Ignore what is written in red for now.

Your character’s skills represent a variety of abilities, and you get better at them as you go up in level.

Earning Skill Points: At each level, you get 4, 6, or 8 skill points that you use to buy skills for your character (your Intelligence Modifier adds to this number). A 1st-level character gets four times this number. If you buy a class skill (such as Ride for an armsman or Disguise for a wanderer), you get 1 rank (equal to a +1 bonus) for each skill point. If you buy other classes’ skills (cross-class skills), you get a half rank per skill point. Your max rank in a class skill equals your level plus 3. Your maximum rank in a cross-class skill is half of this number (do not round up or down).

Using Skills: To make a skill check, roll:

1d20 + skill modifier (Skill modifier = skill rank + ability modifier + miscellaneous modifiers)

This roll is made just like an attack roll or a saving throw. The higher the roll, the better. You’re either trying to score a certain Difficulty Class (DC) or higher, or you’re trying to beat another character’s check. For instance, to successfully creep behind an armsman unnoticed, Eben needs to beat the armsman’s Listen check with his Move Silently check.

            Skill rank expresses a character’s general ability level with a particular skill. The higher the rank, the better the character is with the skill. Many skills can be used even if a character has no ranks in that skill’ doing this is known as making an untrained skill check.

Acquiring Skill Ranks: Ranks indicate how much training or experience your character has with a given skill. Each of your skills has a rank, from 0 (for a skill in which your character has no training at all) to 23 (for the 20th-level character who has increased a skill to its maximum rank). When making a skill check, you add your skill ranks to the roll as part of the skill modifier, so the more ranks you have, the higher your skill check will be.

Table 2-1: Skill Points per level

Using Skills: When you use a skill, you make a skill check to see how well you do. The higher the result on your skill check, the better you do. Based on the circumstances, your result must match or beat a particular number to use the skill successfully. The harder the task, the higher the number you need to roll.

Note on Table 2-2: Skills: Untrained: Yes, means the skill can be used untrained. That is, a hero can have 0 ranks in this skill but can make skill checks normally. No, means you can’t use the skill unless you have at least 1 rank.

            Class names are abbreviated as follows: Alg, algai’d’siswai; Arm, armsman; Ini, initiate; Nbl, noble; Wan, wanderer; Wds, woodsman; Wil, wilder.

Table 2-2: Skills

C = Class skill. X = Cross-class skill. N = Class cannot learn. *Your armor check penalty, if any, also applies.

Skill Descriptions

This section describes each skill, including common uses and typical modifiers. Characters can sometimes use skills for other purposes than those listed here. For example, you might be able to impress the members of a foreign merchants’ guild by making an Appraise check.

             Here is the format for skill descriptions. Headings that do not apply to a particular skill are omitted in that skill’s description.

            Skill Name (Key Ability)

Trained Only; Armor Check Penalty

The skill name line and the line beneath it includes the following information:

            Key Ability: The abbreviation of the ability whose modifier applies to the skill check. Exception: Language has “None” listed as its key ability because the use of this skill never requires a check.

            Trained Only: If “Trained Only” appears directly beneath the skill name, you must have at least 1 rank in this skill to use it. If it is omitted, the skill can be used untrained (with a rank of 0). If any special notes apply to trained or untrained use, they are covered in the Special section (see below).

            Armor Check Penalty:  If “Armor Check Penalty” appears directly beneath the skill name, apply any armor check penalty to skill checks for this skill. If it is omitted, there are no penalties to use this skill.

            [Class Name] Only: The skill is exclusive to a certain class or classes. No character not of these classes can take the skill. If omitted, the skill is not exclusive.

            The skill name line is followed by a general description of what using the skill represents.

- Animal Empathy (Cha)

Trained Only; Woodsman Only

Use this skill to keep a guard dog from barking at you, to get a wild bird to land on your outstretched hand, or to keep a grolm calm while you back off.

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            - Appraise (Int)

Use this skill to estimate the value of an object, from an ancient Tairen lute to a shipment of Sharan silks from the lands beyond the Aiel Waste.

