RolePal

Initial Skills

All 1st-level characters start with four skills.

Bonus Skills: A character with an INT of 13+ knows one extra skill; with an INT of 16+, a character knows two extra skills.

A character may sacrifice an initial skill to gain a level in another skill. They may only do this once per skill.

How Skills Are Used

The base chance for a skill check is 1-in-6. If the character has a relevant skill, the character's chance of success increases by the level of the skill. An applicable ability score bonus may increase the chance further.

A roll of 6 is always a failure.

Attributes and Skills

The breakdown of skills by attribute are suggestions; different attributes may be applicable to a skill depending on the situation. The DM may allow a different attribute to be used for a skill check if the situation warrants it.

Learning More Skills

Each new skill choice may be used to acquire a new skill or improve a known skill.

Craft & Professional Skills

Use of these skills presumes adequate time and access to appropriate tools and materials.

Craft

The ability to make and repair items associated with your craft, and the ability to evaluate the worth of such items. Craftsman skills include Armorer, Barrelmaking, Blacksmithing, Brewing, Bricklaying, Bowyer, Building, Carpentry, Cobbler, Draying, Engraving, Farming, Fletching, Glassblowing, Leatherworking, Metalsmithing (gold or silver), Mining, Pottery, Sculpting, Ship Building, Smelting, Stonecutting, Tailor, Tanning, Tinkering, Weaponsmithing, and more. Some crafts are described in more detail below.

• Armorer: The ability to make and repair leather armor. Higher skill levels enable the character to make and repair chain mail (+1 skill) and lamellar armor (+2 skill).

Profession

These skills are usually based on Intelligence, requiring "book learning" to become an expert in them. Choose one among the following, or invent a new one not on this list and convince your DM to allow it: Architecture, Banking, and Engineering.

Strength Skills

Brawling

This skill allows you to fight crowds using furniture pieces, knocking attackers off-balance, swinging down chandeliers, and so on. Brawling damage is not lethal, it just knocks victims unconscious when reaching 0 HP. A successful check allows you to double damage for each +1 in Strength bonus your character has. Damage is spread among attackers in the same group, up to 10 attackers.

Muscle

The knowledge and experience of heavy lifting and hard labor. Your character knows how to direct groups of laborers to make their efforts most effective. He understands the use of simple machinery like wedges, pulleys, and levers. Your character gains a +2 bonus to Strength Checks for difficult tasks like bending bars or smashing through doors and walls.

Intelligence Skills

Acting

The ability to pretend to be someone else or to show false emotions. Successful use of this skill enables a character to tell lies over a period of time. This is not the same ability as the Charisma skill of stage acting.

Alchemy

The ability to recognize and identify common alchemical substances and potions.

Alternate Magics

Basic familiarity with those magics that are not directly related to standard spellcasting. Includes knowing magical abilities of well-known Prime Plane and extraplanar monsters, and of Immortal beings.

Ancient History

Detailed knowledge of the shadow elves' history. General knowledge of the history of the nations of the other races inhabiting the Broken Lands and the surface elves. Vague knowledge of the history of other surface peoples.

Artillery

Your character understands and knows how to operate artillery pieces, including the special gravity artillery in the City of Stars. A successful check gives a +2 to hit with such weapons.

Boating

The ability to handle small boats and barges. Also includes fishing skills. Simple tasks are automatically performed with this skill; check only in dangerous or unusual situations.

Disguise

The ability to make oneself look like someone else. A successful Disguise Check by your character is required for each character or group of characters that the disguise must fool. The roll is modified according to the viewer's Wisdom bonus or penalty. Therefore a character with a high Wisdom score has a better chance of penetrating a disguise.

Helmsman/Captain

The ability to handle a larger ship and direct a competent crew. This doesn't include handling challenges to a captain's authority — a mutiny, for example — which would be decided by a Charisma check or use of some other appropriate skill (Leadership, Persuade, etc.).

Know Terrain

The knowledge of the land, water, and environment conditions of a region, such as the underground realm of the shadow elves. This includes knowing the safest or fastest travel routes, pathfinding, local tunnels and waterways, and dangerous environmental conditions. Use of this skill in the character's home dominion receives a +2 bonus. Use of this skill in an unfamiliar but similar setting is at a −2 to −4 penalty. A beginning shadow-elf character cannot take this skill for any surface region — such knowledge must be gained in the course of adventuring!

Mapping

Your character does not necessarily know how to read and write, but he is capable of understanding and making maps. A check is needed for complicated three-dimensional layouts, or to map an area from memory.

