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-[[start|Dice Mob Home]] > [[dice_mob_rules|Dice Mob Rules]] > [[skills|Skills]] > [[skill_descriptions|Skill Descriptions]]
-====== World Effects ======
-World effects involve effects upon the natural world over and above what a natural man could be expected to perform. Generally none of these skills would be available in universes without magic, technology akin to magic, supernatural elements, or superhuman powers, so taking any of these skills would be per the GMs judgment.
-Although these powers may be used as attacks in many cases, they aren't generally used simply as mechanisms for damaging an opponent. Instead they are ways of subverting natural laws and the laws of physics to better deal with the dangers of the world and accomplish the purposes of a particular campaign.
-^ Skill ^ Non-Proficient? ^ Dice Type ^ Effect in a Nutshell ^ Mana? ^
-| [[world_effects#air_manipulation|Air Manipulation]] | No | Standard Skill Check | Creating gusts of wind or pockets of air; generally no direct damage; can be used in conjunction with summoning | One |
-| [[world_effects#animals|Animals]] | Yes | Standard Skill Check | Characters have a general knowledge of animals and their habitats as well as ways of domesticating animals and treating and caring for domesticated animals; this skill is often combined with other skills including tracking, insight, trust, and summoning. | No |
-| [[world_effects#death|Death]] | No | Standard Skill Check, Standard Damage Roll, Standard Win-Loss Roll | Speaking with the dead, speaking with undead, assuming control over undead, determining the cause of death, sensing dead or dying bodies; see description for details and degree levels | Per degree |
-| [[world_effects#earth_manipulation|Earth Manipulation]] | No | Standard Skill Check; Standard Damage Roll | Create barriers; move earth; skill check required if difficult; bludgeoning damage; can be used in conjunction with summoning | One |
-| [[world_effects#fire_manipulation|Fire Manipulation]] | No | Standard Skill Check, Standard Damage Roll | Create funnels of fire; redirect fire; skill check if difficult; cause burning damage; can be used in conjunction with summoning | One |
-| [[world_effects#life|Life]] | No | Standard Skill Check | Bringing plants, animals, and humans back to life; detecting life | Per degree, Special |
-| [[world_effects#light_darkness|Light and Darkness]] | No | Standard Skill Check, Standard Damage Roll | Create light or darkness; skill check if difficult; can cause damage to some creatures with light sensitivity; can enhance stealth abilities of self or adversely affect those of an opponent | One |
-| [[world_effects#plants_and_fungi|Plants and Fungi]] | No | Standard Skill Check | Entangling or tripping someone with plant-life; growing plants to climb or to eat; speaking with plants; can be combined with summoning; skill check if difficult; acrobatics and balance apply to defensive rolls | One |
-| [[world_effects#sound|Sound]] | No | Standard Skill Check; Standard Damage Roll | Sound in environment is actually altered; sonic blast; silence | One |
-| [[world_effects#space|Space]] | No | Standard Skill Check | Teleportation of self or others; creating portals; can be used in conjunction with summoning | Per degree |
-| [[world_effects#time|Time]] | No | Standard Skill Check | Time slowing or even stopping and reversing at higher levels | Per degree |
-| [[world_effects#water_manipulation|Water Manipulation]] | No | Standard Skill Check | Create waves, funnel or push back water; skill check if difficult; generally no direct damage; can be used in conjunction with summoning | One |
-===== Air Manipulation =====
-Gusts of wind, forcing breathable air into otherwise unbreathable places, turning away projectiles, pushing away poisonous and disease-ridden vapors, and using the air to fly are among the powers of air manipulation. Each effect takes an action and holding an effect already initiated takes a passive action.
-Generally the effects of air manipulation don’t cause damage directly but that doesn't mean that damage cannot be caused at all by the use of air. Knocking someone off a cliff or sending something dangerous flying at an opponent can most definitely cause damage.
-When used for flying, normally special clothing for catching the wind is required. And the amount of wind required is usually enough to let everyone know that someone manipulating the air is present, so stealth is usually fairly impossible to accomplish.
-When used to turn away projectiles, only slower projectiles such as arrows, bolts, and darts are affected. Bullets generally aren't unless they're shot from very long distance, and even then an area of effect would likely be required to modify it's trajectory enough to miss. When used against appropriate projectiles, a defensive action can be used and the missile is considered to have missed.
-When combined with the summoning ability, air elementals can be summoned.
-===== Animals =====
-Characters have a general knowledge of animals and their habitats as well as ways of domesticating animals and treating and caring for domesticated animals; this skill is often combined with other skills including tracking, insight, trust, and summoning. Most actions can be performed without a skill check, but difficult actions would require one. Domesticating an already wild creature would involve the Trust skill and couldn't be performed with this skill alone.
-===== Death =====
-Speaking with the dead, speaking with undead, assuming control over undead, determining the cause of death, sensing dead or dying bodies. When used in conjunction with summoning, undead can be raised. Even death magic causing instant death is not beyond a master of death. Unless otherwise specified, these skills require a full round.