            Special: If you are making the check untrained, for common items, failure means no estimate, and for rare items, success means an estimate of 50% or 150% (2d6+3 x 10%)

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            - Balance (Dexx))

Armor Check Penalty

You can keep your balance while walking on a tightrope, a narrow beam, a ledge, or an uneven floor.

            Special: If you have 5 or more ranks in Tumble, you get a +2 synergy bonus on Balance checks.

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            - Bluff (Cha)

You can make the outrageous or the untrue seem plausible. This skill encompasses acting, conning, fast-talking, misdirection, prevarication, and misleading body language. Use a bluff to sow temporary confusion, get someone to turn his head in the direction you point, or simply look innocuous.

            Special: Having 5 or more ranks in Bluff gives you a +2 synergy bonus on Intimidate and Pick Pocket checks. Also, if you have 5 or more ranks in Bluff, you get a +2 synergy bonus on Disguise checks when you know that you’re being observed and you try to act in character.

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            - Climb (Str)

Armor Check Penalty

Use this skill to scale a cliff, to get to a window on the second story of a tower, or to climb onto the back of a massive to’raken.

            Special: Someone using a rope can haul a character upward (or lower the character) through sheer strength. Use double your maximum heavy load to determine how much weight a character can lift.

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            - Concentration (Con)

This skill is used to maintain concentration in the face of other distractions or on other things, such as eavesdropping on a conversation despite distractions from other people.         

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            - Craft (Int)

You are trained in a craft, trade, or art, such as armorsmithing, basketweaving, bookbinding, bowmaking, blacksmithing, calligraphy, carpentry, cobbling, gemcutting, leatherworking, locksmithing, painting, pottery, sculpting, shipmaking, stonemasonry, trapmaking, weaponsmithing, or weaving.

            Craft is actually a number of separate skills. For instance, you could have the skill Craft (trapmaking). Your ranks in that skill don’t affect any checks you happen to make for pottery or leatherworking. You could have several Craft skills, each with its own ranks, each purchased as a separate skill.

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            - Decipher Script (Int)

Trained Only; Initiate only

Use this skill to piece together the meaning of ancient runes carved into the wall of an abandoned palace, to follow the directions on a treasure map written in an alpabet lost since the Age of Legends, or to interpret the mysterious glyphs painted on a cave wall.

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            - Diplomacy (Cha)

Use this skill to arrange swift passage on an Atha’an Miere raker, to arbitrate a dispute between to rival Cairhienin houses, or to persuade the Children of the Light to leave your manor peacefully. A skilled character knows the formal and informal rules of conduct, social expectations, proper forms of address, and so on. This skill represents the ability to give the right impression, to negotiate effectively, and to influence others.

            Special: If you have 5 or more ranks in Bluff or Sense Motive, you get a +2 synergy bonus on Diplomacy checks. These bonuses stack.

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            - Disable Deevice (Int)

Trained Only

Use this skill to disarm a trap, jam a lock (in either the open or closed position), or rig a simple device to fail. You can examine a fairly simple or fairly small mechanical device and disable it. The effort requires at least a simple tool of the appropriate sort (a pick, pry bar, saw, file, etc.). A set of quality thieve’s tools gives the user a +2 circumstance bonus.

            Special: A wanderer who beats a trap’s DC by 10 or more can generally study a trap, figure out how it works, and bypass it (along with his companions) without disarming it.

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            - Disguise (Cha)

Use this skill to change your appearance or someone else’s. The effort requires at least a few props, some makeup, and 1d4x10 minutes to work. A disguise can include an apparent change of height or weight of no more than one tenth of the original.

            You can also impersonate people, either individuals or types. For example, you might make yourself seem like a local, even if you hail from a distant land, with little or no actual disguise.

            Special: If you have 5 or more ranks of Bluff, you get a +2 synergy bonus on Disguise checks when you that you’re being observed and you try to act in character.

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            - Escape Artist (Dex)

Armor Check Penalty

Use this skill to slip out of manacles, wriggle through a small tunnel or cave, or escape from a holding cell window in the Stone of Tear.

