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Combat: The level of your skill in this variety often opens the door to the use of specific combat abilities.
Crafting: The level of your skill in this variety often improves the quality of items that you craft.
General: The level of your skill in this variety may mean you fare better in special MUDQuests, such as gambling in the casino.

For purposes of this section of the guide, we'll focus on the combat-oriented skills and the abilities that come from learning them.

The basic underpinnings of the Necromundus skill system are derived from the FUDGE tabletop RPG rules.

[edit] What Skills Do

Cosmetically, skills on your +sheet provide a measure for your advancement throughout the game. Functionally, combat skills on your +sheet do nothing except make certain abilities available for use during a fight.

[edit] What Abilities Do

Abilities are the real meat and potatoes of combat. While some people may be content to simply +attack a monster in the world of Necromundus, the real payoff comes from using one of your racial or class-based abilities. These abilities can cause big bursts of immediate damage, inflict damage over time, raise your hit points, lower the enemy's damaging power, or heal you and your friends.

[edit] How to Use Abilities

The command for using an ability in combat is +ability <target>/<name of ability>. So, for example, a Tauroid could use the Gore ability on a dreadwisp using +ability Gore/Dreadwisp.

Abilities deduct Ability Points from your +sheet each time you use them. Some abilities are more expensive than others. When you run out of Ability Points during combat, you must resort instead to the straight +attack <target> command.

Some abilities may become unavailable if you're badly wounded in combat. Significant wounds lead to negative modifiers on your +sheet, so this might mean that although you've got Good in Backstab skill, your injuries have left you effectively with a Mediocre skill level. As a result, you may not be able to use an ability that requires Good in the Backstab skill.

[edit] How to Improve Skills

As you gain levels in Necromundus, you earn Skill Points. Visit the Training Halls near the city center and you'll be able to apply those points toward improving your levels in combat, crafting, or general skills with the +trainer/raise <skill> command.

[edit] How to Earn More Abilities

Check your racial and class-based ability grids to determine what levels in which skills are required to unlock access to abilities. Once you've determined which abilities you want, just invest Skill Points earned with each character level into the skills that unlock the abilities. TIP: If you raise a skill higher than you need, it provides a buffer against losing access to an ability due to injuries in combat.

Skills