-Necrotic damage requires an action and causes personal damage with a standard damage roll. Like nearly all skills, this is of course limited based on the degree and what can be affected (e.g. touch, point-to-point, area of effect). Necrotic damage cannot be immediately healed by natural means.
-As life is the antithesis of death, a character cannot have a skill over both life and death.
-^ Degree ^ Abilities ^
-| First | Speaking with the recently dead or undead. Cause necrotic damage. |
-| Second | Detecting recently dead or dying bodies within range and some sense of how they died (if it isn’t obvious by the scene itself) |
-| Third | Detecting bodies much longer dead. ((When summoning the undead, this is generally the degree desired because of the increased ability to find dead bodies to animate. Summoning undead can be done as early as first degree with the summoning power and visible dead bodies.)) |
-| Fourth Degree: | Undead within the area of effect and range can automatically be de-animated through a successful Win-Loss vs Self roll |
-| Fifth Degree: | A successful Win-Loss vs Self can automatically kill an opponent no matter their hit points. ((In the case of attacks on player characters, they are knocked unconscious.)) ((This can also reduce a character with a skill over Life to zero hit points without an additional skill check.)) |
-===== Earth Manipulation =====
-Moving earth around, detecting things within nearby earth, forming earth into usable weapons, tools, armor, or other items are among the powers of earth manipulation. It should go without saying that earth must exist nearby for this to be effective. Each effect takes an action and holding an effect already initiated takes a passive action.
-The effects of earth manipulation may cause bludgeoning or piercing damage if used as an attack with damage calculated as a standard damage roll.
-If used as protection using a defensive action, earth offers standard defense dice vs piercing, slashing, bludgeoning, burning/acid, freezing, and electrical attacks.
-When combined with the summoning ability, earth elementals can be summoned.
-===== Fire Manipulation =====
-Moving fire from one place to another and increasing or decreasing the strength of a fire are among the powers of fire manipulations. It should go without saying that fire must exist nearby for this to be effective. Each effect takes an action and holding an effect already initiated takes a passive action.
-Although this could be mistaken for the burning skill, it isn't really that. The effects of fire manipulation can cause burning damage with a standard damage roll, but whereas burning is more the ability to generate searing and damaging heat out of nothing to a point where items can spontaneously combust, fire manipulation is more the ability to use existing fire to do whatever needs to be done.
-When combined with the summoning ability, fire elementals can be summoned.
-===== Life =====
-A character proficient in life has the ability to detect life in creatures and plants as well as has the ability to bring creatures and plant life back from the dead. Bringing plant life back from the dead simply requires mana equal to the degree required to accomplish it.
-Bringing life back to creatures, however, is different. Unlike most skills, bringing creatures back to life drains actual hit points from the person using the skill at a rate equal to the degree required. Hit points lost will be return with at least six hours of rest. Any creature brought back from the dead only has one hit point and must sleep for a day or more to recover most of their functions. Only plants and creatures dead for less than three days can be revived. Others are too long dead to return to life.
-At higher levels, a skilled master of life can even prevent themselves from dying.
-As life is the antithesis of death, a character cannot have a skill over both life and death.
-^ Degree ^ Revive Plants ^ Revive Creatures ^ Additional Abilities ^
-| First | Flowers | | Detect life in plants and creatures, even if they're adept at feigning death (requires touch) |
-| Second | Shrubs, Bushes | Tiny | A character will not drop below one hit point on the first attack that would do so. If they don't recover hit points prior to a second attack, they will be dropped unconscious on the subsequent attack. |
-| Third | Small Trees | Very Small, Small | Immune to Necrotic Damage |
-| Fourth | Flower patches, gardens | Medium | Life can be detected within an area of effect equal to the degree and level per the General Rules, including invisible creatures. |
-| Fifth | Large Trees | Large | Character cannot drop below one hit point unless they fail a skill check. |
-| Sixth | | Extra-Large | |
-| Seventh | | Gargantuan | |
-===== Light and Darkness =====
-Creating light in the dark, adversely affecting the undead, thrusting a battlefield into chaotic darkness, creating circumstances favorable to blindfighters, hiding in shadows, and other stealthy activities are all within the abilities of a character skilled in light and darkness.
-Characters with this ability can see in the dark without aid and are not affected by sudden changes between light and darkness, both of these abilities without the use of mana. Imbuing this ability on others, however, would however require the use of mana appropriate to the degree being affected.
-Races with a weakness to light are affected as if this is a standard damage roll, and because this generally affects a weakness, the defenders often get no defending dice unless they manage to find something in the environment to obstruct the direct line of the light.
-Light is not limited to white light. Any color within the light spectrum, which is to say all of them besides black, can be created with this power, and characters with this skill often have an affinity for a certain color over all others.