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            - Forgery (Int)

Use this skill to fake a document from the Lord Captain Commander of the Children of the Light instructing an Amadician noble to alter his position in a heated border dispute, create an authentic-looking map to a long-lost ruin from the Age of Legends, falsify transport documents to fool the harbormaster of Illian, or detect forgeries that others try to pass off on you.

            Special: To forge documents and detect forgeries, one must be able to read and write the language in question. (The skill is language-dependant.)

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            - Gather Information (Cha)

Use this skill to make contacts in an area, find out local gossip, spread rumors, and collect general information.

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            - Handle Animal (Cha)

Trained Only

Use this skill to drive a team of horses pulling a wagon over rough terrain, teach a dog to guard, raise a grolm as a devoted pet, or teach a raken to “come” when you call.

            Special: A character with 5 or more ranks of Animal Empathy gets a +2 synergy bonus on Handle Animal checks with animals. A character must have 9 or more ranks of Animal Empathy to get the same +2 synergy bonus on Handle Animal checks with beasts. A character with 5 or more ranks of Handle Animal gets a +2 synergy bonus on Ride checks. An untrained character can use a Charisma check to handle and push animals.

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            - Heal (Wis)

Use this skill to keep a badly wounded friend from dying, to help others recover faster from wounds, to keep your friend from succumbing to a blade forged at Shayol Ghul, or to treat disease.

            Special: If you have 5 or more ranks in Profession (herbalist), you get a +2 synergy bonus on Heal checks.

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            - Hide (Dex)

Armor Check Penalty

Use this skill to sink back into the shadows and proceed unseen, approach a guard post under cover of trees and brush, or tail someone through a bustling city without being noticed.

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            - Innuendo (Wis)

Trained Only

You know how to give and understand secret messages while appearing to be speaking of other things. Two nobles, for example, might seem to be discussing hunting whey they’re really hatching a plan to bring down a member of the king’s privy council.

            Special: If you have 5 or more ranks in Bluff, you get a +2 synergy bonus on your check to transmit a message. If you have 5 or more ranks in Sense Motive, you get a +2 synergy bonus on your check to intercept (but not transmit) a message.

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            - Intimidate (Cha)

Use this skill to get a blustering guard to back down or make a prisoner give you the information you want. Intimidation includes verbal threats and body language.

            Special: If you have 5 or more ranks in Bluff, you get a +2 synergy bonus on Intimidate checks.

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            - Intuit Direction (Wis)

Trained Only

You have an innate sense of direction.

            Special: Untrained characters can’t use an innate sense of direction, but they could determine direction by finding clues.

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            - Jump (Str)

Armor Check Penalty

Use this skill to leap over pits, vault low fences, or reach a tree’s lowest branches.

            Special: If you have 5 or more ranks in Tumble, you get a +2 synergy bonus on Jump checks.

            A character who has the Run feat and who makes a running jump increases the distance or height he clears by one fourth, but not past the maximum.

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            - Knowledge (Int)

Trained Only

Like the Craft and Profession skills, Knowledge actually encompasses a number of unrelated skills. Knowledge represents a study of some body of lore, possibly an academic or even scientific discipline. Below are typical fields of study. Whit your GM’s approval, you can invent new areas of knowledge.

-          Arcana (ancient mysteries, channeling traditions, arcane symbols, cryptic phrases, World of Dreams, Aes Sedai traditions.

-          Architecture and engineering (buildings, aqueducts, bridges, fortifications).

-          Blight (denizens, geography, and dangers of the Blight).

-          Geography (lands, terrain, climate, people, customs).

-          History (royalty, wars, colonies, migrations, founding of cities).

-          Local (legends, personalities, inhabitants, laws, traditions).

-          Nature (plants and animals, seasons and cycles, weather).

-          Nobility and royalty (lineages, heraldry, customs, family trees, mottoes, personalities, laws).

-          The Age of Legends (personalities, history, Breaking of the World).

Special: An untrained Knowledge check is simply an Intelligence check. Without actual training, a character only knows common knowledge.

