For easy reference, the skills list has been divided into four categories: Practical skills, Combat skills, Racial skills, and Scholarly skills. Practical, Combat and Scholarly skills are simply categorized according to the general use of the skill in question. Practical skills are generally used while adventuring or for earning a living, while scholarly skills are related to studies that may require literacy. These distinctions are, however, somewhat superficial; a mercenary may use his combat skills to earn a living whereas astrology, a scholarly skill, might be used in the midst of an adventure to determine directions.

Race skills are the exception. Like the other skills, they cost a skill point to take. Each character may only have ONE race skill, and that will be the skill that applies to his race. For instance, an Elf who spends a point in Race Skill will get the elven skill Lifesong. In addition, a character who says in his character history that he was 'raised by another race' may NOT take the Race Skill because it is a skill that must be taught. Race skills are carefully guarded secrets and are never taught to an outsider.

Note that there are no skills that apply to social interaction such as Leadership or Seduction. These rely solely upon the character's roleplaying skill and so if you want your character to be a leader, you should roleplay him as such.

Skills advance in the following progression:

None (the character does not have a point in this skill)
Novice (the character has one point in this skill)
Proficient (the character has two points in this skill)
Advanced (the character has three points in this skill)
Expert (the character has four points in this skill.)

All skills begin at none. At character creation, the player starts with six skill points, plus an additional two skill points for every point of his intelligence. Thus a character with an intelligence of 5 will have 16 skill points. The character can increase the number of skills they have during the course of game play.

The player may spend up to two skill points (profficient level) on any skill, and may select up to two skills to begin at an advanced level. However, these skills MUST be reflected in the character history. It takes years and dedication to learn a skill well. Characters with advanced skills will be older and have done little else with their lives. Remember that you have a limited number of skill points, and they must also be used to secure magical talents. Spend them wisely.

Lastly, during the course of game play, no character may become Expert in more than two skills. Magical talents count against this limit as well, so those who become Adept in a magical talent (see the magic section) can only become Expert in one more skill. Expertise reflects a lifetime of dedication and while it is possible that a character is particularly dedicated and can achieve expertise in two skills, it is not possible to go beyond this limit. Linguistics and Racial Skills do not count against the limit of two Expert Skills.