As the day went on, Mark got bored of tossing bad apples onto a pile of garbage, Mark decided to fool around with his status screens.
Summoning them came as easy as thinking about it, but it took him a while to figure out how to get to the class selection.
He was curious about his open skill slots and his open class slot. He focused on them and when he did an extensive list of skill sets and class feats were listed.
classes in this world came as feats. you received 1 feat at level at lvl 1 and another every 3rd level. A class mainly served as a way to gain access to the class exclusive feats, disciplines and bragging rights.
1 discipline at all even levels. Including the ability to pick an attribute perk OR health perk.
suddenly it struck Mark. If i can only get at max 1 health perk every two levels… I already have more than 22~ more HP than other people at level lvl 1. And we don’t get much more leveling up.
gotta ask Bradford if savage is common or not.
On top of that, gaining more health was directly limited by skill/perk slots and the fact it was only accessible every even level. It looked like level 1, gave a lot of stuff upfront a person would fill out all of their level one slots by the time they became adults. At which point it down at a snails pace.
Not a lot of health gained leveling up, “gritty world”, he muttered.
At 3rd level, regular feats became available, things like Indomitable. Struck a chord with him but he didn’t want to look at something 3 whole levels away, his lvl 1 was completely empty and the way it was set up gave him the distinct feeling that leveling wasn’t going to be quick.
all Classes came with 3 skill set requirements.
Warrior for example required athletic, intimidation and survival, or a weapon skillset instead of survival, Which meant in his case he could potentially use 5 of his class slots for perks that further boosted what the class did.
going through the list of skillsets he noted that skill set really did mean a set of skills. Athletic’s was a skill in dnd but here it was more akin to greek olympic style athletes. It included swimming, climbing, running, jumping, but also wrestling, spear throwing and throwing rocks or round objects from his hands. Chucking apples for an hour had actually netted him 1 xp. Because it counted as an athletic action and he had put some actual effort into it, his sore shoulders and slightly aching ligaments serving as proof.
the actions weren’t available to him because he had Athletics he simply did them better, because of athletics. His shenanigans in the kitchen also netted him 1 xp.
in general he noted many actions could be “governed” by 1 or more skill sets.
Farming, Herbalism and Survival.
all had an action called forage edible plants. Or it was safer to say the act of foraging improved if the system acknowledged you had one of these skill sets.
the skill sets Religion, Diplomacy and Persuasion all shared actions like appease, diffuse or praise.
he wondered if someone could gain more XP if you used an action that had overlap with multiple skill sets.
this was a world, he assumed, gave you experience gain based on skill set usage.
anything you did in this world was quantified as an action and could be governed by whichever skill set that seemed sensible.
And then there where the specific perks linked to the training level of his skill.
He could be proficient, expert or a master in a skill, whatever that meant.
He looked at a perk called body language which was a perk he had due to his distant traveler background. The perk required expert level training in perception.
the description read: gain advantage in reading the tells and lies of a person by observing body language, you instinctively catalogue observations about them speaking the truth or not, giving you an instinctual sensation that tells you what they are up to.
it was the only “perk” he had.
Obviously he could do things like swimming but in order to gain “aqua man”? Which basically amounted to: i can hold my breath very long. He had to invest a perk.
“hmm that would probably work if someone tried to choke me, could come in handy”. He noted that perk for future deliberation. If anything he would probably pick adrenaline first it did something to make his action cost? More efficient whenever he he did an action such as swimming running or jumping.
what is action cost?
It struck him that most of the things he read made sense to him, primarily due to the notions and concepts he had from his old world.
He came across a few terms here and there and started to make a list of things that bothered him, after he read their explanation.
what bothered him the most, was that it really felt like he was reading rules of a tabletop game, and it’s mechanics.
it was such a detachment of the intense emotional rollercoaster he had gone through in the last couple of hours.
“holy shit it’s been less then 24 hours since I “woke” up as a 3 year old”. He pondered for a moment, how intense it had been and how tranquil it was now.
He looked at his mom who was basking in the sun after she was done tending the crops. She was a living breathing, beautiful mother figure.
he blushed when he thought of his mom as beautiful he never felt that before and he thanked Nirvana profusely that the feeling although profound and deep, was platonic.
