Abilities & Skills

Skills by Ability

Just use the appropriate Ability check or Skill check, do not actually ad these skills to a character. Anyone born within one of the five empires will have Etiquette as a skill so characters can add their proficiency bonus to any checks.
Skills Bold and underlined are from D&D5e
Italicized skills can be found in D&D3.5/Pathfinder
Many skills are common skills mentioned in other EPT resources.
Items within (parentheses) are professions that correspond with the skill and would be appropriate information for a character’s background or clan skills.

Strength

Strength measures physical power, athletic training, and the extent to which you can exert raw physical force. Physique, might, physical force, athleticism.

“Smash down a door, move a boulder, use a spike to wedge a door shut.”

Athletics
Climb/Climbing
Jump/Jumping
Swim/Swimming
Bricklayer (plebeian)
Butcher (plebeian)
Carpenter (plebeian)
Fisherman (plebeian)
Mason (plebeian)
Mining / Minor (plebeian)

Strength Saving Throws: Opposing a force that would physically move or bind you.

Dexterity

Dexterity measures agility, reflexes, and balance. Deftness, manual skill, adroitness, maneuverability, stealth, dodging ability, litheness, reaction ability, readiness.

“Sneak past a guard, walk along a narrow ledge, wriggle free from chains.”

Acrobatics
Balance
Tumble
Sleight of Hand
Barber (plebeian)
Escape Artist
Open Locks
Prestidigitator – ability to misdirect onlookers.
Tie Knots
Use Rope

Stealth
Hide
Move Silently

Dexterity Saving Throws: Dodging out of harm’s way.

Constitution

Constitution Measures health, stamina, and vital force. Endurance, physical resistance, physique, damage resistance.
Endure a marathon, grasp hot metal without flinching, win a drinking contest
Concentration

Constitution Saving Throw: Enduring a disease, poison, or other hazard that saps vitality.

Intelligence

Intelligence measures mental acuity, accuracy of recall, and the ability to reason. Knowledge, learning, information capacity, mental capacity, recall, retention, recognition. Study ability, analysis rating, mental quickness, logic, deductive capacity, wit, judgement, I.Q.

“Recall a bit of lore, recognize a clue’s significance, decode an encrypted message“

Arcana
In addition to referring to the occult or supernatural, proficiency with Arcana can also cover a variety of obscure or niche knowledge, such as popular culture, genre films and books, urban legends, comic books, science fiction, and gaming, among others.
Demonology / Occult
Decipher Script
Item Researcher (Noble)
Knowledge: Arcana
Magical Lore
Magic, Psychic / Ritual
Military Sorcerer (Noble)
Spellcraft
History
Proficiency with History can provide knowledge of art history, law and litigation, political and government institutions and processes, current events, and popular science. Locate a forgotten road, identify the origin of ruins, or find a site mentioned in myth or legend.
Knowledge: History, Local, Nobility and Royalty
Military Engineer (noble)
Tactics & Strategy
Tactician (noble)
Sapper (noble)
Strategist (noble)
Investigation
When you look around for clues and make deductions based on those clues, you make an Intelligence (Investigation) check. You might deduce the location of a hidden object, discern from the appearance of a wound what kind of weapon dealt it, or determine the weakest point in a tunnel that could cause it to collapse. Poring through ancient scrolls in search of a hidden fragment of knowledge might also call for an Intelligence (Investigation) check.
Appraise
Accountancy / Accountant (skilled)
City Lore (Streetwise)
High Society
Law / Lawyer / Jurist (Noble)
Search
Nature
Proficiency with Nature indicates a knowledge of how the natural world works. This manifests as an understanding of biology, botany, genetics, geology, paleontology, astronomy, chemistry, physics, and engineering. Identify what sorts of creatures dwell in an area based on subtle clues, or spot the effect of magic on a natural ecosystem.
Animal Husbandry
Animal/bird knowledge
Engineer-Architect (Noble)
Geography / Geology
Knowledge: Architecture, Engineering, Geography
Religion
Knowledge: The Planes, Religion
Ritual
Philosophy
Philosophy Theologian
Administration
Appraise Value
Architect
Culture
Find Direction
High Cartography: is the skill of creating and interpreting the carved gemstones used as detailed and compact maps by the ancients.
Knowledge: dungeoneering
Literary Scholar
Mathematics
Mechanic
Politics / Bureaucracy – Navigating the obscure and voluminous paperwork of large organizations and knowing what papers to file to get legal permission for otherwise dubiously-permissible acts.
Research
Scholar
Sexuality
Subculture

Intelligence Saving Throw: Disbelieving certain illusions and resisting mental assaults that can be refuted with logic, sharp memory, or both.

Wisdom

Wisdom reflects how attuned you are to the world around you and represents perceptiveness and intuition. Faith, mental strength or power, concentration, self control, determination, zeal, emotional capacity, mana, magical prowess, bardic voice, mental reactive ability, guessing, psychic ability, insight, clairvoyance, inspiration, perception, pre-sentiment.

