Skills and Spells

As warriors gain experience they will gain Skill Points and Spell Points which are used to train skills and spells that can be used in battle.

Skills
Skills are split into two groups; Passive Skills and Active Skills.

Passive skills are always active as long as the warrior meets the requirements (for example having a dagger equipped for Art of Silent Death). Passive skills provide all manner of benefits to warriors, such as a reduction in the Heavy Armour movement penalties, increased wounds or reduced Strategy Point cost for reloading ranged weapons.

Active skills are are skills which must be activated during the warrior's turn often at a cost of Strategy or Offense Points. These can be special attacks which apply debuffs to enemies, buffs for one or more nearby allies or entering a Stance. Only the usable skills will be available in the cycling menu, based on the warrior's remaining SP and OP and whether they are in range of a skill target and meet the skill requirements (such as being engaged or not).

Spells
Some Leader and Hero warriors can use magic, be it Arcane or Divine. Spells cost a varying amount of Offense Points to cast and there is a chance the casting may fizzle and fail. The higher the OP cost of the spell, the higher the chance of failing to cast the spell. The chance of successfully casting a spell can be improved through enchantments and skills but can be reduced by enemy skills and by wearing armour (for Arcane spellcasters).

Any usable spell will appear in the cycling menu when the spellcaster is taking their turn and, as targets leave or come into range or OP are used, the available spells will change.

Most spells (as well as skills and consumables) affect only allies or only enemies while others (such as Acid Breath or Fire Ball) will affect everyone in the target area (area of effect). It is important to be careful where and how these abilities are used to avoid unwanted friendly fire effects - an ally who falls Out of Action will have the same consequences whether it has been put out by the enemy or your own actions.

Training Skills and Spells
A warrior may only possess up to 5 Active skills, 5 Passive skills and 5 spells in total. All warriors start with one or more Active or Passive skills which will count towards to their totals. Spellcasters start with one spell which their number of trainable spells to 4.

Purchasing a new skill requires 2 Skill Points. Leaders, Heroes and Impressive Warriors can learn an advanced form of any purchasable skill, known as a 'Skill Mastery'. This costs the warrior an additional 4 Skill Points but often provides significant bonuses to the skill. Starting skills for warriors cannot be improved.

Purchasing a new spell requires 2 Spell Points. Any spell, including the starting spell, may be improved to an advanced form of the spell, known as a 'Spell Mastery' for a cost of 4 Spell Points.

Trainable skills are linked to a warrior's primary statistic or warband. For spells, the primary statistic is always Intelligence. To train a skill or spell, the warrior must at least meet the base stat requirement. Training some skills or spells requires higher stats than others, but these usually confer more potent effects. Warband skills are available to all warriors of a specific warband, as long as they meet the stat requirements. Mastery of either type of skill will require a higher base statistic than the basic version of the skill. Spells are specific to the warband (so Skaven can only learn Skaven spells) or, in the case of Hired Swords, the warriors themselves.

Skills and spells will take a number of days and an amount of gold coins to train, during which time the warrior will be unavailable for battles. Warriors can only train one skill or spell at any one time - you must wait for training of a skill to finish before you can train a spell.

Each warrior will only receive a limited number of skill and spell points and their skills and spells choices are permanent, so you will need to plan carefully as to which skills and spells you choose to train!

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