Skills

Printable cards Skill Cards 34

Ix uses an expanded skill list built on the Exodus NDS core. Several core skills have been split into distinct disciplines to reflect the world of Dort, a place where the difference between a cavalry charge and a ship-to-ship boarding matters, where the lore of a ruined dungeon and the lore of the outer planes draw on entirely different bodies of experience. Three casting skills (Arcana, Divine, and Primal) cover magical practice and are used directly when casting spells. The result is 34 skills with sharper edges at the boundaries that matter most in this setting.

How Skills Work

Skills are ranked 0–5. A skill at rank 0 means no dedicated training; a skill at rank 5 represents the apex of mortal capability. Your skill rank, combined with the linked Characteristic, determines the dice you contribute to a check. See Chapter Twelve (Core Rules Primer) for the full dice pool construction procedure.

Skills are linked to a Characteristic. When you make a skill check, you build a pool from both the Characteristic and the Skill together. Profession skills (those on your Background or Career list) cost less XP to advance. See Chapter Five for how profession skills work.

The Ix Skill List

Skill Descriptions

Combat Skills

Unarmed — Might

Fighting without weapons: punches, kicks, grapples, holds, throws, and improvised body-as-weapon techniques. The default unarmed attack is Damage = Might, Crit 5, Range Engaged. Does not cover weapons of any kind, including natural weapons granted by species. Those use the appropriate melee skill or a species ability.

Light Melee — Might

Split from core Melee.

Attacking in close quarters with weapons designed for one-handed or quick use: daggers, short swords, rapiers, hand axes, clubs, maces, and similar arms. Covers quick successive strikes, off-hand fighting, and close-quarters draw-and-attack. Does not cover weapons requiring two hands or significant force behind a sweeping blow. Those are Heavy Melee.

Heavy Melee — Might

Split from core Melee.

Attacking in close quarters with weapons designed for power, reach, or two-handed grip: longswords, greatswords, battleaxes, polearms, warhammers, spears, and similar arms. Covers armor-defeating strikes, reach exploitation, and mounted charges. Does not cover weapons designed for quick single-hand use. Those are Light Melee.

Light Ranged — Agility

Split from core Ranged. Covers carried, drawn, and thrown arms.

Attacking at range with shortbows, longbows, slings, hand crossbows, thrown weapons, javelins, and other arms that can be drawn, loaded, and fired without external support. Covers moving fire, mounted archery, and quick successive shots. Does not cover weapons that require bracing, a stand, or a crew. Those are Heavy Ranged.

Heavy Ranged — Agility

Split from core Ranged. Covers weapons requiring setup, bracing, or significant preparation.

Attacking at range with heavy crossbows, shoulder-mounted siege-adjacent arms, heavy firearms if present, and weapons that must be braced, set, wound, or otherwise prepared before firing. Covers the slow, deliberate, hard-hitting end of ranged combat. Does not cover weapons that can be drawn and fired from movement. Those are Light Ranged.

Physical Skills

Athletics — Might

Climbing, swimming, jumping, sprinting, lifting, breaking, forcing movement, and other strength-driven physical effort. For flying characters, Athletics covers sustained aerial movement: climbing altitude, powering through headwind, and maintaining speed over distance. The skill of the body under load. Does not cover fine motor precision or balance. Those are Reflexes.

Reflexes — Agility

Balance, tumbling, quick reactions, dodging hazards, slipping restraints, catching yourself while falling, and precise body control under pressure. For flying characters, Reflexes covers precise aerial maneuvering: tight turns, diving rolls, threading narrow gaps, and stopping short in three-dimensional space. The skill of the body in motion and in reaction. Does not cover raw strength or endurance. Those are Athletics and Fortitude.

Fortitude — Might

Resisting fatigue, pain, poison, disease, starvation, suffocation, harsh environments, and prolonged strain. The body's capacity to absorb and endure without breaking. Does not cover resisting fear or sudden mental pressure (Readiness), or sustained mental endurance and concentration under prolonged stress (Discipline).

Stealth — Agility

Moving unseen or unheard, hiding, shadowing, masking tracks, blending into cover, and avoiding notice. Does not cover manipulating locks or planting objects. Those are Subterfuge.

Awareness / Field Skills

This category covers skills of attention, readiness, and situational knowledge in the field. Subterfuge sits here by design: lockpicking and sleight of hand are covert physical disciplines that belong alongside stealth and street knowledge rather than with combat or technical craft.

Perception — Savvy

Noticing details, spotting hidden things, hearing danger, reading immediate surroundings, and catching what others miss. Perception answers: Do I notice it? Does not answer what a noticed thing means. That is Lore or the appropriate knowledge skill.