Nature Lore

Knowledge of common plant and animal life of a familiar locality, both domestic and wild. This includes knowing such things as edible and poisonous plants, healing fungi, or signs of unnatural danger like absence of normal plant life, atypical animal behavior, etc. Use of this skill in the character's home dominion receives a +2 bonus. Use of this skill in an unfamiliar but similar setting is at a −2 to −4 penalty. A beginning shadow-elf character cannot take this skill for any surface region — such knowledge must be gained in the course of adventuring!

Navigation

The ability to guide a boat or ship to an unfamiliar destination or in unfavorable circumstances in the underground waterways of the shadow elves. Use of this skill presumes possession of a map or equivalent knowledge of an area. If any of these are not available, a penalty of −4 to −8 may be imposed.

Non-elvish Cultures

General knowledge of non-elvish races of the Broken Lands. Includes incomplete knowledge of non-elvish customs, methods of warfare, skills with magic, and a very basic vocabulary.

Orientation in Caves

Used underground, when moving on long distances. It prevents becoming lost when exploring caverns, tunnels, and underground rivers. Orientation in a maze requires a skill check. All shadow elves begin with this skill.

Read/Write Language

Knowledge of a written language, either human, demihuman, or humanoid. An Intelligence Check is required each time an attempt is made to read or write this language.

Signaling

Enables your character to leave messages that can be understood only by another Signaling specialist. For example, unobtrusive stacks of stones may be left to warn friendly followers of an impending danger. A skilled shadow elf can also leave simple messages, such as, "troll patrol arriving from north," "safe place to camp", or "go back and warn the shadow elf army." Communication is also possible using horns, flags, and light signals. All shadow elves are familiar with the signals sent by the army's horns.

Snares

Building traps to capture animals, monsters, or unwanted visitors. A successful check means the trap functions properly.

Survival

This skill enables a shadow-elf character to find food, shelter, and water in the underground realm of the shadow elves. A successful check indicates that your character has found sufficient food for himself and several companions (fungi, insects, etc.). Another skill choice is required to find food in a different terrain type, including surface areas.

Tactics

The ability to use troops in the best possible way. A successful check means your DM will modify the outcome of a confrontation in a reasonable (and favorable) way.

Tracking

Your character can follow tracks. The DM is free to increase or decrease the chances of success depending on the circumstance (age of the tracks, type of terrain, number of fugitives, etc.). This skill can also be used to obscure tracks made by your character and any companions. The difference between the number actually rolled and the number needed to make the test is used as a negative penalty on Intelligences for Tracking Checks made by anyone trying to follow your character. For example, Farneal is a wanderer, and fears that she is being followed by a band of hungry orcs. She tries as best she can to hide her trail through the passageways she visits. She has Tracking skill of 15 and rolls a 5, a successful check. Any tracker following her trail has a −10 penalty to his Intelligence for Tracking checks.

Wisdom Skills

Animal Training

Choose a particular animal. Your character knows how to raise, train, and care for this type of animal. The animal can be taught some very simple tricks or simple orders. A check is needed every time the animal is used for any significant purpose, with a penalty to the check of −1 per HD of difference between the trainer and the animal (if the animal is tougher than the trainer).

Bravery

This enables your character to resist the effects of any magical fear.

Codes of Law and Justice

Knowledge of the laws and moral codes that govern shadow elf society.

Cooking

Your character is capable of preparing trania, the specially compressed and reserved food of the shadow elves. On special feast days, this skill also gives the ability of cooking up special delicacies.

Danger Sense

An aptitude for sensing danger or odd situations. A successful check means you have detected an imminent danger, magical or physical, directed at you. You will not know the nature or the source of the danger. The DM will make this check in secret, informing you of the result.

Detect Deception

The ability to recognize deceptive tricks or behaviors in an NPC. This does not reveal the truth or falsity of specific statements nor the motivations of the speaker, nor does it reveal the exact nature of the deception. Unlike the detect lies spell, this skill only warns the character to distrust the NPC who is trying to deceive him. The character gets no clues about which statements are true or untrue. Successful use of this skill just indicates that the speaker is intentionally trying to deceive the character.

First Aid

The ability to perform simple medical aid. A successful check enables a character to restore 1d4 hit points to any wounded character or creature. This skill may not be used on a wounded character or creature more than once per injury. If the character is subsequently restored to full hit points, and is then wounded again, first aid may once again be applied. If a 20 is rolled when using this skill, 1d4 points of damage are inflicted on the patient.

