Talents

#mechanics #character #progression

A Talented Champion

As you venture, you will amass experience and practice. Naturally, you may choose how your character adapts to the conditions using talents.

Talent trees, much like those your species has, are broken into branches and those are further broken into tiers. Every species has a two-branch talent tree, each branch containing four tiers. Each subspecies has a single-branch tree with three tiers.

Beyond your species, there are five core trees that you can take talents from. These vary greatly in what they offer, and none of them have any requirements barring two: to have access to a talent, you must have each talent of the lower tier within that branch. For instance, in regards to the #Warfare core tree, you cannot take the Recovery talent until you have already taken the Swift Strike talent followed by the Hasty Attacks talent.

Core Talents

All players, and even some creatures, have access to the core talent trees. There are five total, each specializing in different facets of character development.

Warfare

The Warfare core tree offers offensive talents, broken into three categories: melee attacks, ranged attacks, and increasing attack speed. This tree prioritizes Body points.

The Warfare tree is a path towards combat and finesse in conflict. Talents from this tree are battle oriented, both general and specialized. It is the fine art of not only hitting things really hard, but also hitting things very quickly and in close succession

Tactics

The Tactics coretree is evasive, offering talents that increase Block Rating and Dodge Rating, as well as talents that increase one’s maneuverability in combat. This tree prioritizes Soul points.

The Tactics tree offers evasive maneuvers and technical outfittings. The talents in this tree push superior movement and reflexive defense, including not only increasing one’s blocking and dodging capabilities, but also offering alternative methods.

Innovation

The Innovation tree often works in line with crafting, though offers several benefits that aid both in crafting and in natural activity. This tree prioritizes Mind points.

The innovation tree is purely based in the heart of craft. One cannot craft powerful artifacts without first accepting these talents. Innovation not only allows the creation of custom equipment, but also advanced usage for said items as well as others, including dismantling and medical aid.

Magecraft

The Magecraft tree is unique in design, as talents offering new arcane artistries are scattered throughout the tree, while the remainder aid in versatility when casting. This tree prioritizes Mind points.

Sometimes, mana teaches the caster and the magecraft tree allows for this, the usage of magic and the arcane. Not only may one learn the arcane arts, but also how to cast more efficient spells with lower costs to suit a caster’s needs.

Influence

The Influence tree is for diplomatic approaches and full party support. This tree includes healing and rejuvenation talents, while granting one the ability to recognize and understand more complex social interactions. This tree prioritizes Soul points.

Social conducts and misconducts can both be utilized using the Influence tree. A practical usage of words can aid your allies and goad your opponents, perhaps even convince them all that you're somebody else entirely.

Prowess

Finally, the Prowess tree is the smallest, most generic, and the most expensive for its value. As a trade to this, once one has gained every talent in a Prowess branch, they may start that branch from the beginning again. This tree prioritizes Body points.

The Prowess tree is unique from any other: once one completes a branch, they may revisit it from the start. This tree is small and subtle, but offers infinite talents and usage of levels. Though it is slow, it is extremely powerful in the way of potential.

Spirituality

Homebrew warning

Homebrew

Spirituality talent tree

In the world of a champaign, there are many gods who are willing to share a bit of authority to those mortals who deserve the connection to a god. The mortal will be called an "Adept" of a god and gain access to the respective talent branch.

Other two branches focus on occult and paranormal stuff in general, and can be found in your character sheet.

Specialist Talents

Beginning at a base level of 10 and followed by each 10 levels afterwards, your character is granted a specialist talent of your choice. These are cost-free talents that offer supplementary abilities. Often these are passive, but some active abilities exist.

Many talents, excluding some common variety, have special requirements you must meet in order to take them on. You must meet those requirements upon reaching a 10th level, otherwise that talent is deemed unavailable until the requirement is met. A prerequisite may be anything from a minimum Subtrait score, acquiring a previous specialist talent, having a specific core talent, as well as others.

If you're unsure of what specialist talent to take, consider checking the Species Specialist Talents. Every species has one specialist talent specific to them; beyond that, there is a specialist talent centered around each subtrait, called Skill Specialist Talents. For instance, if your character is centered around Power, the Iron Gripped talent may be suitable. None of the Skill Specialist Talents have requirements and many will increase their respective subtrait score by 1.

The most powerful talents are called Ultimate Specialist Talents. These talents boast extreme capability, but also have the massive requirement of mastering an entire talent tree. Which talent tree needs to be mastered is specific to each Ultimate Specialist Talent.

Basic Specialist Talents

Basic specialist talents are modest, offering lax ability with minimal requirements, such as another specialist talent or a minimum trait or subtrait score. Many of these talents are specific or niche, though synergistic with other abilities.

Skill Specialist Talents

These talents are each centralized around specific subtraits. Much like basic specialist talents, skill specialist talents don't have any requirements whatsoever. Each offers a modest advantage and most give a permanent boost to a subtrait.

Species Specialist Talents

Species specialist talents equate to a character growing and manifesting into their hereditary gifts, those of which may not be so obvious without experience. Each of these talents are specific to a species, and one's species serves as a prerequisite for each.

Fabrication Specialist Talents

Fabrication specialist talents are a strong choice for craftsmen and artificers, offering more efficiency and versatility in craft. Each talent has a requirement based on the Innovation talent tree, specifically that of the longest branch. These talents present drastic potential for crafting speed and augmentation.

Arcane Specialist Talents

Arcane specialist talents are used to push a caster when putting spells together, allowing for significant versatility. Some require that the caster have a specific talent within the Magecraft tree, others require that the caster can simply cast spells at all, even less require specific trait scores.

Ultimate Specialist Talents

Without competition, ultimate specialist talents are the most powerful specialist talents a character may have access to. On the other side of the coin, these talents have the highest requirements of any other specialist talent, each requiring mastery of a single core talent tree. The raw effort of meeting the requirements is found worth the inhuman raw capability offered. A creature with multiple of these talents would no longer be considered fully mortal.