only be possible to hold your maximum amount of mana, regardless of how much mana is sent. Finally, the transfer of mana to another character is not a perfectly efficient science; some mana will always be lost in a transfer.

Elemental

This skill determines a character?s ability to manipulate Elemental mana, allowing the character to transfer mana to others who have this skill and providing greater control over the use of mana in some Elemental spells.

Spiritual

This skill determines a character?s ability to manipulate Spiritual mana, allowing the character to transfer mana to others with this skill and providing greater control over the use of mana in some Spiritual spells.

Mental

This skill determines a character?s ability to manipulate Mental mana, allowing the character to transfer mana to others who have this skill and providing greater control over the use of mana in some Mental spells.

Note: The mental sphere of magic will not be released until the release of Monks or Savants. As of now, Mana Control, Mental, is extremely limited in use.

Mental Lores

All Mental Lores currently affect at least one spell except for Transference. More information on the different lores can be found on the Lores page.

Telepathy

A character training in this skill will be more adept in the use of Mental sphere magic involving thought and emotion-affecting spells.

Divination

A character training in this skill will be more adept in the use of Mental sphere spells that provide knowledge, such as portents of the future and visions of distant places.

Transference

A character training in this skill will be more adept in the use of Mental sphere magic involving displacement, teleportation, and supernatural travel.

Transformation

A character training in this skill will be more adept in the use of Mental sphere magic involving the transformation of their physical condition. Empathic healing falls under this school of training, as do abilities such as turning the caster?s limbs into fierce claws or a sharp blade, or hardening the caster?s skin to protect against attacks.

Manipulation

A character training in this skill will be more adept in the use of Mental sphere magic involving the manipulation of matter, such as telekinetically moving a large boulder that blocks a path, or causing an object to burst into flames.

Sorcerous Lores

More information on the different lores can be found on the Lores page.

Necromancy

A character training in this skill will be more adept in the use of necromantic skills and magic.

Demonology

A character training in this skill will be more adept in the use of skills and magic involving the demonic realms.

Spiritual Lores

More information on the different lores can be found on the Lores page.

Religion

This skill represents knowledge and understanding of the doctrine and principles of the Arkati pantheon, in general. Clerics with advanced training in this skill will have a focus on the doctrine and principles of the deity with which they are aligned, and will experience an improved ability to channel spiritual power from their patron deity.

Blessings

This skill represents knowledge and understanding of the many prayers, rituals, and invocations used to gain the favor of the lesser and greater spirits. While all casters with access to spells of blessing will gain benefits from those spells, knowledge of this lore improves the caster?s ability when obtaining blessings.

Spirit Summoning

This skill represents advanced knowledge of summoning rites for lesser and greater spirits.

Survival

This skill represents a character?s ability to survive in the wilderness. Success in performing actions such as skinning an animal, foraging for edible or medicinal herbs, or building a fire is affected by this skill. Training in Survival will aid in resisting freezing in Icemule and other cold climates, as well as avoiding slipping on the ice patches on the trail between Icemule and the Landing.

Note: First Aid and Survival are equally weighted in determining skinning success. It appears to be based on ranks, as GM Despil has stated that doubling one is the same as singling in both.

Skill Changes

Scroll Reading / Arcane Symbols

The Character Manager skill Scroll Reading will be changing to a skill called Arcane Symbols. This allows us more accurately to describe the purpose behind this skill. It is not solely intended for the reading of scrolls but as a representation of the knowledge of all types of magical runes, glyphs, and symbols. This includes their invocation, usage, and reading. The application of this skill is not limited to the reading of these symbols and will likely be a fairly large part of any systems involved

with scribing, transferring, modifying, enhancing (such as Scroll Infusion) or otherwise making some use of magical runes, glyphs, or symbols.

Additionally, changing the name to Arcane Symbols gives us a much broader base with which to incorporate this skill into various future areas of the game. Systems in game that already utilize the Scroll Reading skill will be utilizing the Arcane Symbols skill instead. Skill costs for this skill are the same as for Scroll Reading. In fact, anything currently implemented will behave the same exact way as it does with Scroll Reading except the skill will be called Arcane Symbols. While this change is largely symbolic at this time it is our hope that this change lays the groundwork for making this skill a much more interesting and useful aspect of GS4?s future.