Employee Training

Hello, friends!

Another month of diligent content creation over here, of which I can say very little. So instead, today, I’d like to talk a little about character progression.

First, there is a core set of attributes that character abilities are based on. Strength, agility, wits, and intellect. Progression for skill challenges and combat abilities is primarily driven by training these, though perks also play a critical role in determining how good you are at something.

Each character will have their own upper limits for these scores, which will determine what roles in the party they will ultimately be best at filling–or telling you where they could use some extra help. Amanu the giant, for example, is the strongest character you can have on your team, but his agility is comparatively weak, meaning that he will do a lot of damage when hitting something, but will have trouble connecting with a target. You can choose to compensate for this by giving him perks, combat styles, or equipment that increase his accuracy.

Here you can see a list of perks (and a trait) that Amanu has picked up while adventuring. Melee Skill is a solid grab for him, since each level increases melee accuracy by +10. Toughness gives bonuses to hit points and resistance to certain effects. Blocker increases the penalty for enemies attempting to fire ranged attacks at targets behind Amanu. Imposing forces enemies to attack Amanu first if trying to target someone in the same rank. And the inherent Giant trait that Amanu has allows him to use two-handed weapons in one hand, but prevents him from using quick weapons like daggers.

You will gain a single perk for every four experience levels, but will also gain a number of perks by training up skill sets.

Here are the skill sets Amanu is training in. Each of these will have a collection of perks and combat abilities that you can learn.  Perks that have become accessible to learn in a skill set will also be available as part of your core character level progression. So, if you hit level 8 and get another core level perk, and you also have Legionary trained up to level 9, you can choose to take Vigilance if you hadn’t already.

There are four basic skill sets that anyone can learn and train, including Warrior, Rogue, Scout, and Scholar. You will unlock additional skill sets by making deals with tutors, acquiring manuals, or by hiring someone who already knows them. Once a skill set is unlocked, a character will also need to meet certain prerequisites before beginning to train in it. Legionary, for example, requires seven levels of Warrior as well as the Blocker perk.

Unlike core experience levels, skill sets can be learned and trained while idling at home. Most of the time, you will want your agents out in the world, earning their keep. But leaving one of them behind for a while will give them time to pick up some new tricks.

To fine tune your character from mission to mission, you will also have access to technique and style slots, the exact number depending on experience. Techniques correspond to skill sets, activating any combat abilities you’ve unlocked in that set for use in combat.

Styles are learned from skill sets and provide passive bonuses in combat. Unlike techniques, you can mix and match styles from any skill set that you’ve learned. The styles listed here are: Martial Stance, which grants a modest bonus to defense and melee attacks; Hold Formation, which allows the character to keep pace with faster allies as they advance toward the enemy; and Iron Wall, which effectively occupies one additional space in the rank for purposes of blocking enemy movement.

That’s all for today. Thanks for stopping by!