| Skill | Purpose |
| Animal Handling | Controlling, calming, training, and directing animals or similar creatures. |
| Disguise | Altering your appearance, mannerisms, and behavior to convincingly impersonate another person or conceal your identity. |
| Magick Casting (Focus) | Casting and controlling magical spells and rituals. |
| Magick Resistance | Resisting magical effects directed at the mind, body, or spirit. |
| Persuasion | Influencing, negotiating, deceiving, intimidating, and inspiring others through force of personality. |
| Psi Resistance | Resisting psionic powers and other mental intrusions. |
| Psionics (Focus) | Manifesting and controlling psionic abilities and disciplines. |
| Resolve | Maintaining self-control under fear, coercion, torture, temptation, or other mental and emotional pressures. |
Animal Handling
Base Attribute: Will Power
Animal Handling represents a character’s ability to understand, calm, train, and control animals and other non-sapient creatures. It is used to influence an animal’s behavior, teach commands or tricks, care for domesticated animals, and ride trained mounts.
Typical Uses
- Calming frightened or aggressive animals
- Training animals to perform commands or tricks
- Directing trained animals
- Riding or controlling mounts
- Handling beasts of burden
- Recognizing an animal’s mood or behavior
- Caring for domesticated or captive animals
The gamemaster determines the difficulty based on the animal’s temperament, level of training, intelligence, familiarity with the handler, environmental conditions, and the complexity of the task.
Critical Failure: The animal refuses the command, becomes frightened or hostile, or reacts unpredictably, creating a complication appropriate to the situation.
Disguise
Base Attribute: Will Power
Disguise represents a character’s ability to conceal their identity or convincingly assume another appearance through clothing, makeup, prosthetics, mannerisms, voice, and behavior. It is used whenever success depends on deceiving others about who the character is.
A successful Disguise Test establishes the difficulty for others attempting to recognize or identify the disguised character through observation or investigation.
Typical Uses
- Concealing your identity
- Assuming another person’s appearance
- Impersonating another individual
- Altering your voice, posture, or mannerisms
- Blending into a crowd or social group
- Creating convincing costumes or disguises
The gamemaster determines the difficulty based on the quality of available materials, the physical differences between the character and the person being impersonated, the familiarity of observers with the subject, and the amount of time available to prepare.
Critical Failure: The disguise contains an obvious flaw, the character behaves inconsistently with their assumed identity, or an observer immediately notices something is wrong.
Magick Casting
Base Attribute: Will Power
Type: Focus Skill
Magick Casting represents a character’s ability to channel and control supernatural energies through the practice of magic. It is used to cast spells, maintain magical effects, counter hostile magic, and manipulate mystical forces. A character must select a Focus when learning this skill. Each Focus represents a distinct school of magic and is learned separately.
Typical Focuses: The available Focuses depend on the setting. Common schools of magic include Alteration, Apportation, Conjuration, Divination. Additional schools may exist in specific settings.
Typical Uses
- Casting spells
- Maintaining magical effects
- Countering hostile magic
- Identifying magical phenomena
- Controlling magical energy
- Performing magical rituals
The gamemaster determines the difficulty based on the complexity of the spell, environmental conditions, distractions, and any modifiers described in the Magick chapter.
Detailed rules for spellcasting, magical traditions, spell effects, and magical combat are found in the Magick chapter.
Critical Failure: The spell fails catastrophically, producing an unintended magical effect, backlash, or other complication as determined by the gamemaster.
Magick Resistance
Base Attribute: Will Power
Magick Resistance represents a character’s mental and spiritual resilience against magical effects. It is used to resist spells, enchantments, curses, illusions, and other supernatural effects directed at the character.
Whenever a character is permitted to resist a magical effect, they make a Magick Resistance Test instead of a Will Power Test. Detailed rules for resisting individual spells and magical effects are found in the Magick chapter.
Typical Uses
- Resisting magical spells
- Withstanding enchantments and charms
- Resisting curses and hexes
- Defending against magical illusions
- Resisting hostile magical effects
- Maintaining mental and spiritual clarity against magical influence
Critical Failure: The character’s magical defenses fail completely, allowing the spell or effect to take hold with particularly severe or unexpected consequences, as determined by the gamemaster.