Animal Handling
Animal-trainer (skilled)
Handle Animal
Falconer or bird-trainer (skilled)
Zoology
Insight
Paired with Intelligence, Insight can represent a knowledge of psychology, sociology, and criminology.
Analysis
Bribery – You know who to bribe to get what you want, how much to offer, and most importantly how and when to offer it so it will not be taken as an insult or embarrassment to the character being bribed.
Intrigue
Sense Motive / Linguistics
Medicine
Apothecary
First Aid (Skilled)
Heal
Medical / Physician (Noble)
Veterinarian (Skilled)
Perception
Your Wisdom (Perception) check lets you see, hear, or otherwise detect the presence of something. It measures your general awareness of your surroundings and the keenness of your senses. You might try to hear a conversation through a closed door, eavesdrop under an open window, or hear monsters moving stealthily in the forest. Or you might try to spot things that are obscured or easy to miss, whether they are orcs lying in ambush on a road, thugs hiding in the shadows of an alley, or candlelight under a closed secret door.
Detect Traps
Listen
Observation
Spot
Survival
Avoid gathering and eating poisonous plants, to spot quicksand and other hazards, and to avoid paths or areas where dangerous creatures prowl.
Tracking
Desert, Forest, Wilderness Survival
Fishing
Wilderness Tracking: The ability to successfully trail or track someone or something while outdoors in a rural or wilderness setting.
Cooking / Cook (plebeian) / Baker (plebeian)

Wisdom Saving Throw: Resisting effects that charm, frightens, or otherwise assault your willpower.

Charisma

Charisma measures your ability to interact effectively with others. It includes such factors as confidence and eloquence, and it can represent a charming or commanding personality. Appearance, level-headedness, panic resistance, morale, psychic ability, self control, vanity, perceived power, mental discipline, bardic voice.

Persuade a creature to do something, cow a crowd, lie to someone convincingly

Deception
Bluff
Disguise
Fashion
Panderer
Intimidation
Intimidate
Interrogation
Performance
Acting
Dancing / Dancer (noble)
Mimic Voice
Orator
Perform(er)
Poet (Noble)
Singing
Ventriloquism
Persuasion (Tsolyani: Osulikh)
Bargainer (plebeian)
Charm
Carouse / Carouser (plebeian) [noisy, lively drinking party]
Command
Convince
Cosmetics / Style
Courtesan-Gigolo-Don Juan (noble) / Paramour [lover, illicit partner]
Diplomacy / Diplomat (noble)
Gather Information
Merchant (plebeian)
Negotiate
Seduction / Seduce (Tsolyani: Pathaikh)

Charisma Saving Throw: Withstanding effects, such as possession, that would subsume your personality or hurl you to another plane of existence.

Tools

Artisan’s tools (Profession or Craft)
Art / Artist (painter, sculptor, etc.) (Noble)
Brewer-Vintner / Wine-maker (plebeian)
Cook / Cooking
Craftsmen (plebeian) Craft (bootmaker, carpet-maker, carpenter, dyer, etc.), Tradesmen (skilled), Shipwright
Intoxicants
Disguise kit
Disguise
Forgery kit
Calligraphy / Calligrapher (skilled)
Forgery
Scribe
Gaming Set
Gambling
Dénden board
Daghórr
Kévuk dice
Tsahltén
Herbalism kit
Alchemy/ Alchemist (Noble)
Apothecary
Botanist plant recognition (noble)
Musical Instrument
Musician (noble)
Play Instrument
Write Music
Korángkorèn (large drum)
Ténturen (12 string instrument needing two people to play)
Tunkúl-gongs (large temple gongs)
Other: Trumpets, drums, cymbals, finger chimes and cymbals, bells, flute, horn.
Navigator’s tools
Astrology / Astronomer-Navigator (Noble)
Navigation (Noble)

Navigate: The ability to navigate by the stars and sun, recognise landmarks or animal routes, and read maps, including specialised symbolic maps such as tubeway markings but not including High Cartography. This will help a character find the fastest and safest route to a destination.

Navigators have simple compasses (a magnetised needle and a pot of oil). Steering by the positions of the moons and planets is common, and there are ephemerides that tell the sailor where these bodies will be in the sky on any given night of the year. Since there are no stars, there are no fixed reckoning points (like Polaris on Earth), but the configurations of the heavenly bodies give considerable information, which, combined with experience and navigational know-how, usually get the traveller from one place to another. -Barker. The Blue Room Vol6#172.

Poisoner’s kit
Poisons
Thieves’ tools
Burglary
Disable Device
Open Locks
Set/Disarm/Remove Traps
Locksmith
Vehicles (Land, Water, Air, Space)
Aircar (medium status)
Chlen-beasts (low status)
Fly
Lightning-Bringer (medium status)
Ride
Rowing (low status)
Sailing (low status)
Computers and Ancient Devices