He didn’t care what people did, as long as consent and mutual respect was observed but becoming a sexual deviant was on his blacklist. He had too much shit to figure out, too much to worry about.
“Don’t need to give that sadistic fuck any more ammo or opportunities to use”. He muttered.
still, he forced himself to read it all the stuff that bothered him, knowing full well that an understanding of this world was important.
It was like reading a book on physics. You never knew when you needed, the knowledge of critical velocity and geometry to yeet something into outer space.
action cost : 1 action cost quantifies what someone can do within a single second, his or her ability to react. When you take “action” such as attacking it will require a number of actions. If you have no “action” left you can be caught off guard, or flat footed. You regenerate 1 action per second. Primary action cost is roughly 1 second, quick, 0.75 and minor 0.5.
Round: 6 seconds on the battlefield
dice roll the outcome of your effort vs your opponents effort plus circumstance. What is referred to as a single dice roll in the description of your abilities is in fact not a dice roll but more like that idiom: toss up. It is to remind you, there are no certainties and luck is in fact involved. Advantage means your effort always count heavier in this “toss up”.
fury: a source of energy that may start accumulating when your life is threatened, classes closely linked to this source are of a martial nature and can accumulate more or make better use out of this source of power. At it’s base you can use your fury to amplify your offense and defense in combat. Experienced martial practitioners can use fury for a wide variety of things. Fury is often the source of the idiom. “To be more then the sum of your parts”
huh this reminds me a bit of hero points
Flourish: a complete surrender to the action to the point it will look supernatural to the untrained, many skills require your full focus most people can “flourish” for only the briefest of moments and it cannot be done continuously. Specialists make better use of this capacity and have developed many ways to increase their capacity to flourish in the most dire of circumstance. For most it takes roughly 6 seconds to regain a flourish.
Focus: the ability to tap into your latent reserves, the ambient mana that accumulates within your soul. Focus takes time to regenerate and should be used carefully. Spell casting
Attack:
action cost: 2. Type: Primary. opponent with the intent to hurt, disable or kill.
Defend:
action cost:1, type: Minor. Avoid or resist something that would do you harm.
“2 seconds to make a single attack? that makes zero sense”. Mark muttered. He got up and looked for a stick, he found one that his child mind registered as a “sword stick” and looked for an appropriate target and picked a tree.
He started whacking it. And although he started sweating and tire out, he whacked the tree at least once per second.
“what a piss poor resolve you got. Are you trying to give that tree a hug”?
Mark looked up. And his Father, Bradford had a weathered but razor sharp, two handed sword slung over his shoulder, he was covered in sweat.
”Im trying to figure out why attack is considered to take 2 seconds”.
“i dyung fo pffffigu oud why attack is condided do dak do sepunds”.
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“ah, you are trying to figure out why you can attack that tree with a stick repeatedly faster then what should be possible”?
Mark nodded.
“Thats because you are whacking the tree, not attacking it”.
“Tap into your fury. Even if it is lying still or not ignited right now, that is where one finds the resolve to kill. To strike to attack”.
“Do that first, then strike again. Take your time most children take a while before they can truly attack someone”.
“The act of killing is not a natural one”. Bradford gave Mark a look and Mark gulped.
Mark tried, and he got frustrated quickly. He tried tapping into his fury but nothing seemed to work. Should he activate rage?
No that ability took a massive amount of stamina and focus. 1 focus took a 10 minute nap to recover. He knew that instinctively.
He kept trying for a good 10 minutes until his tiny arms trembled.
”take 5 little one”. Bradford rumbled. “Hmm whatever it is you are doing so far, is too tame for you. Im loathe to say it but… instead of tapping into your fury try and stir it with an intense desire to hit that tree”?
”But first a break and a drink”. Bradford handed him a flask and Mark took a sip, he scrunched his face it was very very sour buttermilk.
Bradford rumbled a laugh, “yea not very tasty but your body will absorb it much better then just plain water. Alright enough lazing about, strike that tree! It offends you”!
Mark got up and decided perhaps instead of rage he should see if he could do something with his heart of fury passive.
