Skills

Picking herself off the floor, Alloy repeated the mantra in her head as the hulking ice titan approached. Dodge, swing, wait for it to attack, dodge, swing, wait for it to respond. If it moves to charge, get ready to jump out the way. If it breathes in, hunker down behind my shield. She took a deep breath, and raised her weapon: the dance continued.

Skills describe what your character is personally capable of. If it's something outside the realms of simple day to day existence, chances are there's a Skill for it. As standard, your characters are usually as good as the average person at day to day activities without having taken a Skill in that area. For each Skill Tree, we have given an idea of what we'd expect your character to be able to do in this area without taking the Skill. Skill Points are then yours to spend wherever you want to improve on that base.

At Character Creation you have 5 points to spend on Skills. It costs 1 point to purchase any Skill. In Ultimate Monster Battle Arena, when you purchase Skills from a Tree, you must have at least one of the prerequisite Skills as shown in images. Note that some Skills have prerequisites that come from different Trees!

Jeff wants to create a character with the Monster Tracking Skill. He could spend 2 points and gain Basic Exploration and Monster Tracking, but he could also go through the Monsterology Tree and gain Basic Monsterology, Monster Behaviour, and Monster Tracking that way.

New Skills can be learned through Character Advancement. Tier 3 skills exist beyond the Trees shown here, but are only available through Character Advancement to characters with existing Tier 2 skills in that tree (when you gain such a skill, you will be told what Tier 3 skills you have access to).

You might find that during play your selection of Skills just doesn't fit what you were intending to do. Perhaps you focussed on Marketing but now you want to train Monsters. Perhaps you originally statted with plenty of Combat but what you really want to do is study Archaeotech. Worry not! Once only across the course of the game you may choose to Restat your character by spending a Major Action on a Training Montage: pick your new skillset and train through the night! This will happen as the first thing in your turnsheet and your new skills will be available for the rest of your actions.

When you Restat, you won't be able to access any Tier 3 Skills you didn't previously know about the existence of.

You know what Archaeotechnology looks like and if someone explains to you what something is and does you can probably use it for its intended purpose, but beyond that you won't have the foggiest idea what things do beyond “that bit glows” or “it looks like a spade”.

Given a piece of Archaeotech you can generally derive its intended purpose and use it in that way, but only that way. Using Archaeotech in new ways beyond your skillset at this point, but you won't need anyone to tell you which end is which on an energy spear! Archaeotech is, after all, about safely using technology you can't possibly understand.

Requires Basic Archaeotech

You've got a strong understanding of what Archaeotech is and does, and can use that understanding to start applying Archaeotech in new and exciting ways. You can work out ways to combine bits together to achieve something new - perhaps wiring the output of an Archaeotech Hairdryer to enhance a flamethrower, or attaching Archaeotech energy grids to a tripwire to make an even more vicious trap.

Requires Basic Archaeotech

Archaeotech starts life in the ground, but recovering the fragile and priceless goods is a careful job that you are skilled in. You can identify long-since buried Archaeotech and recover it without any risk to the incomprehensible workings.

Requires Basic Archaeotech or Repairs

Your understanding of Archaeotech has allowed you to learn to repair broken bits of this mysterious ancient technology. You still don't know exactly how it all works - perhaps nobody ever will - but you know which glowing colours are bad glowing colours, what noises are bad, and altogether how to fix up a damaged piece of Archaeotech back into working order.

You know how to strike a basic deal, and know the rough idea of how you might go about running a business of some sort, but ultimately the actual workings of day-to-day management: cash flow, income, negotiation, etc, is all a mystery to you.

With Basic Business you've got an idea of how to run a business without running it into the ground. You can spot a decent deal and a terrible one, you've got a grasp on what would be “good practice” and how to avoid anyone noticing the inevitable “bad practice”. Generally you can get along fine in the big wide world of Business.

Requires Basic Business or Marketing

You're well versed in the art of making a good deal, or making a bad deal look good to the chump you want to take it. You drive a hard bargain, and can generally get your way when making deals and agreements, so long as you're not too outrageous and don't come up against someone who also knows what they're doing.

Requires Basic Business or Sneaking

When you sign a contract you agree to a list of things you won't do. You are skilled in the art of doing every single one of those things without getting caught. You can cover your tracks easily whether cooking the books metaphorically or literally, and your shadier practices will be a lot harder to detect.

Requires Basic Business

While you can get far in business being loud and confident, it pays to actually know what you're talking about. Your understanding of business and legal terms is exceptional, and even if you're lying through your teeth about what you're saying, you know how to phrase it and wrap it in contractual terms so far that even when you're incredibly wrong, you're technically incredibly right.

You can appreciate the finer things in life, and may cheer yourself up with a bit of colouring in or humming a good tune, but you lack the creative spark that allows other people to make something exciting and new from everyday items.

You can create things that improve quality of life, that inspire and bring wonder to people. Your art is decent, your musical ability decent, and your cooking ability enough to bring a smile to people's faces with mundane ingredients. Note this doesn't allow you to create functional items, for that you would want to look at the Engineering tree.

