Abilities

Some of what you can do comes from who you are: your race, your class, the skills you are trained in, your weapon skills and fighting styles, and later the things you carry. These are your abilities. They do not each get a key of their own. Instead they are all in one menu.

The basic commands keep their keys (see Controls): moving, opening doors, kicking, searching, picking up, eating, shooting, resting, and so on.

The abilities menu

a opens the abilities menu. It lists your abilities with a letter each, in groups by where they come from: Racial, Birth sign, Profane, Class, Spells, Talents, Skills, Weapon skills, Items, Here, Allies. A group you have nothing in is left out. Profane holds what a profane gift gave you and your birth sign did not (Hate-wyrm’s heart’s Fire breath).

• Beside each ability is what it asks for once you choose it, such as in a direction.
• An ability you cannot use right now is greyed out, with the reason: you hold no shield, not usable yet for a skill whose use is not in the game yet, or you are winded while a status effect keeps you from it. One that works on something next to you is greyed out while there is nothing beside you to use it on: no lock beside you, no foe within reach (see Something beside you).
• Listen at a door and Wedge a door are left out of the menu unless a closed door is next to you (for Wedge, one not wedged already).
• The arrow keys move the > cursor, and the ability under it is described at the bottom.
• A letter, or Enter on the > row, uses the ability. The menu closes and the ability asks for what it needs: a direction on the message line (only when more than one thing beside you could be meant), or a place with the aiming cursor (see Aiming). Then it takes its time like any other action. Choosing one you cannot use only tells you why.
• A long list shows a page at a time. > and < turn the pages, and the letters start again at a on every page.
• Esc closes the menu.

Looking at the menu takes no time. It remembers the ability you used last and opens on it, so a Enter uses it again. X does the same in one key. With nothing used yet, X opens the menu.

Every ability

Every ability the menu can show, grouped as the menu groups them. The last column links the section that explains it in full: a class’s abilities under its class, the priest’s prayer on Prayer, a skill’s use on Using your skills.

Spirit weapon asks what shape the weapon should take. It shows a list of every melee weapon, grouped by weapon skill, each with the numbers a plain one has. The weapon it calls into your hand is that plain weapon in every way: its damage, its weight, and how it is held. On top of that it has the talent’s gifts: +3 to hit, a threat 2 lower (a long sword’s criticals on 18 or better instead of 20), and every point of the target’s Protection ignored. Calling it again reshapes it. It fades the moment it leaves your hands, and it cannot be thrown.

What the ranks of weapon skills and fighting styles teach is in the menu too, under Weapon skills after the skill’s name (“Long blades: Deep cut”). These are greyed with fires by itself: you never choose them, they work by themselves as you fight. They have their own tables on Weapon skills and Fighting styles.

• Throw your voice: a voice sounds at a place you choose, one you see and that is not solid, within 6 cells. You pick it with the aiming cursor, as for a shot. It is as loud there as someone talking, and it is made there, not where you stand. So creatures that hear it and cannot see that spot go to have a look (see Hearing). It takes a normal action. Bards learn it at level 16 (see Classes).

• Lurk: the thief’s, from level 6. You wait in ambush, in the time of a wait, and are Lurking until your next action. A hostile that steps up beside you meanwhile takes your blow at once, as a free blow. Unless it was already hunting you, it is caught unawares: the blow is a sneak attack, it may be Surprised, and it is struck without its Dexterity and Dodge. You cannot lurk with a hostile you see already beside you (“Too late to lurk.”, no time). It costs nothing and has no cooldown.

• Exploit: the thief’s, from level 1. It spends every opening you hold on a melee blow, in the time of one, at the hostile in the direction you choose. It is a sneak attack whatever the foe knows: the dice land if it hits, and 1d6 more for each opening spent. The foe is not Surprised by it and keeps its whole Defence. Low blow (level 12) adds +1 to hit per opening and stuns the foe it hits. It is refused, costing nothing, with no opening, nobody hostile there, a creature other than your mark, or one you see without vitals (see Exploit).

• Thrown exploit: the thief’s, from level 18. The same blow as Exploit, made by throwing a weapon at a hostile you see, in the time of a throw. Pick what to throw (a dagger, say; never a flask), then the target. It spends every opening you hold, and the weapon lands by the foe. It reaches as far as you can throw the weapon, but never more than 6 cells, the farthest a sneak attack lands from a throw (Long reach adds to that). It is refused, costing nothing, for Exploit’s reasons, a target out of reach, or a wall or creature you see in the way (see Thrown exploit).

• Shield bash: anyone can bash with a shield (see Weapon skills), so it is always in the menu, and you can use it while you hold a shield. It strikes whoever stands in the direction you choose, in the time of a blow.

• Skill uses: a skill that lets you do something puts its ability in the menu, in the skill’s place among the Skills, once you are trained in it. These are Disarm a trap, Listen at a door, Pick lock, Steal, Feint, Intimidate, Heal, Wedge a door, Forage, Tame, and the professions’ rows (Metalcraft…, Woodcraft…, Jewelcraft…). How each works is on Using your skills, or on the page the table’s last column links. A skill whose use is not in the game yet is listed too, greyed out (not usable yet).

• Class abilities (Rage, War cry, Charge, Lullaby, Cackle, Veteran’s wind, Lay on hands, Smite, Holy radiance, Step of the wind, Stunning strike, Patient defence, Stillness, Quivering palm, Consecrate, Orison, Sanctuary, Knock) come from your class’s level table (see Classes). Each is under Class from the level that brings it.

  • Some leave you winded for a while afterwards, and are greyed out until it passes.
  • Most are paid from a resource instead, and are greyed out while you have too little.
  • A paladin’s holy gifts are never greyed out by alignment, but they do nothing unless you are Kind or better (see Alignment).
  • They have no key of their own yet: X uses the one you used last again.