He focused on his heart, a drum of war. BADUMP, BADUMP. Is this it? It sort of feels like rage but more gradual, he thought. Where rage was intense anger shaped into a razor sharp edge, lethal and volatile. Fury felt very Much like a flame that ignited.
He opened his eyes and saw his nemesis, the foul tree that needed to be felled. He roared like a little kitten and struck. the act of attacking clicked and the stick landed with a loud Thwack! he got back to his stance position almost naturally.
“Well done! Although i would normally consider it cheating using a discipline, heart of Fury is completely innate, so you pass”.
”Now try and hit that tree with 3 successive hits”.
and Mark did, he felt like he was made of lightning and struck three times, the attacks came out FAST. He heaved with his lungs as the sudden burst of movements caught up with him and he had to steady himself.
”Now dodge this”. Bradford’s fist flew towards his face, it wasn’t even that fast but his body was so sluggish he was practically looking at his dads fist getting closer to his face. He got flicked on the forehead and a red mark appeared. Barely a second later he could move normally again.
“to attack is not natural boy. The 2 second cost is what is required in energy supply that your body can handle within that time frame. An attack takes two. Using it all up Drains your body from the resonance that it absorbs while you breathe in the air”.
“ah you mean oxygen”.
“ah yuu men ojijen”.
”Yea, many distant travelers use the word oxygen. You are correct. We call it resonance but it’s semantics in the end”. Bradford sat down next to him and patted his back.
”I saw you gazing at your potential skills and classes and allow me to give you a bit of advise”.
“now everyone in this world has a background, im a noble, your mother is a farmer and you are a traveler”.
”this background comes with 3 skillsets that truly encapsulate you. And who you are as a person not all nobles come with the exact same skill sets some even come with 4 indicating rare talent.
For me my skill sets are Inspiration, athletic’s and insight. I have a perk called Deep sight which allows me to observe the eddies and waves of ambient mana and the spark of souls”.
he continued.
”for your mother its farming, animal handling and music”.
“for you, so far ive observed a frightful capacity for perception, athletic’s and a brash and brutish temperamental personality so im guessing intimidation”.
“this sets you up so ludicrously well for warrior i can’t even begin to describe how effective you would be. It leaves you with 4 slots for perks”.
“normally the most optimal way is to pick a class that allows you to use 4 of the initial skill slots for perks. 5 skill sets on total 2 from your class 3 from your childhood or in your case. background”.
“i believe it prudent for you to select a weapon skill set and bulwark. This will set you up for warrior or knight. Now im pretty decent at gauging people but you definitely strike me as the warrior although i wouldn’t be surprised if you ended up picking knight”.
“your mother certainly wouldn’t stop gushing over you if you did”. He elbows him playfully.
“now remember the following. You need to gain 1 experience in each of the skillsets that you have selected in your class screen. Not the ones from background or skill sets you gain at higher levels, in order to gain 1 character experience that is used to eventually hit the milestone of a new level”.
“do you understand? The more skill sets you pick into your first 6 skill slots the slower you will gain levels”
Mark nodded. He understood why people didn’t want to take too many skill sets at level 1, it gave them incredible variety and flexibility but also slowed leveling.
Bradford continues: “as a warrior or knight you would only require to train with your weapon and armor which you will be doing naturally as a warrior or knight anyway”
Bradford kept talking: “starting from level 2 most will gain 1 skill set or perk per level”.
“This may seem like a lot but most don’t go beyond level ten. And for them to be effective in their respective fields one usually needs all the perks they can get”.
”and there is also the attribute/health perk tax as it is commonly called. Everyone agrees you need to pick one of those. if you are a frontliner you will need lots of health perks, it’s what keeps you alive”.
mark nodded again.
“don’t get me wrong i understand how alluring it is to have Multiple skill sets”.
perks however are also much easier to train time wise. Gaining a completely new skill set, usually takes 1 or 2 years to gain any decent proficiency in. Perks usually only take a week or up to a month. And although perks are often very specific they are incredibly valuable”.
“no one wants to be stuck training a skill while they are putting food on the table”.
Bradford looked at his son and saw him absorbing the information. And was weighing on whether or not he should tell mark about what he could detect. He doubted the boy would take it well considering the reaction he had upon hearing the word Sadanis.
“Your case is a bit different. You have your… circumstances around your birth. And the fact is that you will have to decide how you are going to approach life”.