Requires Basic Creativity or Wasteland Survival

Creating a pie from the small animals that scurry around the Wastes and the nooks in the city is one thing, but you've learned the art of taking the uniqueness of the Giant Monsters that roam and creating feasts and delicacies from them. You can create gourmet food from the carcasses of Monsters - maybe Giant Atomic Shrimp Cocktail, or a perfectly seasoned Velicowalrus steak - and have learned the art of quickly getting to grips with the particular way to cook a unique beast.

Requires Basic Creativity

Craft has so many facets, and you are exceptional in one. Perhaps you are an inspired painter, or a beautifully melodic singer, or even a carpenter of ornate furniture. Choose your specialism and your work in this field of crafty creativity will be stunning.

OC: When you take this Skill, pick a facet of Creativity in which you excel!

Requires Basic Creativity or Marketing

Words have power and that is power you wield with great skill - you can inspire, you can evoke emotion, though also your trash fan fiction is also something to be envied. You can capture the imagination with simply pen put to paper.

You can use most mundane mechanical things that you get your hands on, and can identify obvious problems with mechanical devices such as “there's a massive hole in the side of this armour” or “the chain isn't connected to the pulley”, but attempts to fix much more than the obvious and superficial will likely result in making matters worse.

With Basic Engineering you can work your head around most mundane mechanical objects and work out how to fix simple problems, or what you might need to do so. You're still outclassed when it comes to Archaeotech and Monster technology though, but you also know when to leave good enough alone, and you're skilled in repairing and, importantly, creating technology that you understand the principles behind.

Requires Basic Engineering or Mending Monsters

Your understanding of Engineering has given you insight into the workings of technological Monsters and you're able to apply this to fixing Tech-Based Monsters in the same way that a skilled Medic might mend a biological Monster. You can also apply this to wild experimentation, though a good plan might be an idea if you're going to stride out on this frontier!

Requires Basic Engineering or Archaeotech Repair

Your understanding of mechanics has given you insight into being able to repair pretty much all mundane mechanisms. You can identify what's broken, how to fix it, and go about it without risk to yourself or the machine at hand. Archaeotech is still beyond you though.

Requires Basic Engineering

Some specialise in utility mechanics such as vehicles or buildings - your focus is more in things that hurt people, and Monsters. You're able to rig together weapons both ranged and melee for the purpose of damaging Monsters and People alike, and can easily modify mundane weapons to achieve new more dangerous ends. You can also work on experimental weaponry which could be even more devastating (though maybe approach this with a plan on how not to explode everything).

You can find your way around the City of Bastion so long as you stick to the main streets, and if you found yourself out in the Wastes you could definitely head “toward the City” if you could see it or “in the direction of that big mountain”, though you know nothing about surviving in the Wastes themselves.

With Basic Exploration you can find your way around with relative ease. You're unlikely to get lost so long as you have landmarks, and with supplies, a map and a plan you could find your way about the Wasteland without getting lost or stranded.

Requires Basic Exploration or Monster Behaviour

Finding stationary destinations is one thing, but you're skilled in tracking down the more dynamic targets: Monsters. You can pick up the trail of Monsters and follow them, enabling you to track down your quarry with ease, and also to steer clear of Monsters you would prefer to avoid.

Requires Basic Exploration or Subterfuge

You can get about without being noticed. You're quiet, you're subtle, and you know how not to be seen. You can get in and out of somewhere without a trace, and can avoid being spotted by people you'd prefer didn't see you.

Requires Basic Exploration, Wasteland "Etiquette" or Creative Cooking

Most exploration into the Wasteland needs to be supported by an expedition to ensure supplies are available. You, however, have learned what it takes to survive on your own in the Wasteland and can make your own way: scavenging what supplies you need, keeping clear of unfriendly groups, and finding your way around the least hospitable areas of the world.

You're not defenceless exactly - you know what a gun looks like, and to avoid the sharp end of a sword or the pointy parts of a board with nails in it, but beyond that you're not going to have the best of luck in a fight with anyone who remotely knows what they're doing.

You can hold your own in a fight and have a base understanding of how most weapons work. Your experience is far from perfect, but you at least aren't helpless when the proverbial (or literal) shit hits the proverbial (or literal) fan.

Requires Basic Fighting, Monster Trapping or Monster Offensive Training

You've trained yourself in the art of going toe-to-toe with Giant Monsters. It's a very different beast to fighting other people, but you've gotten your head around how to survive, how to feint against a Monster twice your size, and how to avoid getting crushed into tiny pieces (for the most part). Even without other fighting experience, you're still going to be able to survive long enough to get away.

Requires Basic Fighting

You have a strong understanding of Melee weapons and how to use them in a fight. In hand-to-hand combat with a reasonable sword, chainsaw, axe, spiky stick, etc you can handle yourself fine, though bear in mind that if the hands you're fighting are 10ft long then that might not be enough to save you!

Requires Basic Fighting

You have a strong understanding of Ranged weapons and how to use them in a fight. You know how best to fire rifles in the right direction, and how best to operate more explosive weapons should you find them. Bear in mind that mundane weapons, while strong, may not necessarily pierce the hides of tougher Monsters!