Readiness — Willpower

Acting under sudden pressure, staying alert, resisting surprise, keeping nerve before danger lands, and determining preparedness when a scene turns dangerous. The default defensive skill for resisting fear, intimidation, despair, coercion, and sudden mental pressure when the resistance is about nerve and composure. Other skills may apply: Lore against a curse-laden threat, Fortitude against supernatural physical dread. Readiness answers: Am I ready for it? Does not cover sustained mental endurance or prolonged resistance over time. That is Discipline.

Discipline — Willpower

The mental equivalent of Fortitude.

Sustained concentration, willpower under extended pressure, and resistance to prolonged stress. Where Readiness answers Am I ready for it? in the moment of sudden danger, Discipline answers Can I hold? across duration. Covers: maintaining concentration during ritual magic, complex spellwork, or tasks requiring extended mental focus; resisting sustained interrogation, psychological pressure, or coercive techniques applied over time; holding nerve through activities where mental endurance is the limiting factor; long watches, forced calm, suppressing instinct over hours rather than seconds; and resisting supernatural mental domination or possession that operates across rounds rather than as a single burst. Does not cover sudden alertness or reactive composure (Readiness), or physical endurance against environmental strain (Fortitude).

Survival — Savvy

Tracking, foraging, navigation, shelter, weather sense, wilderness travel, reading animal signs, calming and handling ordinary animals, and staying alive away from safety. Long-term animal training begins here: establishing trust with a wild or feral animal, reading its responses, and building the foundation of a working relationship is sustained Survival work. Once the animal has learned directed behaviors, maintaining and extending that training shifts to Leadership. Does not cover exotic or dangerous creatures, or the creature behavior of dungeon-dwelling monsters. That is Adventuring Lore.

Subterfuge — Agility

Lockpicking, sleight of hand, planting or lifting objects, escaping bonds, disabling simple traps or security, bypassing obstacles through covert physical manipulation. Does not cover moving without being seen. That is Stealth.

Streetwise — Savvy

Street codes, criminal networks, black markets, rumors, gangs, fences, smugglers, illicit services, risky contacts, and finding illicit goods or information outside formal channels. Works in any settlement (city, town, port, or frontier outpost) and aboard ships where a working criminal economy operates. In unfamiliar places it works with Bane Dice; the networks exist but you do not know the faces. Does not work in the open wilderness, isolated sea lanes with no port contact, or on the outer planes without significant prior exposure to those environments.

Knowledge / Technical Skills

Lore — Intellect

Unchanged from core. The scholar's knowledge of the world as it is and was.

Recalling history, cultures, places, lineages, institutions, laws, legends, customs, factions, and the shape of the known world. Also used to interpret clues and piece together what something means once noticed. Lore covers working with languages you already know: reading an inscription in a foreign tongue, identifying which language a document is written in, and translating known languages under pressure are all Lore checks. Learning entirely new languages requires the Linguist talent (Chapter Seven). Does not cover forbidden or esoteric knowledge (Secret Lore), dungeon-specific practical knowledge (Adventuring Lore), or cosmological and planar facts (Planar Lore).

Secret Lore — Intellect

New addition to the Lore family.

Forbidden knowledge, occult traditions, esoteric texts, dangerous cosmological facts, the things academies do not teach publicly, and the things most scholars cannot access. Cults, banned magical traditions, Ancient lore, void phenomena, the deeper truths of the Shattered Domain, and knowledge that has been suppressed or hidden. A character using Secret Lore is drawing on information that someone wanted kept quiet, and having it may attract attention. Does not cover mainstream scholarly knowledge (Lore) or planar navigation (Planar Lore).

Adventuring Lore — Intellect

New addition to the Lore family.

Practical knowledge of ruins, dungeons, and dangerous places: monster behavior, trap recognition and rough construction patterns, relic identification, what different types of dungeon architecture usually mean, and the survival-in-the-deep-dark education that comes from experience rather than books. The lore of the delver, not the scholar. Does not cover historical context for what a ruin was or why it matters (Lore), or planar locations (Planar Lore).

Planar Lore — Intellect

New addition to the Lore family.

Cosmological knowledge: the planes, their properties, what each plane does to a mortal body, divine geography, the politics of the Shattered Domain, Silver Road navigation theory, and the broad facts of the cosmology as understood by those who study it. Does not cover how to identify or use wild rifts (Rifts), or the esoteric and forbidden edges of cosmological knowledge (Secret Lore).

Rifts — Intellect

New Universe-specific skill. No core equivalent.

