Ranger
Wilderness tracking, archery precision, beast taming, and environmental survival.
Normally, after every battle, a character wearing armor will lose Armor Points after spending 5 minutes resetting their armor. With the purchase of this skill, the character gains three advantages.
The first grants the character 25% bonus to their Base Armor Points or Special Armor Points – whichever is appropriate for any armor that they wear. The character should total all of their separate armor pieces then multiply the total by 1.5 (this includes the 25% bonus for the Armor Proficiency skill, if the character only has the Armor Efficiency skill, then multiple by 1.25) and round the number normally to nearest whole number.
The second ensures that the character will always have 25% their starting Base Armor Points or Special Armor Points – whichever is appropriate – after resetting their armor. The character must still spend the 5 minutes in-game resetting their armor after a battle to gain this benefit.
Third, the amount the armor degrades decreases by 1 point. After all skills, crafting and enchanting bonuses, the minimum Degradation number is 1 point.
Torso armor must be worn to use this skill. The character may remove the other parts of their armor: their helmet, greaves, gauntlets, etc. but still has to wear their torso armor.
For example, Sir Derrick has a chain mail shirt, studded leather vambraces, and light plate greives totaling 20 Armor Points. With this skill he gains a bonus of +10 Armor Points totaling 30 Armor Points. After a battle he adjusts his armor and is now at 27 Armor Points. Over the course of the Event his armor is lowered to 6 Armor Points. Once more Sir Derrick gets into a battle, but at the end of this battle when he resets his armor he will have 5 Armor Points, the minimum he can have with this skill.This skill does not augment magical Armor Points from an Armor spell, an alchemical item, magic items, rituals, or similar magical effects. It will increase the Armor Points from a Ritual of Armor Enchantment.
This skill enables a blinded character to engage in hand to hand combat; without this skill a character may not engage in combat while blinded. This skill does not imply the ability to see. A character using this skill is assumed to be fighting by "feel" and sound, and can only respond to a hand to hand attack and cannot initiate combat with a foe that they cannot perceive. Once combat starts, the character can continue until the target leaves the combat entirely or out runs the player.
This skill cannot be used – ever – to detect invisible characters, but can be used to attack invisible characters that attack first.
This skill prevents the character from getting lost in any above ground, underground, or underwater aquatic setting. This skill will also allow the character to return to any place they have previously been from anywhere so long as they know where they are. This skill can be purchased up to three times, once for each environment and the type of environment must be specified at the time of purchase. Unlike other multipurchase skills, the teacher must have purchased a Bump of Direction for that environment.
This skill is subject to a Plot Marshal’s ruling and may not always work.
This skill allows a character to shoot two arrows at the same time. The character fires their bow or crossbow normally and throws one arrow packet or shoots one arrow at the target. The character may combine any Martial or Dexterity tag skill with the attack, but they must use two purchases of every Martial or Dexterity skill they use to augment their Double Shot. It is not possible to augment only one of the arrows with a skill.
One defense that stops physical attacks must be used for each arrow. This is true even when using a Dodge skill to stop the attack.
For example, Rain is fighting some Superior Skeletons and one of them attacks him. Rain uses his bow to take the undead down before it can get within weapons range. He decides to use a True Aim to make sure he does not miss. He calls, “Double Shot, True Aim, Slay Magic!” The Superior Skeleton calls his Invulerability, but has nothing to stop the second Slay attack so drops. After the encounter, Rain marks off one use of his Double Shot skill, two uses of his True Aim and Slay skills.To use this skill, the character must prefix the damage verbal with “Double Shot...”.
Once purchased, the character may use this skill with their True Aim skill to no longer have any range limitation on their True Aim augmented attacks. So long as the character has an unobstructed line of sight to the target, the attack lands. However, the target, or someone near them, has to be able to hear the attack. This skill does not permit silent kills, the attack is loud and obvious. A marshal cannot be sent to the target with the intention of marshaling the attack. However, if a marshal is present and they hear the attack and the target did not hear it, the marshal can inform the player they were hit by the attack.
The Far Shot skill can be used with bows and crossbows only. It can be combined with any other Martial or Dexterity skill the character knows.
If the character wants to make a far shot attack they should prefix their damage with, “Far Shot...”. The character must expend one True Aim tag and one Far Shot tag each time they make a far shot.
This skill allows the character to track an opponent at a jogging pace. It is still up to the marshal whether the tracking is successful or not and all the other rules for the Tracking skill apply. This skills improves the character’s chance to track their target, even if the target is using the Tracking Skill to cover their tracks.
Using this skill, the character can outpace another character who is using their Tracking skill to cover their tracks, thus allowing a greater chance for the character to catch their target. It does not make it any easier to detect concealed tracks. Also, a character using this skill will have a better chance of catching their target who is trying to get away by reaching them before the target can reach safety. This is all up to the marshal’s discretion.
This skill allows a character to move though natural settings without leaving any trace of their passing which includes foot prints, broken twigs, ect. The skill does not mask their odors and therefore, the character can be tracked by scent.
This skill also allows the character to try and track another character using this skill. Using the skill this way does not use one of their Tags and if the character has used their tag for that Tag Cycle, they still can still try and detect a character using Ghost Step.
The skill lasts one hour, after which time, the character must either use another purchase or begin leaving a trail.