Let's be real: you know that when the blood is coming out of the person to stop it from going out, and that bandages are probably involved, but beyond that you're a bit stumped.

Basic First Aid gives you the nous of human anatomy enough to be able to say which bits should go back where when they fall off, and how to stop people from dying long enough to get them to someone who can properly put them back together. You won't do any harm, but you're unlikely to be able to help with anything more than superficial.

Requires Basic First Aid

Your understanding of the human body is sufficiently detailed that you can start to perform more in-depth, invasive and, most importantly, highly experimental procedures: tasks such as stitching limbs back on and extensive body modifications are no longer out of your grasp, and you have a good understanding of the consequences such procedures will likely carry.

Requires Basic First Aid, Inadvisable Monster Surgery or Monster Tech

You've got a reasonable enough understanding of the basic principles behind most biological monsters (“bits should not fall off, usually”, “goo should stay inside, usually”, “roaring in pain is bad, usually”) that you can work to mend the maladies that befall Monsters (such as laceration, decapitation, explode-ation, and so on). You've ultimately still no idea how Monsters work on a fundamental level, but that's not so important when it comes to putting them back together.

Requires Basic First Aid

You've got a good enough understanding of how people work (physically, that is) that you can generally put them back together so long as you have the right equipment (or improvise a decent solution when you don't). You're a doctor, not a miracle-worker though, so don't expect to be bringing people back from the dead.

See also: Monster Training

Without Monster Training, going into the same place as an untamed Monster is generally considered a bad idea that will result in your skeleton shortly being in considerably more pieces than it was before. Going into the same place as a tame or docile Monster is probably less hazardous to your health, but you'll struggle to get it to obey you.

Basic Monster Training allows you to begin trying to tame Monsters and begin training tamed Monsters to follow instructions. Entering the same place as a Monster isn't a foolhardy mission any more, though you may struggle to get it to follow specific commands.

Requires Basic Monster Training

You are adept in training Monsters to better themselves in Defensive Fighting. With a plan of how you're training them, you can train Monsters in effective defensive moves and defensive strategies.

Requires Basic Monster Training or Monster Behaviour

You are adept in training Monsters to obey commands and behave themselves. With a plan of how you're training them, you can train Monsters to follow different commands outside the Arena, and to respect basic rules.

Requires Basic Monster Training or Fighting Monsters

You are adept in training Monsters to better themselves in Offensive Fighting. With a plan of how you're training them, you can train Monsters in devastating new attacks and aggressive battle tactics.

You recognise Monsters, and can recognise different types: biological, technological, fiery, gooey, charging at you with a look of intense rage, etc, but beyond that you've got little idea how they function.

With Basic Monsterology you can distinguish likely Monster capabilities from a glance and apply this knowledge to plan around them. You are aware of principles that seem to govern all Monsters, and given time to study one you could begin to decipher its attributes.

Requires Basic Monsterology or Mending Monsters

Monsters don't all work the same, but there are enough common principles that you've taught yourself how to start performing surgery on living Monsters: attaching new limbs, investigating lava sacs, modifications to sharpen and elongate spikes: there are all things you can attempt to do. Having a plan of how to stop the Monster performing inadvisable surgery on you with its face while you're doing the same to it is probably a good idea though.

Requires Basic Monsterology or Monster Obedience Training

You're skilled in the art of understanding why Monsters do what Monsters do. By studying a Monster you can determine its Strengths, its Weaknesses, its Special Moves and its capabilities.

Requires Basic Monsterology or Fighting Monsters

Your understanding of Monsters means that you're well versed in how to catch them with minimal risk to them and (more importantly) you. You can come up with a reasonable way to catch most Monsters, so long as you know roughly what sort of Monster you're coming up against (after all, a net is little use against a gas!)

You are as charming and convincing as the average person. How well your ideas and/or bald-faced lies are received by others will depend more on their biases and abilities than on any skill of yours.

Basic Persuasion gives you the ability to have others listen to you and for you to sound convincing in conversations, as well as the ability to lie more competently than the average person. The gift of the gab is not something that everyone possesses, but a few golden words can go far, in the right places.

OC Note: Persuasion will work well to convince NPCs of your opinions, and will make you sound more reasonable in turnsheet responses, but for obvious reasons won't work on other players in session or during emails.

Requires Basic Persuasion

You've got a knack for inspiring others and getting them to follow you. You're able to command the interest and, so long as you play your cards right, loyalty of groups: to organise them and to have them follow your instruction.

Requires Basic Persuasion, Bartering, or Writing

You know what sells, what doesn't, and how to make something look like it's worth having. You know that even the crappiest piece of scrap can be sold as “antique” given the right polish and the right words and know how to pick those exact words.

Requires Basic Persuasion or Wasteland Survival

Out in the Wasteland, people follow somewhat different social rules - intimidation and bluntness go far, but the finesse is often lost on those from Bastion. You understand the conduct, and the “etiquette” of holding a conversation with the people who live in the Wasteland - something that'll go far when trying to negotiate for goods (or your life).