Natural Healing

Your character is knowledgeable in the use of herbal and fungal cures. If you roll a successful Healing Check, any character who has been poisoned is allowed a second Saving Throw with a −2 penalty. On a successful check you may also allow characters to naturally heal damage at the rate of 2 hit points per day of total rest.

Teaching

The ability to teach a skill most efficiently. A successful check means the apprentice learns the skill with a permanent +1 modifier, as long as his final skill score remains at best equal to his teacher's.

Dexterity Skills

Note on Thief Skills: Among the dexterity skills listed below are several based on the abilities of the human thief class: Escape Artist (similar to Pick Locks), Find Traps, Hear Noise, Hide in Shadows, and Move Silently. This is to allow similar types of characters to develop in shadow elf society (though, obviously, not to the level of specialization and skill found among humans). For these skills, do not use ability score checks as you normally would. To do so would mean, absurdly, that a first level shadow elf with a high dexterity could be better at a particular task than a full-time human thief — with the same dexterity — who had years of experience! Instead, consider the shadow elf to have the same percentage chance of success using that skill as a thief of the same level. If a shadow elf allots an extra skill slot to the skill (e.g., "Find Traps +1"), treat him as one level higher for the purpose of determining his percentage chance of success.

Alertness

Enables your character to draw a weapon without losing any time, or to avoid the effects of surprise. A successful check means your character wakes up at the slightest odd noise — not necessarily a useful ability for spellcasters.

Blind Shooting

The ability to shoot at a target without seeing it (infravision has a limited range, after all!) Your character must be able to hear the target so its position can be evaluated. A Hit Roll is needed to hit the target but without the normal penalties due to darkness. Among shadow elves, this skill trained for and is best used with a light crossbow. Other weapons (bows, daggers, hand axes, artillery, stones, etc.) require a Skill Check (some with varying penalties, at the DM's discretion); if it is failed, the character suffers the usual penalties for darkness. Blind Shooting can be used in conjunction with the Hear Noise skill (see below).

Climbing

Can be used to climb underground terrain with appropriate gear. A check is needed to climb more dangerous surfaces, with penalties varying with the degree of difficulty (see DM's book).

Dancing

Just like their surface cousins, the shadow elves are superlative dancers. This skill confers the ability to move rhythmically and gracefully to accompanying music.

Evade

The ability to elude a pursuer. This skill reflects experience in running away from dangers. Successful use permits (where appropriate) a movement bonus of +10 feet per round for 10 rounds, giving the evader a chance to hide or throw the pursuer off his trail. If the situation is one of hiding, dodging, or outguessing a pursuer, a successful check allows the character to find some way to be overlooked.

Find Traps

The ability to detect traps after observing a corridor or a room; see the note at beginning of this section. A failed check means none of the traps are discovered. The extent of the success indicates how many traps could have been found. Another check is needed to set or disarm each trap.

Hear Noise

The aptitude of perceiving faint noises, or some detail among a multitude of different sounds, knowing their source and nature (see the note at beginning of this section). This skill improves the Blind Shooting skill (above) by granting a +1 bonus on a skill check; or by granting a +1 on THAC0 for a character shooting in the dark who does not have Blind Shooting.

Hide in Shadows

As the Thief's ability (see the note at beginning of this section).

Horsemanship

Knowledge of basic care and feeding of horses, and the ability to control a horse under difficult circumstances. A character can easily recognize a nag, but buying a suitable mount for a reasonable price requires a minimal skill check, as will attempting to perform various activities from the saddle. For example, most folk can stay in a saddle while a horse is walking, but staying there during a gallop or a combat is a whole different story. To use a weapon, spell, or skill while on horseback, a character must succeed in a horsemanship check, with penalties as the difficulty increases. Note: No beginning shadow-elf character can have this skill — it can be gained only on the surface, in the course of adventuring!

Juggling

A shadow elf with this skill can juggle three objects of similar shape and size. A skill check is required to juggle more objects, with a −1 penalty for every object more than four, or objects of varying weights.

Jump

The successful use of this skill enables a character to leap over obstacles and leap distances of up to 10 feet, increased by 10 feet with a running start.

Ledge Hopping

Common in underground settings, this skill lets your character safely hop from one rocky ledge to another within six feet, and with reasonable encumbrance. The skill also enables your character to find the safest, most stable ledge on your path. Circumstances may require a check.