The skill of identifying, reading, and successfully using natural rifts between planes. Rifts are wild tears in planar fabric, not constructed portals, not part of the Silver Road network. A character who blunders through a rift without this skill is gambling with their destination, their body, and their timeline. This skill covers: recognizing that a rift exists, estimating its destination and stability, timing transit to reduce risk, and surviving an uncontrolled passage when things go wrong. Does not cover constructed portals (requires Craft and Planar Lore) or the Shattered Domain's organized portal network (Planar Lore and Lore).

Using a rift without any ranks in this skill is a roll of unaugmented Intellect alone, at a difficulty set by the GM.

Rift Transit Procedure

Rift transit has three phases: detect, assess, go. Skipping assessment adds difficulty. The roll is never skippable.

Phase 1 — Detect. A character with any ranks in Rifts detects an active rift at Short range without a check; at Rifts 2+, dormant and concealed rifts too. An untrained character may notice a rift with a Perception check (Average) but cannot assess it or lead anyone through.

Phase 2 — Assess. Spend one Action and make a Rifts check (Average). On success, the GM reveals the rift's stability rating and whether the destination is known or unknown. On failure, only whether it appears passable. A character who skips this phase treats the rift as Unknown, adding 1 Trial Die to the transit roll.

Stability Ratings

Opening a sealed rift requires a Hard Rifts check, Sustained (3 consecutive Actions). Breakthrough: opens at Stable. Success: opens at Unstable. Failure: cannot reattempt for one hour.

Phase 3 — Transit. Action cost: One Action per transiting character.

Group transit. The lead transitor (the one making the Rifts roll) may bring up to their Willpower score in additional willing travelers. Every additional traveler must be at Engaged range when transit begins and must spend their own Action to follow. Additional travelers make no roll; their result is bound entirely to the lead transitor's.

The roll. Build the pool using Intellect + Rifts (higher of the two for total dice; lower upgrades). Add Trial Dice from the stability rating, plus 1 Trial Die if the destination is unknown.

Transit Results

A Calamity supersedes all Bane tier outcomes. Calamity on a failed check: hostile plane. Calamity on a successful check: survivable plane. The GM Guide (Chapter Five) lists both categories.

Bane tier outcomes apply equally to the lead transitor and all additional travelers.

Rift stability changes. Using a rift is not neutral. After a successful transit, the rift's stability degrades by one tier: Stable becomes Unstable, Unstable becomes Volatile, and a Volatile rift closes after use. A Breakthrough can temporarily improve stability as listed above, but repeated travel still stresses the tear.

Sealing a rift. Same as opening: Hard Rifts check, Sustained (3 consecutive Actions). Breakthrough seals it permanently. Success seals it until natural planar pressure reopens it. Failure: cannot reattempt for one hour.

Without the skill. An untrained character who enters a rift rolls Intellect alone at Severe, cannot lead anyone else, and cannot assess stability.

Medicine — Intellect

Treating injury and illness, diagnosing conditions, stabilizing the wounded, aiding recovery, understanding living bodies, and identifying medical risks. Does not cover poisons for offensive use or magical healing (governed by the Divine or Arcane magic rules in Chapter Nine). For poisons: manufacturing one is Craft; administering it covertly (slipping it into a drink, coating a blade without being noticed) is Subterfuge; using it as part of a direct attack falls to the attack skill with Craft or Medicine informing the preparation.

Natural Philosophy — Intellect

Renamed from core Science to fit the register of Dort, where the discipline is the formal study of how the world works rather than a modern laboratory science.

Understanding natural laws, technical principles, experiments, analysis, engineering theory, chemistry, metallurgy, astronomy, and the systematic reasoning of the learned. The knowing of how things work, as distinct from the doing of them. Does not cover building or repairing (Craft), or the theory of magic (Secret Lore or Lore depending on how mainstream the tradition is).

Craft — Intellect

Building, repairing, modifying, maintaining, appraising, or improvising objects, tools, structures, machines, and practical works. The doing of a technical thing, as distinct from the knowing of it. Does not cover knowledge of how a thing works (Natural Philosophy). Does not cover constructed portal-making by itself; Craft and Planar Lore are both required.

Operation Skills

Riding — Agility

Split from core Operate. Covers living mounts.

Controlling mounts under pressure: horses, war-beasts, trained riding animals, exotic mounts. Includes mounted combat positioning, high-speed maneuvering, and keeping a panicked animal under command in danger. Does not cover untrained animals reacting to stimulus (Survival), or vehicles and ships (Operate and Piloting).

Piloting — Agility

Split from core Operate. Covers flying ships and large arcane vessels.

