Skill List

Skills are what you use to accomplish things! There are ten skills, plus three Magic skills not selectable to non-spellcasting jobs. They broadly describe the method you use to accomplish things, when combined with one of the three Approaches.


 * Attack
 * Defend
 * Strength
 * Vitality
 * Agility
 * Spirit
 * Charisma
 * Stealth
 * Resources

These are not exhaustive uses of each of the skills, but meant to give a general overview of how each can be used.

Attack
Attack an enemy, typically with physical weaponry. This can be swinging a sword or axe, thrusting a spear, or even a plain old punch.


 * Overcome: The most straightforward use of the Overcome approach-- this involves either directly attacking an opponent or an attempt to destroy some object or other part of the scenery.
 * Create Advantage: You’ll probably use Attack for most of the advantages you create in a physical conflict. Any number of special moves can be covered with advantages: a targeted strike to stun, a “dirty move,” disarming, and so on. You could even use Attack to assess another fighter’s style, spotting weaknesses in his or her form that you can exploit.
 * Endure: Attack is not typically used to Endure; you'll generally want Defend for that.

Example Attack stunts:


 * Heavy Hitter. When you succeed with style on an Attack and choose to reduce the result by one to gain a boost, you gain a full aspect with a free invocation instead.
 * Killing Stroke. Once per scene, when you force an opponent to take a Consequence, you can spend a fate point to increase the consequence’s severity (so mild becomes moderate, moderate becomes severe). If your opponent was already going to take a severe consequence, he must either take a severe consequence and a second consequence or be taken out.

Defend
Defense against enemy attacks. You might do this through blocking a punch, or a parry with a weapon, deflecting with a shield-- even calling a magic ward to absorb the damage is a plausible application of the skill.


 * Overcome: Generally speaking Defend isn't performed to overcome an obstacle-- you'll want Attack or another skill for this.
 * Create Advantage: Defend could be used to create an advantage by bolstering one's defenses, hunkering down for an attack, or taking advantage of terrain to make it harder for an opponent to gain an edge.
 * Endure: Defend is going to be one of the more commonly-used Endure skills in a conflict, as it represents directly protecting yourself from an enemy's attacks.

Example Defend stunts:


 * Backup Weapon. Whenever someone’s about to hit you with a Disarmed situation aspect or something similar, spend a fate point to declare you have a backup weapon. Instead of a situation aspect, your opponent gets a boost, representing the momentary distraction you suffer having to switch.
 * Dazing Counter. When you succeed with style on a defend action against an opponent’s Fight roll, you automatically counter with some sort of nerve punch or stunning blow. You get to attach the Dazed situation aspect to your opponent with a free invoke, instead of just a boost.

Strength
Strength is used for brute force, such as overpowering someone, or lifting heavy objects and climbing; it represents the character’s natural physical aptitudes, such as raw strength and endurance.


 * Overcome: You can use Strength to overcome any obstacles that require the application of brute force—most often to overcome a situation aspect on a zone—or any other physical impedance, like prison bars or locked gates. Of course, Strength is the classic skill for arm-wrestling matches and other contests of applied strength, but isn't used for fighting (that's what Attack is for).
 * Create Advantage: Strength has a lot of potential for advantages in physical conflict, usually related to grappling and holding someone in place, making them Pinned or Locked Down. You might also use it as a way of discovering physical impairments possessed by the target—grappling the old mercenary tells you that he has a Bum Leg or some such.
 * Endure: Though you don’t generally use Strength to defend against attacks, you can use it to provide active opposition to someone else’s movement, provided you’re in a small enough space that you can effectively use your body to block access. You might also interpose something heavy and brace it to stop someone from getting through.

Example Strength stunts:


 * Grappler. +2 to Strength rolls made to create advantages on an enemy by wrestling or grappling with them.

Vitality
Vitality is your endurance and ability to withstand injury; one of the benefits of Vitality is that a character gains +1 Stress box past the starting three for each rank of Vitality they possess.


 * Overcome:
 * Create Advantage:
 * Endure:

Example Vitality stunts:


 * Take the Blow. You can use Vitality to defend against attacks made with fists or blunt instruments, though you always take 1 shift of Stress on a tie.
 * Tough as Nails. Once per session, at the cost of a fate point, you can reduce the severity of a moderate consequence that’s physical in nature to a mild consequence (if your mild consequence slot is free), or erase a mild consequence altogether.

Agility
The Agility skill represents your character’s general level of physical fitness, whether through training, natural gifts, or genre-specific means (like magic or genetic alteration). It’s how good you are at moving your body. As such, it is a popular choice for nearly any action-y character. You can also use Agility to do small tricks of sleight-of-hand and misdirection.