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            - Listen (Wis)

Use this skill to hear approaching enemies, detect someone sneaking up on you from behind, or eavesdrop on someone else’s conversation.

            Special: When several characters are listening to the same thing, the GM can make a single 1d20 roll and use it for all the listener’s skill checks. A character with the Alertness feat gets a +2 synergy bonus on Listen checks.

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- Move Silently (Dex)

Armor Check Penalty

You can use this skill to sneak up behind an enemy or slink away without being noticed.

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            - Open Lock ((DDex)

Trained Only

You can pick padlocks, finesse combination locks, and solve puzzle locks. The effort requires at least a simple tool of the appropriate sort (a pick, pry bar, blank key, wire, or similar implement). Attempting an Open Lock check without a set of thieves’ tools carries a -2 circumstance penalty, even if a simple tool is employed. The use of masterwork thieves’ tools enables you to make the check with a +2 circumstance bonus.

            Special: Untrained characters cannot pick locks, but they might successfully force them open.

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            - Perform (Cha)

You are skilled in some type of artistic expression and know how to put on a show. Perform is actually a number of separate skills. Possible Perform types include ballad, chant, comedy, dance, drama, drums, epic, flute, harp, lute, mime, ode, singing, juggling, storytelling, and horn. (The GM may authorize other types.) You are capable of one form of performance per rank.

            Special: In addition to using the Perform skill, a character could entertain people with the Tumble skill.

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            - Pick Pocket (Dex)

Trained Only; Armor Check Penalty

You can cut or lift a purse and hide it on your person, palm an unattended object, or perform some feat of legerdemain with an object no larger than a hat or loaf of bread.

            Special: If you have 5 or more ranks in Bluff, you get a +2 synergy bonus on Pick Pocket checks.

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            - Profession> (Wis)

Trained Only

You are trained in a livelihood or a professional role, such as apothecary, boater, bookkeeper, brewer, cook, driver, farmer, fisher, gambler, guide, herbalist, herdsman, innkeeper, lumberjack, miller, miner, porter, rancher, sailor, scribe, siege engineer, stable hand, tanner, teamster, woodcutter, and so forth.

            Like Craft, Profession is actually a number of separate skills. For instance, you could have the skill Profession (cook). Your ranks in that skill don’t affect any checks you happen to make for milling or mining. You could have several Profession skills, each with its own ranks, each purchased as a separate skill.

            While a Craft skill represents skill in creating or making an item, a Profession skill represents an aptitude in a vocation requiring a broader range of less specific knowledge. To draw a modern analogy, if an occupation is a service industry, it’s probably a Profession skill. If it’s in the manufacturing sector, it’s probably a Craft skill.

            Special: Untrained laborers and assistants can earn an average of 1 silver penny per day.

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            - Read Lips ((IInt)

Trained Only; Wanderer only

You can understand what others are saying by watching their lips.

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            - Ride (Dex)

You can ride a particular type of mount (usually a horse, but possibly a different mount). When you select this skill, choose the type of mount you are familiar with. For this purpose, “horses” includes mules, donkeys, and ponies. If you use the skill with a different mount (such as riding a torm when you’re used to riding horses), your rank is reduced by 2 (but not below 0). If you use this skill with a very different mount (such as riding a raken when you’re used to riding horses), your rank is reduced by 5 (but not below 0).

           Special: If you are riding bareback, you suffer a -5 penalty on Ride checks. If you have 5 or more ranks in Handle Animal, you get a +2 synergy bonus on Ride checks. The Ride skill is prerequisite for the feats Mounted Combat, Mounted Archery, Trample, Ride-By Attack, and Spirited Charge. (See file: Feat List for feat descriptions.)

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            - Search (Int)

You can scour an area for lost items, find hidden compartments, locate traps, and discern other details not readily apparent to the casual observer. The Spot skill lets you notice something, such as a hiding assassin. The Search skill lets a character discern some small detail or irregularity through active effort.

            Special: A character that does not have the Track feat can use the Search skill to find tracks, but can only follow tracks if the DC is 10 or less.