-===== Plants and Fungi =====
-Entangling an opponent with vines, weeds, or other plant life, growing plants to climb or to eat, speaking with plants, identifying plants and fungi. There isn't really any limit to what can be done with this skill when it comes to plants except whatever limitations the GM places on this except that there must be plant life available to affect unless used in conjunction with the summoning ability.
-Generally plants are not very intelligent, so speaking with them can only yield limited results such as understanding that a creature brushed by a particular plant recently or that a nearby trail is commonly used by possible food sources.
-When used to entangle an opponent, the standard entrapment effect is used, and the type of the plant in the vicinity should be able to be used to entrap an opponent.
-When used in combination with summoning, plants can be grown to eat or can be used as minions though careful control has to be maintained over them or they will lose their animation and just become regular plants again as they have no real mind of their own.
-===== Sound =====
-The sound skill involves the creating of sound as well as the absence of sound. It ranges to anything from modifying conversations to creating deafening claps of thunder and from totally removing any sound to allow a party to pass undetected to amplifying nearby sounds sound the character can understand them. But a player shouldn't be limited to just these effects. Anything related to sound should be possible to a character with this skill.
-Like most skills, the general rules apply, so there's only a limited amount that a first skill degree user can do, usually involving limiting or enhancing sound on his immediate person.
-At later degrees, however, much more can be accomplished.
-When conversations are modified, only a successful skill check is required unless there is some reasonable reason why an opponent might notice the change, such as reading lips and seeing the words don't match. In such cases, the Win-Loss check would be made against Reading Others.
-Thunder claps can cause dice of bludgeoning damage equal to the standard damage roll, and have the additional effect of deafening opponents with more losses than wins when treated as a Win-Loss check. Thunderclaps require the ability to affect an area, so higher degrees are required for this and similar effects.
-===== Space =====
-Skill over space includes the ability to interact with other planes and dimensions including summoning from those planes (if the caster also has the summoning skill), teleporting, creating and navigating wormholes, creating pocket dimensions for storing things, and other abilities. The mana cost is per person or affected area and maintaining the effect costs a passive action as well as additional mana per person or affected area. Because of the dangers inherent in the use of this skill, rolling no successes should cause something unwanted and dangerous, perhaps even life-threatening, to happen.
-**First Degree:** Ability to move self up to one meter per level in any direction within line of sight of the current location. If used as a defensive action, this results in an automatic miss. Must be active or defensive action.
-**Second Degree:** Can move other people as long as he or she is touching them. Can also be a passive action. People not wanting to be teleported must make a Win-Loss check using Defense of Self.
-**Third Degree:** Ability to create portals that people can walk through. Distance traveled is limited by level but doesn’t have to be within line of sight as long as the place on the other end of the portal is well-known. Maintenance of portals requires a passive action and mana. Must be to the same plane or dimension.
-**Fourth Degree:** Mass teleportation is possible as long as all people are in the area of effect. Touch is no longer required as long as they are within range of the spellcaster. Character must have been there, but it doesn’t have to be well-known.
-**Fifth Degree:** Dimensional travel is possible by self or through creation of portal and maintenance of portals only requires a free action, so pocket dimensions and wormhole creation is now possible.
-**Sixth Degree:** Planar travel is possible. Knowledge of the “landing” location can be obtained by some other means other than having been there, such as astral projection, clairvoyance, a very clear photograph, a masterfully drawn or rendered painting, a video feed, and other means.
-===== Time =====
-Skill over time includes the ability to hasten or slow oneself or others in comparison to the real flow of time or to view a place at a specific instant of time, if that time is known.
-Slowing and speeding up time is available to first degree users, increasing or decreasing the number of actions (relative to others) by one action per degree and costing one mana per opponent affected. Such effects, if used often however, have been known to abnormally age the creature affected.
-Because it is so difficult, stopping time requires a fourth degree user at at least four successes on a standard skill check.
-Reversing time requires a sixth degree user and requires at least six successes on a standard skill check. Even with a success, it is extremely dangerous because it can cause paradoxes with effects only the GM could know. When used in conjunction with illusion abilities, this particular ability could be advantageous for reconstructing a crime scene in such a way that the character and others can figure out what happened, but it would require the skill of time with an area of effect element.
-Because of the dangers inherent in the use of this skill, rolling no successes should cause something unwanted and dangerous, perhaps even life-threatening, to happen.
-===== Water Manipulation =====
-Water-breathing, manipulating water, purifying water, using water against fire and earth elements are among the powers of water manipulation. It should go without saying that water must exist nearby for this to be effective. Each effect takes an action and holding an effect already initiated takes a passive action.
-The effects of water manipulation are unlikely to cause much damage unless they are used to float obstacles at an opponent, but that isn't to say that the water manipulator is powerless against opponents. Water can be used to blind, slow, and even drown opponents if used properly.
-When combined with the summoning ability, water elementals can be summoned as can fresh, drinkable water.