 * Overcome: Agility allows you to overcome any obstacle that requires physical movement—jumping, running, climbing, swimming, etc. If it resembles something you’d do in the decathlon, you roll Agility. You use overcome actions with Agility to move between zones in a conflict if there’s a situation aspect or other obstacle in your way. You also roll Agility to chase or race in any contests or challenges that rely on these types of activities.
 * Create Advantage: When you’re creating an advantage with Agility, you’re jumping to high ground, running faster than the opponent can keep up with, or performing dazzling acrobatic maneuvers in order to confound your foes.
 * Endure: Agility is a catch-all skill to roll for defense in a physical conflict, against close-quarters and ranged attacks, when attempting to avoid an attack rather than stop it. You can also use it to defend against characters trying to move past you, if you’re in a position to physically interfere with whoever’s making the attempt.

Example Agility stunts:


 * Sprinter. You move two zones for free in a conflict without rolling, instead of one, provided there are no situation aspects restricting movement.
 * Hardcore Parkour. +2 to overcome actions with Agility if you are in a chase across rooftops or a similarly precarious environment.

Spirit
The Spirit skill represents your character’s general level of mental fortitude, the same way that Vitality represents your physical fortitude.


 * Overcome: You can use Spirit to pit yourself against obstacles that require mental effort. Puzzles and riddles can fall under this category, as well as any mentally absorbing task, like deciphering a code.
 * Create Advantage: You can use Spirit to place aspects on yourself, representing a state of deep concentration or focus.
 * Endure: Spirit is the main skill you use to defend against mental attacks, representing your control over your reactions, as well as against Magic skills, to represent your innate magic resistance.

Example Spirit stunts:


 * Strength From Determination. Use Spirit instead of Strength on any overcome rolls representing feats of strength.
 * Hard Boiled. You can choose to ignore a mild or moderate consequence for the duration of the scene. It can’t be compelled against you or invoked by your enemies. At the end of the scene it comes back worse, though; if it was a mild consequence it becomes a moderate consequence, and if it was already moderate, it becomes severe.

Charisma
Charisma is used for all manner of social interaction-- whether deceiving others, buttering them up, placating them, or browbeating them into submission. If you're trying to use words and presence to sway someone to your side, this is the skill to use.


 * Overcome: Use Charisma to charm or inspire people to do what you want, or to establish a good connection with them. Use Charisma to bluff your way past someone, or to get someone to believe a lie, or to get something out of someone because they believe in one of your lies.
 * Create Advantage: Use Charisma to establish a positive mood on a target or in a scene or to get someone to confide in you out of a genuine sense of trust; similarly it can be used to deceive them or intimidate them. You could pep talk someone into having Elevated Confidence, or feint in a swordfight, putting an opponent Off-Balance and setting you up for an attack. You can also create advantages representing momentary emotional states, like Enraged, Shocked, or Hesitant. Your target opposes with Spirit.
 * Endure: Charisma is mostly used for defending yourself against things like slander or enemies trying to turn people against you.

Example Charisma stunts:


 * Demagogue. +2 to Charisma when you’re delivering an inspiring speech in front of a crowd. (If there are named NPC s or PC s in the scene, you may target them all simultaneously with one roll rather than dividing up your shifts.)
 * Lies upon Lies. +2 to create a Charisma advantage against someone who has believed one of your lies already during this session.

Stealth
The Stealth skill allows you to avoid detection, both when hiding in place and trying to move about unseen. It can also be used for disguises, or for burglary attempts and thievery.


 * Overcome: You can use Stealth to get past any situation that primarily depends on you not being seen. Sneaking past sentries and security, hiding from a pursuer, avoiding leaving evidence as you pass through a place, and any other such uses all fall under the purview of Stealth.
 * Create Advantage: You’ll mainly use Stealth to create aspects on yourself, setting yourself in an ideal position for an attack or ambush in a conflict. That way, you can be Well-Hidden when the guards pass by and take advantage of that, or Hard to Pin Down if you’re fighting in the dark.
 * Endure: You can use this to foil attempts to pinpoint you or seek you out, as well as to try to throw off someone trying to track you.

Example Stealth stunts:


 * Face in the Crowd. +2 to any Stealth roll to blend into a crowd. What a “crowd” means will depend on the environment—a subway station requires more people to be crowded than a small bar.
 * Ninja Vanish. Once per scene, you can vanish while in plain sight by spending a fate point, using a smoke pellet or other mysterious technique. This places the Vanished boost on you. While you’re vanished, no one can attack or create an advantage on you until after they’ve succeeded at an overcome roll with Notice to suss out where you went (basically meaning they have to give up an exchange to try). This aspect goes away as soon as you invoke it, or someone makes that overcome roll.