Flying ships, large arcane vessels, wind-powered airborne craft, and similar conveyances that require trained skill to navigate three-dimensional space. Includes managing crew positioning relative to piloting inputs, handling aerial weather and planar wind-shear, and combat maneuvering in the air. Does not cover ground or water vehicles (Operate) or mounted flight on a creature (Riding).

Operate — Agility

Narrowed from core Operate. Covers mundane ground and water vehicles.

Wagons, carts, river craft, standard sailing vessels, and mundane ground and water vehicles. Driving under pressure, navigating river currents, managing sail on a standard ship, keeping a vehicle intact over rough ground. Does not cover mounts (Riding) or flying ships and large arcane vessels (Piloting).

Social Skills

Charm — Charisma

Winning people over through warmth, friendliness, humor, appeal, flirtation, sincerity, style, or likability. Also covers performance, oratory, music, art, and any attempt to entertain, move, or please an audience. Does not cover threats or pressure (Intimidation).

Deception — Charisma

Lying, disguising intent, misdirection, false identities, scams, feints, forgeries of behavior, and concealing the truth. Does not cover covert physical manipulation (Subterfuge), or openly taking a bargaining position (Negotiation).

Negotiation — Charisma

Bargaining, diplomacy, trade, compromise, contracts, favors, treaties, and getting terms both sides can accept. Does not cover manipulation or deception (Deception), or commands or authority (Leadership).

Leadership — Charisma

Commanding, rallying, organizing, inspiring, directing groups, establishing authority, and holding a group together under pressure. Does not cover one-on-one persuasion without a group context (Charm, Negotiation, or Intimidation).

Intimidation — Willpower

Threats, interrogation, menace, pressure, dominance, cold resolve, and forcing compliance through fear or force of will. Intimidation is also the default resistance for opponents trying to break your nerve or coerce you directly. Does not cover charm or persuasion (Charm and Negotiation).

Skill Boundary Quick Reference

Casting Skills

Casting skills work like any other skill (ranked 0–5, combined with a Characteristic to build a dice pool) but they govern magical practice rather than physical or social ability. A character who has not purchased a casting skill cannot cast spells of that tradition, regardless of any talent they may hold. See Chapter Nine for the full casting system.

Arcana — Intellect

The discipline of structured magical practice: the trained craft of drawing from the Arcana plane, shaping it through physical technique, and producing a reliable effect. Arcana covers all mortal-tradition spellcasting and is the foundation skill for the Theomancy and Necromancy combined traditions. At rank 0, a character has no formal training and cannot cast Arcana spells. At rank 5, they have reached the apex of what mortal study can achieve.

Divine — Willpower

The discipline of channeled faith: calling on a patron deity's granted power through prayer, covenant, and devotion. Divine requires a patron deity chosen at character creation (see Chapter Nine). Covers all divine-tradition spellcasting and is the foundation for the Theomancy and Shamanism combined traditions. At rank 0, a character has not been granted divine access.

Primal — Savvy

The discipline of instinct-driven power: drawing from elemental planes and the living world through orientation, attunement, and deep familiarity with natural patterns. Covers primal-tradition spellcasting and is the foundation for the Necromancy and Shamanism combined traditions. At rank 0, a character has no connection to elemental or wild sources. Primal skill advances through field practice and attunement rather than study; the GM may require in-fiction grounding for advancement.

Primal and environment. The four elemental planes (Ember, Mineral, Tidal, and Zephyr) are the Primal caster's primary sources. These sources are far broader than they appear. Stone, earth, and ore are expressions of Mineral. Dungeon corridors are cut from rock and rest on ground; rivers run beneath cities; wind passes through even the deepest underground passages. A Primal caster underground is still in a world saturated with elemental substance, and their magic functions normally in such environments. What disrupts Primal is not depth or enclosure; it is the sustained suppression of natural forces by deliberate human architecture and magical administration. In a thoroughly settled, walled, paved, and Ordered city where organized infrastructure has displaced wild growth and natural movement for generations, Primal checks add 1 Bane Die. The GM determines when a settlement is dense and administered enough for this to apply; a walled city with markets, rivers, rats, and gardens does not qualify. A city like Iskash, where the Order's registry and centuries of worked-stone construction have methodically minimized wild presence, does.

Prerequisite spells. Some Primal spells require a specific non-casting skill as a prerequisite alongside the Primal rank. This reflects workings that demand genuine lived attunement rather than mere technique; you cannot cast a spell that reads weather omens if you have never learned to read weather. These prerequisites are listed in each spell's block.

Advancing Skills