Persuasion
Base Attribute: Will Power
Persuasion represents a character’s ability to influence the thoughts, emotions, and actions of others through diplomacy, negotiation, deception, leadership, intimidation, or personal charm. It is used whenever success depends on convincing another individual to think, feel, or act differently.
Persuasion is commonly used during negotiations, interrogations, debates, public speaking, and other social interactions. The gamemaster determines the difficulty based on the target’s attitude, motivations, beliefs, and the reasonableness of the request.
Typical Uses
- Negotiating agreements
- Convincing or persuading others
- Bluffing or deceiving
- Intimidating opponents
- Haggling over prices
- Inspiring or leading others
- Public speaking and oratory
- Fast talking or distracting others
Detailed rules for social conflicts and Interaction Attacks are found in the Social Interaction chapter.
Critical Failure: The character offends the target, loses credibility, reveals their true intentions, or otherwise damages the interaction.
Psi Resistance
Base Attribute: Will Power
Psi Resistance represents a character’s mental discipline and resilience against psionic abilities. It is used to resist telepathic intrusion, emotional manipulation, telekinetic influence, psychic illusions, precognitive effects, and other psionic powers directed at the character.
Whenever a character is permitted to resist a psionic ability, they make a Psi Resistance Test instead of a Will Power Test. Detailed rules for resisting individual psionic powers are found in the Psionics chapter.
Typical Uses
- Resisting telepathic intrusion
- Withstanding emotional manipulation
- Resisting psychic illusions
- Defending against mental domination
- Resisting hostile psionic effects
- Maintaining mental clarity during psychic assault
Critical Failure: The character’s mental defenses collapse, allowing the psionic effect to take hold with particularly severe or unexpected consequences, as determined by the gamemaster.
Psionics
Base Attribute: Will Power
Type: Focus Skill
Psionics represents a character’s ability to harness the power of the mind to produce extraordinary effects. It is used to manifest psionic disciplines, maintain psychic powers, resist mental strain, and control supernatural abilities through focused thought and will alone.
A character must select a Focus when learning this skill. Each Focus represents a distinct psionic discipline and is learned separately.
Typical Focuses: The available Focuses depend on the setting. The four core psionic disciplines are Empathic, Telekinetic, Telepathic, and Visionary. Additional disciplines may exist in specific settings.
Typical Uses:
- Manifesting psionic powers
- Maintaining ongoing psychic effects
- Countering hostile psionic abilities
- Identifying psionic phenomena
- Controlling psychic energy
- Performing advanced mental techniques
The gamemaster determines the difficulty based on the complexity of the power, environmental conditions, distractions, and any modifiers described in the Psionics chapter.
Detailed rules for psionic disciplines, powers, power costs, and psychic combat are found in the Psionics chapter.
Critical Failure: The character loses control of the psionic power, suffers mental backlash, or produces an unintended psychic effect, as determined by the gamemaster.
Resolve
Base Attribute: Will Power
Resolve represents a character’s determination, self-discipline, and mental resilience. It is used to resist fear, intimidation, coercion, emotional manipulation, and other attempts to undermine a character’s confidence, judgment, or self-control.
Whenever a character is permitted to resist an Interaction Attack or another non-supernatural mental or emotional effect, they make a Resolve Test instead of a Will Power Test.
Detailed rules for Interaction Attacks and social conflicts are found in the Social Interaction chapter.
Typical Uses
- Resisting fear and panic
- Withstanding intimidation or coercion
- Resisting deception or manipulation
- Remaining calm under pressure
- Enduring torture or interrogation
- Maintaining concentration despite distractions
- Overcoming emotional distress
The gamemaster determines the difficulty based on the severity of the mental or emotional challenge and the circumstances surrounding it.
Critical Failure: The character loses their composure, succumbs to fear or emotional pressure, or reacts in a manner that creates a significant complication appropriate to the situation.