“Personally i think warrior would suit you but something tells me that knight would be something you would feel drawn to”.
”But there is of course the Dark Lord class. Which would mesh well with your Dominion attribute. Your minions which: you will gain, you should have no doubt about that. Hell animals can become your minions. I had to fight a Dark lord who had nothing but wolves”.
Bradford shudders, “seeing wolves infused with that mans power was a frightening ordeal”.
“The choice is ultimately yours.
But as a father i do have to point out one thing, that Blessing of strife you have. Take your time to read its description”.
Mark was stunned. What?
He raced through some of his screens and he found what he was looking for
Gift of strife.
you are blessed with the gift of strife and as such, although you require far more experience (10x the normal amount) you have the unique ability to develop and create more perks, skillsets or even discipline’s By yourself!
These additional perks or discipline’s do not count towards your slot limits!
additionally you gain 2 additional perk slots (not skill sets) per level! and an additional discipline slot whenever you gain a feat!
”wow sadanis. You really are a piece of shit”.
Bradford gave him some time to read and continued.
”now first the giant carrot on a stick. Creating your own skills. Forget it even says that. In order for you to create a perk or even discipline it would have to be completely unique. If it has even the slightest relation to another perk or discipline it will simply be considered a variation”.
“and it’s not like people without that blessing can’t create something it’s just way harder for us then you”.
“What’s far more important is that last tidbit. 3 perks per level in total. That means YOU, can take both the attribute and health perk at every even level. Having that extra health… i cannot begin to describe how vital that will be for you”.
Bradford grabbed Marks shoulders. “I know you can understand the absolute soul crushing game breaker it is having such a ludicrous XP requirement”. He took a deep breath and bore his gaze into Mark.
“The fact you can take BOTH a health perk AND an attribute perk. Makes the whole thing a trade off. Everything else is a bonus and thus he (sadanis) got away with calling it a blessing”.
Bradford slumps “but i won’t make any excuses little one, many with that “blessing”fell to despair”.
“i will help you to the best of my ability alright? And so will your mother”.
Mark looks up at him: “how do you know all this? Like how old are you and what level”?
“how do yu dow aww dis? Wijk hauw ojjjd aajyu ann wha wevel”?
Bradford’s eyes were enveloped in white hot flames an unmistakable aura blasted from him expelling all shadows in the surrounding area.
“Im a champion of light, tasked to bring hope to despair, light to darkness. I am 53 years old and my wevel”, he grinned and dropped the light show, “is eleven”.
“and before you ask, about 1 in 10 000 are beyond level 10. Most kingdoms have populations of .5 to 2 million”.
(aka less then 200 people in any given nation)
Bradford picked him up, mark suddenly realized he was feeling very tired, he looked at his stamina and he had dropped to half.
“its time for a nap, you only regain half your stamina during a night’s rest. No complaints you hear? You used and abused your body far too much for a 3 year old”.
“If you are bored check the class description and pick the skill sets you need. He takes a deep breath”.
“Due to your Tyrant role, you will have access to discipline’s connected to that role, that further abuse your high domination score”. He took a moment and looked at mark.
”Also look at the class Dark Lord”. Mark looked at Bradford utterly confused, a champion of light was saying what now?
“Now i must warn you, if you give in to the corruption that often afficts those that go that route…” he looked stern stoic and unreadable. “It will be a constant test of your character. You will not upset your mother with it, you hear”?
mark gave him a solemn nod.
“its your choice in the end… Marlin”.
ah he decided on a name, mark, Marlin thought to himself. A new name for a new beginning.
Name
Marlin
Role
Tyrant
Class
Warrior
Strength
10(14) +2
dexterity
10
constitution
15 (+2)
intelligence
10
wisdom
10
charisma
10(14) +2
Domination
18
Available points
0
LvL
1
Race
high kin
trait 1
savage
trait 2
hardy
trait 3
Ominous Star
background
Distant wanderer
Unreal perception
expert level
intimidation
proficient
athletic
proficient
hit points
36
stamina
195
class
Warrior
discipline’s
Heart of Fury
Rage
I can take it!
Overlord
skills and perks
Bulwark
Axes
-
-
-
-