Resources
Resources describes your character’s general level of material wealth in the game world and ability to apply it. This might not always reflect cash on hand; it can also be tools or useful items on one's person. This skill exists to give you a basic, easy way to handle wealth as an abstraction without getting into minutiae or bookkeeping.


 * Overcome: You can use Resources to get yourself out of or past any situation where throwing money at the problem will help, such as committing bribery or acquiring rare and expensive things. Challenges or contests might involve auctions or bidding wars. It can also be used to have the right tool on hand for a job-- such as having a crowbar on hand to smash a crate.
 * Create Advantage: You might use Resources to grease the wheels and make people more friendly, whether that represents an actual bribe (I Scratch Your Back...) or simply buying drinks for people (In Vino Veritas). You can also use Resources to declare that you have something you need on hand, or can quickly acquire it, which could give you an aspect representing the object.
 * Endure: Resources isn't usually used to defend against attack, but in a pinch, could be used to offset the damage from an attack by producing a Hi-Potion or an Ether from your personal effects at just the right time.

Example Stealth stunts:


 * Money Talks. You can use Resources instead of Rapport in any situation where ostentatious displays of material wealth might aid your cause.
 * Man About Town. Twice per session, you may take a boost representing a windfall or influx of cash.

Magic
Magic skills can't be taken voluntarily; they are granted by taking a magic-using Job. When casting a spell, any common Final Fantasy spell can be chosen-- Thunder, Aero, Cure, Barrier, and so on; casting higher-level variants of these spells, however, takes extra time compared to the weaker versions.

A second-level spell (Fira, Cura) will require two Magic rolls across two turns, and a third-level spell (Thundaga, Aeroga) requires three Magic rolls over the course of three turns. The results of these rolls are cumulative-- casting Blizzara and getting 2 successes on the first roll, then 3 on the second will create an overall total of 5 successes on the final effect.

Black Magic
The purview of the Black Mage, providing mastery over elemental magic tuned towards destructive power. Black Magic is usually used for controlling the elements and dealing damage.


 * Overcome: Offense is the most straightforward use of Black Magic, by striking a foe down with fire and ice. It can also be used to remove environmental obstacles or overcome parts of a scene-- for instance, by blowing a door off its hinges with Fira or shattering a crate into splinters with Thunder.
 * Create Advantage: Black Magic can be used to create advantages by using the elements for enduring effects, such as creating a Wall of Ice to hinder foes.
 * Endure: Black Magic is rarely used to defend against attack, but can be used for this by setting effects up in advance through Create Advantage.

Special: The Black Mage stunt Black Magic allows elemental aspects to be created on rolls, including Overcome rolls, for free before successes are calculated; when used against an opponent with the appropriate vulnerability (such as Weakness to Lightning on a Lightning aspected attack), that aspect can be invoked for free.

White Magic
As a hallmark of the White Mage, White Magic provides healing and protection, as well as some control over Wind, Stone, and Holy energies.


 * Overcome: White Magic is generally not used to attack, although curative magic and holy power can be used offensively against undead and voidsent. Using White Magic to attack will usually be via casting Dia, Aero, or Stone. Healing an ally is also a common application of Overcome.
 * Create Advantage: White Magic can be used to Create Advantage in a similar way as Black Magic, by making enduring effects with elements-- a Strong Wind to hold back incoming arrows, or a Wall of Stone to stop attacks entirely.
 * Endure: Unlike Black Magic, White Magic can be used to defend in a more direct way, such as by creating a temporary Barrier to resist damage, or a Shell against magical attack.

Special: The White Magic stunt allows the skill to be used for healing with Overcome--the skill is rolled at Moderate to heal stress boxes, or Hard to heal consequences. Only one stress box or consequence is healed per roll.

Grey Magic
Grey Magic covers the areas in between black and white, typically being geared towards utility, as well as helping allies or hindering enemies without directly harming or healing either. It is also the domain of summoning magic and time magic, as used by Summoner s and Time Mage s respectively.


 * Overcome: The applications of Grey Magic are varied; this may be the Summoner calling upon an eikon to move rubble out of the way, or of the Blue Mage using the Goblin Punch he observed in battle.
 * Create Advantage: Most Grey Magic will fall under the realm of Create Advantage; this is the domain of buffing one's allies through positive aspects (Regen, Haste, Protect, and so on), or of weakening one's foes with negative aspects (Blind, Slow, Poison, Gravity).
 * Endure: Much like Black Magic, Grey Magic rarely defends directly, relying more on setting up aspects in advance to call upon in times of need.