• Charge, the warrior’s at level 1, rushes a foe you see. Aim it like a shot, at the creature. You run along the straight line to it, stop in the cell before it, and strike it once, as an ordinary melee attack.

  • It costs 1 stamina, plus 1 for every cell you run. It takes the time of those steps; the blow is free.
  • You must gain at least one cell, so it is refused when you already stand beside the foe.
  • A wall, a closed door, deep water, ice, a trap you know of, or anyone you see on the line refuses it before you move. So does too little stamina for the whole run, or a run out of a shop’s door while you owe it. A refused charge takes no time and costs nothing.
  • Each cell you run into is entered as a step enters it: you are told what lies there, a zone does its work, and wading through a marsh may give you a disease, as walking would.
  • Nobody you pass or leave behind gets a free blow at you on the way.
  • Someone you cannot see on the line stops you short, with no blow. A hidden trap goes off as you run over it and stops you there.
  • Charge also gives the warrior their stamina pool from level 1.
  • With Whirling charge (the warrior’s at level 50), every hostile beside a cell you run into takes a free blow as you pass, in the order you pass them. Each is struck once a charge. The foe you charge at gets only the charge’s own blow at the end. The blows cost no time and no stamina, and a foe that falls does not stop you.

• War cry, the berserker’s at level 25, is paid in rage: 4 of it, plus the time of a wait. So it is greyed out with “you have not the rage for it” until you rage. You roar as loud as a howl, heard across the floor; it wakes sleepers and draws the curious.

  • Every hostile that hears you, sees you, and has vitals (no skeletons, spirits, or animated things) rolls 2d12 plus its Willpower modifier against 10 + your Strength modifier + your Intimidate bonus (+8 at 100, +12 at 200). If it falls short, it is frightened three degrees and runs from you for about three turns.
  • There is no level cut: a troll checks as a kobold does, only with more nerve. For example, a creature of Willpower 10 against a berserker of Strength 15 (+2), untrained in Intimidate, holds on 12 or more, so it flees 38 % of the time. At Intimidate 100 it flees 90 %.
  • A roar with nobody near is still a roar: the turn, the rage, and the noise are spent.
  • Every cry trains Intimidate.

• Inspire and the Lullaby, the bard’s at levels 9 and 20, are songs: see Songs below.

• Allies (Come to heel, Hold here, Set on): once a creature fights on your side (a druid’s call, a ranger’s companion; see Allies), the Allies group appears. Its three orders tell every ally of yours on the level what to do at once:

  • follow you and fight what threatens you (the default);
  • hold where they stand;
  • go to a place you see, fight what is near it, then come back.

  An order takes no time, but it is a shout, and anything near enough hears it (see Hearing). The orders are greyed out with “no allies here” while none of your allies is on the level with you. Each order, and each kill your allies make, trains Handle animal, as does a try at taming.

  Give is not an order. It fits a companion with something for its neck, and takes time. It is greyed out with “not beside you” while the companion is away. Set on asks for the place the way aiming a shot does, and Tab skips your own allies. On the map, an ally of yours has a short, faint green line under it, and looking at one says it is yours (“Your wolf (unhurt)”).

• No race gives an ability yet.

Songs

A bard sings two songs, both from the menu under Class: Inspire, sung to yourself, and the Lullaby, sung against your foes.

• Price. Each song costs one thing. Inspire costs 3 inspiration, and the Lullaby 6 mana. With less, the song is greyed out (“not enough inspiration”, “you have too little mana”), and choosing it costs nothing.
• Sound. A song takes as long as a chat (3 seconds at a normal pace). It is heard as a voice of loudness 80 where you stand, so those who hear it and cannot see you come to look. You cannot sing on the overworld, or while silenced. Trying takes no time.
• Music makes songs last longer. Each song brings its status at one degree, and your Music adds degrees to every song, up to three, the most these statuses take. More degrees last longer; what a degree does stays the same. Sung again while it lasts, a song starts over at the degrees it brings now. Every song you sing trains Music, once you are trained in it, and your Presence.
• Foes can shake a song off. A song sung against foes is heard by every hostile creature in earshot, seen or not. Each rolls 2d12 plus its modifier of the song’s stat against the song’s difficulty plus what your Music adds. If it falls short, it suffers the song. Friendly and peaceful creatures only hear it. There is no level cut: a troll checks as a kobold does, only with more nerve. A song with nobody to hear it is still sung: its price and its time are spent, and the noise is made.
• Virtuoso (the bard’s at 30): every song costs nothing at all and brings one degree more. Inspire also lifts you higher: greatly inspired (+2 to hit and +2 Dodge, 10 minutes a degree) instead of inspired (+1 and +1, 5 minutes a degree).

What Music adds to every song, by its value (see Skills):

The chance a hostile creature shakes a song off, by its edge (its modifier of the stat the song checks; see Stats) and your Music, with the difficulty in brackets. A drowsy creature does everything three times as slowly, 12 seconds a degree.

Lullaby, shaken off:

Keys of their own

If you use an ability often, you can give it a key in the Controls screen. None has a key by default. The names there are:

• shield bash: “Bash with your shield”
• disarming: “Disarm a trap”
• picking a lock: “Pick a lock”
• stealing: “Steal”
• throwing your voice: “Throw your voice”

The key uses the ability just as the menu would, asking for a direction or a place if it needs one. Without a shield, the bash key says so at once and takes no time. a (“Abilities”) and X (“Use the last ability again”) can be rebound like every key. Either of them also uses an ability that is being aimed at a place, as Enter does.

See also: Using your skills, Classes, and Resources.