Resources

Everyone has hit points and mana. Some characters also hold resources of their own: pools of points that a class or a talent gives them, such as a berserker’s rage or a ranger’s focus. You may hold several at once, and each has its own rules:

• Some come back by themselves over time, up to their maximum.
• Some wear off over time, down to nothing.
• Some build up from what you do: a kill, a blow that hits, a critical, being hit, a sneak attack.
• Abilities may spend them. An ability that costs more than you have is greyed out in the abilities menu (“not enough focus”).
• Some end when they run out: the resource is gone, and its bar with it, until something gives it to you again. Others stay with you, empty, and fill up again.

While you hold a resource, the status bar shows it after your mana, as Rage 7 or Focus 7/10 (what you have, and for some your maximum). The character screen (@) gives it a row of its own.

A resource that wears off while you rest may run out before you wake. One that does not come back while resting waits for you to get up. Creatures never hold any resources.

Nothing converts between resources and mana: each is spent only by what asks for it.

Times below are given in base turns. A base turn is 6 seconds.

The resources

Each class’s own pool has a page of its own, beside its class:

• Rage: the berserker’s fury, from the Rage ability.
• Focus: the ranger’s, for quicker shots and volleys.
• Openings: the thief’s gaps in a foe’s guard, spent by Exploit.
• Ki: the ascetic’s, for flurries and the open-hand arts.
• Inspiration: the bard’s, for the Inspire song.
• Zeal: the paladin’s, for smites and laying on hands.

Stamina is no one class’s: it is the pool of anyone who fights with a weapon’s active abilities.

Stamina

Stamina is the fighter’s breath: the pool that active weapon abilities are paid from (see Combat), and the warrior’s Charge. A warrior holds it, full, from level 1 (Charge gives it). Anyone else gets it, full, from the first weapon rank that teaches an active ability.

The pool holds 10, plus your Toughness modifier, plus a point per 10 levels, and never less than 5 (Toughness 14 holds 12 at level 1). It comes back a point every 2 base turns (12 seconds), resting too, and sits at 0 when spent.

A berserker holds rage and stamina at once. Raging blocks spells, but not active weapon abilities.

Magic items on resources

A magic item may name a pool and change it while you wear or wield it, whether identified or not. It can give:

• a larger maximum, by so many points;
• a faster pace, by so many percent, added to what talents add. Steady breathing’s 50 % and an item’s 30 % make 180 %;
• for stamina, every active weapon ability costing so many points less. This adds to Drillmaster’s discount, and a cost never goes below 1;
• so many more points on a kill (of the Hunt), never above the maximum. This follows the same rule as mana of Siphoning: only your own blow, shot, or spell counts, with the one you killed within 3 cells of you (see Mana on a kill). It comes on top of what a pool builds on any kill by its own rule (inspiration’s point).

Two items naming the same pool add up. Taking the item off lowers what you hold to the smaller maximum at once.

Such an item never grants a pool: it does nothing for someone who does not hold it. Who holds which pool:

• Stamina: every warrior, berserker, paladin, ranger, ascetic, thief, and bard, and anyone else once a weapon rank teaches an active ability.
• Rage: a raging berserker, only while the rage lasts.
• Focus: a ranger from level 12.
• Ki: an ascetic from level 1.
• Inspiration: a bard from level 9.
• Openings: a thief from level 1.

A ring of rage on a wizard is dead weight. Creatures never hold a pool, so such gear does nothing for them, only for whoever takes it from them.

Talents on resources

Five talents change a resource. Only the class that has the resource may take them, as a pick from its trees. Each is on its resource’s page: Battle trance, Inner calm, Steady hand, Patient blade, and Zealot.

See also: Classes, Mana, and Stances and stamina.