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            - Sense Motive (Wis)

Use this skill to tell when someone is bluffing you. This skill represents sensitivity to the body language, speech habits, and mannerisms of others.

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            - Speak Language (None)

Trained Only

The Language skill doesn’t work like a standard skill.

-          You start at 1st level knowing how to read, write, and speak in your primary language.

-          Instead of buying a rank in Speak Language, you choose a new language in which you are proficient.

-          You don’t make Speak Language checks. You either know how to use a specific language or you don’t.

-          The World of Dreams guild assumes that characters with the appropriate language skill can speak, read, and write the language. If the language doesn’t have a written form, a character obviously can’t write it.

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- Spot (Wis)

Use this skill to notice opponents waiting in ambush, to see an assassin lurking in the shadows, or to discern soldiers in the distance.

            Special: A character with the Alertness feat gets a +2 synergy bonus on Spot checks.

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            - Swim (Str)

Using this skill, a land-based creature can swim, dive, navigate underwater obstacles, and so on.

            Special: Each hour that you swim, make a Swim check against DC 20 or suffer 1d6 points of subdual damage from fatigue. Instead of an armor check penalty, you suffer a penalty of -1 for every 5 pounds of gear you carry.

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            - Tumble (Dex)

Trained Only; Armor Check Penalty

You can dive, roll, somersault, flip, and so on. You can’t use this skill if your speed has been reduced by armor or excess equipment.

            Special: A character with 5 or more ranks in Tumble gains a +3 dodge Defense bonus when executing the fight defensively standard or full-round action instead of a +2 dodge Defense bonus.

            A character with 5 or more ranks in Tumble gains a +6 dodge Defense Bonus when executing the total defense attack action instead of a +4 dodge Defense bonus. Any untrained check involving maintaining balance (such as on a narrow ledge) that doesn’t require special moves is simply a Dexterity check.

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            - Use Rope (Dex)

With this skill, you can make firm knots, undo tricky knots, and bind prisoners with ropes.

            Special: A silk rope gives a +2 circumstance bonus on Use Rope checks. If you have 5 or more ranks in escape Artist, you get a +2 synergy bonus on checks to bind someone.

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            - Wilderness Lore (Wis)

Use this skill to hunt wild game, guide a party safely through frozen wastelands, identify signs of a Trolloc unit’s passage, or avoid natural hazards. With the Track feat, you can also use this skill to track foes through the wilderness.

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- Composure (Wis)

Trained Only

You are particularly good at maintaining inner calm.

            Retry: Normally, you can’t retry a Composure check.

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            - Weavesight (Int)

Initiate, Wilder Only

User this skill to identify weaves as they are cast or that are held or tied off. Note that even with this skill, only male channelers can see weaves cast by other male channelers, and only females can see those cast by female channelers.

            Retry: You can retry if the caster recasts the weave. If the caster is holding or has tied off the weave, you may retry after studying it for 10 minutes. Residues are harder to see; if retrying when using the Sense Residue feat, each retry not only requires 10 minutes of study, but also increases the DC by 5.

            Special: You suffer a –5 penalty to attemps to learn a weave if it does not use any of the Five Powers for which you have an Affinity.

            If you have the Sense Residue feat, you may attempt to use Weavesight on a weave that was recently cast but which is no longer held or tied off. Make the checks with a –2 penalty if the weave was released within the past 2 hours, a –5 penalty if released more than 2 hours ago but within 24 hours, a –10 penalty if release more than one day ago but within a week, and a –15 penalty if released more than a week ago but within one month. You cannot use Weavesight on weaves release more than one month ago.

            If you have the Sense Residue feat, you may also attempt to recognize inverted weaves. If you do not succeed at a DC of at least 10, you do not spot the weave at all. Attempts to spot inverted weaves cannot be retried.

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©2001 Wizards of the Coast, Inc., a division of Hasbro, Inc. All rights reserved. Wheel of Time © and ™ Robert Jordan. Wheel of Time is trademark of Robert Jordan. All characters, character names, and descriptions therefore are trademarks and/or copyrights of Robert Jordan.