9.1 Skills

-- At A Glance ---------------------------------------------------------------
  - As a newbie, you will have access to only your core class skills. You will
    unlock general skills at level 10, and miniskills when you are no longer a
    newbie!

  - Type SKILLS or AB to see your current skills.

  - Type SKILLS/AB <skillset> to see what abilities you have learned in that
    skillset.

  - Type ABSEARCH to search through ability files for a specific term.

  - Investing in skillsets costs lessons, with miniskills costing far fewer.
    See HELP LEARNING.
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Much of your life in Aetolia will revolve around your skills. Skills are either sets of abilities or a single ability representing how well you do something (like dodge arrows and sword blows, for instance). Typing SKILLS or AB will list which ones you have, and typing HELP <skill name> will give you some more information on each skill. Furthermore, many skills have anywhere from 20 to 50 abilities within the skill. An ability could be an individual spell, or something like a particular type of kick or swordstroke.

You'll notice, when you type SKILLS that next to the name of each skill will be a word, like Inept. This word indicates your general proficiency in that skill. As your proficiency in that skill increases, you will gain more abilities, in the case of skills which have abilities in them, or you will grow better at whatever that skill represents. For instance, as you increase your Philosophy, you will take less and less damage from attacks on your mind (psychic attacks). The word next to your skill will also change, indicating your increased mastery of that skill. To see a list of skill ranks, type HELP SKILLRANKS.

You will notice that when you type SKILLS, mention is made of both skills and 'miniskills'. Miniskills differ from skills only in that they take far fewer lessons to master (see HELP LESSONS).

Though the general skills that you start off with are useful, it is the class-specific skills that make up the core of your character. To gain these sets of skills, all of which will have many abilities in them, you will need to join a guild (unless you choose to become a Wayfarer, Indorani, Oneiromancer, or Bard). You may read more about guilds and classes in section 8.

In order to see what abilities you have in a skill (if there are, indeed, any abilities in that particular skill), typing AB <skill name> will let you see them. After that, typing AB <skill name> <ability name> will give you help, generally speaking, on that individual ability.

You can additionally search through AB files for a specific term using the ABSEARCH command. Enter that command by itself for syntax details.

If you wish to see what rank you will receive specific abilities within a skill, you can type AB <skill name> RANKS.