Martial Arts

Choose one style: Offensive — allows a PC to add Strength bonuses to open hand or natural attacks. A successful check doubles damage (bonus not included). Defensive — permanently improves AC by one, and allows a check to dodge nonmagical projectiles.

Move Silently

As the Thief's ability (see the note at beginning of this section).

Quick Draw

The ability to notch and fire an arrow with a +2 bonus to Initiative.

Rapid Fire

A successful check enables a character to fire a bow twice instead of once. Each shot is made with a penalty of −3 to hit. The first arrow is fired according to which side wins initiative, the second arrow is always fired at the end of the round.

Rope Use

The aptitude for making knots and nets. A check is required to throw a net, a lasso, or a grapple to get a solid hold on an object or creature.

Skinwing Flying

A shadow elf with this skill is able to control and ride a skinwing. Skill checks are required to control the monster in dangerous situations or if it gets hit in combat. Failure results in the skinwing spinning out of control until a successful Skill Check is made (check each round).

Sound Imitation

Your character can emulate animal or monster noises to deceive someone. This skill can be used to communicate at short range without being noticed when used with Signaling.

Weapon Mastery

This enables a character to become skilled with a weapon, as described in the D&D Game Master Players Book under Weapon Mastery (pp. 16–17). A skill choice must be traded in for each subsequent Weapon Mastery level.

Constitution Skills

Drinking

A talent for absorbing alcoholic beverages without being affected. The first failure means your character is drunk; he passes out on the second failed check.

Slow Respiration

A successful check means your character survives in a reduced space after a cavern exit collapses. A check is needed for each day of imprisonment, with a cumulative penalty of −1 for each day the character has been trapped. The same could be applied to water, with a penalty of −1 for each minute of immersion. A failed roll means the character suffocates and dies.

Stamina

The ability to continue arduous physical activity for long periods, and to endure physical hardship. Character can run twice as long — 40 rounds, 10 minutes — without becoming exhausted (see "Movement," D&D Basic Player Manual, page 56; or the D&D Rules Cyclopedia, pages 87–88). He moves as though encumbered at one class lower than his actual encumbrance (see the Encumbered Movement Rates Table, D&D Basic Player Manual, page 30; or the D&D Rules Cyclopedia, page 88), and receives a +2 bonus on any Constitution-based checks concerning resistance to effects of adverse weather or resistance to fatigue from extended periods of exertion.

Charisma Skills

Bargain

A successful check enables a character to get the best deal available for goods, services or information. If two characters with this skill bargain against each other, and both made successful skill checks, whoever made the lowest roll wins. The DM may give bonuses or penalties to either character to reflect the difficulties in the bargain to be made.

Deceive

The ability to persuade a listener of the sincerity of what is said, despite the fact that the speaker is lying through his teeth, being insincere, or both. Successful use of this skill causes an NPC to believe an untrue statement or to accept a misleading statement as honest and sincere. Failure indicates that the character stumbles over words or otherwise sounds unconvincing. This skill will not stand up to the application of a detect lie spell.

Gain Trust

The ability to gain the trust of an NPC through a combination of courtesy, respect for traditions, knowledge of human and demihuman nature, and honorable behavior. Successful use of this skill causes an NPC to accept the character as a trustworthy person until given solid evidence to the contrary.
In routine situations, a successful use of this skill is sufficient. This covers situations like an overnight visit to a roadside inn, seeking food and shelter at a farmstead, etc. In dangerous or threatening circumstances, or if the NPC listener is hostile or already has reason to distrust the speaker, the DM may assess penalties to the check. The DM must examine the situation, and may require opposed Charisma checks between the PC and the NPC, or require opposed checks between the Gain Trust skill and the NPC's Wisdom.

Leadership

Successful use of this skill adds a +1 bonus to the morale of any NPCs under the character's control. It may also be used to convince other NPCs to follow the character's commands.

Music

Choose one group of related instruments; groups include stringed instruments, brass, percussion, etc. Like their surface cousins, the shadow elves are skilled musicians.

Persuade

The ability to prove your sincerity to NPC listeners. This skill cannot be used to deceive a listener; the speaker must always believe the truth is what he says. If the NPC is hostile, or has a reason to distrust the speaker, the DM may assess penalties of −1 to −8 to the skill check.

Singing

The shadow elves have a rich oral history, with many of their legends and sagas committed to music. The ability to sing well is highly valued among the elves, and is a useful skill to make friends of strangers in public settings. Related to the Storyteller skill, below.

Storyteller

The ability to captivate an audience when telling stories. It is also an ability of shamans versed in the history of the shadow elves.