Special Skills: A New Category for the General Skill Rules for BECMI/RC
by Håvard Since we have been talking about Special Skills in this topic and this other topic about Clerics, I have been thinking about some new rules for skills.Using these rules, I am dividing skills into General Skills and Special Skills.
Using Special Skills: Most special skills function just like General Skills. However, many have specific effects as well.
Advancement
Starting Character Special Skills: Using these rules, a PC gains 1 special skill and 4 General skills at 1st level.
Gaining New Special Skills: Every four levels (4, 8, 12 etc), the PCs gain 1 new General Skill and 1 new Special Skill. Many Special Skills are only taught at special places in Mystara. This requires the PC to not only spend a Special Skill point, but also find a teacher in those locations willing to teach those skills first.
IMPORTANT: Some skills that were previously considered General Skills are now considered Special Skills. Here are some examples:
Sample Special Skills
| SPECIAL SKILL | SOURCE | Effect | Taught |
| Agility Training (Dex) | Gaz 3 | Allows movement while casting spells | Glantri |
| Conjure Companion (INT) | Gaz 3 | Binds a monster to the caster. | Glantri |
| Learn Language | Gaz 3 | Glantri | |
| Mandragora | Gaz 3 | Glantri | |
| Meditation | Gaz 3 | Glantri | |
| Quick Casting | Gaz 3 | Glantri | |
| Spell Combination | Gaz 3 | Glantri | |
| Wrestling (STR) | RC | +1 to Wrestling Rating | |
| Danger Sense (WIS) | RC | Can detect an immediate danger, wake up if attacked at night. Success avoids surprise. | |
| Alertness (Dex) | RC | Success avoids surprise, unsheathe or change weapon without losing initiative, oppose disarm attempts. | |
| Blind Shooting | RC | Success allows the attacker to ignore penalties for darkness. | |
| Quick Draw | RC | +2 to individual initiative for missile weapons | |
| Artillery | Gaz 12 | +1 to hit with Siege Weapons | Ethengar |
| Rapid Fire | Gaz 12 | Success allows 2 missile attacks per round at -3 to hit | Ethengar, Alfheim |
| Animal Empathy /Monster Empathy | HW | Hollow World | |
| Fighting Instinct | Gaz 12 | +2 to individual melee initiative | Ethengar |
| Equestrian | Gaz 12 | Allows spellcasting, missile fire etc from horseback | Ethengar |
| Ledge Hopper | HW | Allows free movement leaping along mountain sides | Hollow World |
| Treewalking | Gaz 5 | Allows full movement rate walking across treetops (See Ledge Hopper) | Alfheim |
| Leadership | RC | House ruled: Allows reroll of group initiative | |
| Weapon Mastery | Gaz10, Gaz 13 | See my revised version here. | Varies by weapon |
More Special Skills