This skill is subject to a Plot Marshal’s ruling and may not always work.
Once purchased, the character will gain a +1.5 Damage Bonus from each of the following skills: Weapon Proficiency, Master Proficiency, and Ranger Proficiency instead of the normal damage bonus with Bows and Crossbows ONLY.
For example, a human character has 2 Weapon Proficiencies, 1 Master Prof, and 3 Ranger Profs. Normally the character would deal 10 points of damage with their bow, but when they purchase the Marksman skill they would deal 13 points of damage with each shot.
This skill may be used to parry any physical blow including special attacks such as Critical Attack, Stunning Blow, Disarm, or a blow that does damage, but not the Slay or Soul Strike skills. This skill can be used even if it is delivered from behind, but not if from a surprise attack. It is also possible to parry an attack directed against someone else as long as they are within weapons length. A character cannot use a ranged attack to parry an attack for another. The character may block any low magic or Nature Magic spell that is not combined with a Perfect Aim skill for another character, but they then take the effect of the spell and must call an appropriate defense that will stop the spell in order to avoid the effects of the spell themselves.
For example, Drokk is fighting three brigands. One of them runs away into the woods. The fight with the last two continues for a while. The two brigands move around so they are on opposite sides of Drokk, then one of them, from behind, uses the Speed and Stun skills against Drokk. Drokk might not have seen the blow coming, but he knew his opponent was there and uses his Master Parry skill to stop the attack. Distracted, Drokk does not see the third brigand sneaking back up to him. This one sees his chance and uses a Shatter Weapon skill against Drokk from behind and surprise. Drokk cannot use his Master Parry skill to stop this attack and calls his Invulnerability spell to stop the attack. Now Drokk is really mad and the brigands are in for a tough time.A character must have one Martial Proficiency skill per Master Parry skill they wish to purchase. So, a character that wants three Master Parry skills must have three Martial Proficiency skills. The Master Parry skill can be used with any weapon the character has two Martial Proficiency skills of either type. Therefore, if the character has two Master Proficiency skills they can use their Master Parry with any weapon.
The character must call “Master Parry” when they use this skill. This skill is always used once called.
For each purchase of this skill a character gains a +1 Damage Bonus weapon skills in the Ranger Weapons skill according to the table below.
Weapon Type
Damage Bonus
Small, Thrown, One-handed edge/blunt, and Crossbows
+1
Bows
+1.5*
*This bonus is rounded down, so one purchase gies a +1 damage bonus and two gives a +3 damage bonus.
This skill may be combined with other Damage Bonuses. The Ranger Proficiency skill is not hand specific.
This skill allows the character to use the following weapons: One- handed Edge, One-Handed Blunt, Bow, Crossbow, Thrown Weapon and Small Weapon. Additionally, they gain the ability to use the Florentine skill. The character gets a rebate on any of the weapon skills on this list, including Florentine.
This skill allows a character to strike down a target character with one strike. The character hit with this skill is Mortally Wounded and requires the appropriate healing. This skill ignores armor and does not damage it. The character must strike between the elbows to the shoulders and shoulders to the knees of the target character. The character must call “Slay” after the blow is delivered followed by any special damage modifiers, such as “Magic”, “Silver”, etc. This skill can also be used as a Slay Parry, which will stop any one physical martial attack, even a Slay skill. Either use of this skill expends that use of this skill for that Tag Cycle.
A character must have one Proficiency skill per Slay skill they wish to purchase. So, a character that wants three Slay skills must have three Proficiency skills. The Slay skill can be used with any weapon in which the character has two Proficiency skills of either type. Therefore, if the character has two Master Proficiency skills they can use their Slay with any weapon.
This skill is not used if the character misses their target, does not hit the appropriate area on the target, or the attack is blocked. If they succeed in striking their target or if the target calls an appropriate defense, the skill is used.
This skill allows the character to survive off the land. With this skill the character can provide the basics they need to live. They can hunt or scavenge for food, find or collect water and build a shelter. Out-of- game, if the character chooses to live off the land, they do not need topay their upkeep at the end of the Event (which is typically 1 silver piece).
With this skill the character can also help others survive in the wild. When purchased, this skill will allow the character to take one additional person with them. With each purchase of the skill, they can take an additional person. While the character can stay in the wild for an indefinite period of time, character’s without this skill can only stay out in the wild for one month (between two Events regardless of how many weeks there are) before they must return to civilization to recuperate.
Surviving off the land takes all of the character’s time and effort, therefore they are limited to what other activates they can perform in between Events at Plot’s discretion. However, they cannot learn any skills while they are living off the land due to the amount of time it takes them to practice those new skills, unless it is another purchase of Survival, which they can learn while taking advantage of this skill.
This skill can be purchased a maximum of 5 times.
With this skill, the character may hit any target character within line of sight flawlessly without having to actually hit the target. The character must have the appropriate ranged attack in hand and the character must fire or throw the attack. If the character or targeted character is outside a building the missile attack must go at least as far, if not farther than the target. It need not hit or be close, just reach the target. If the character and the target character are inside an outof-game real world building the range of a True Aim skill is unlimited. The character must prefix the attack with “True Aim…”, and call the damage or effect. The character should indicate the target clearly by pointing at the target.
This skill is always used once called