Skill & Spell Fields

 

Unlike most RPGs, Mythmaster does not have a concept of classes or professions. Instead, Mythmaster offers 193 unique skills and 153 different spells, all of which are grouped into 37 different skill or spell fields that characters can progress within. Improving from Novice to Grandmaster within a given field means purchasing skills with experience points, and in some cases, improving your stats in order to meet prerequisites to increase your mastery.

Field Mastery

Each of the 28 skill fields and 9 spell fields has its own internal progression. You may have a character who is a Master in the Outdoors, Transport-Land, and Combat-Ranged skill fields, a Companion in the Business and Athletics skill fields, and an Apprentice in the Industry skill field. As you reach each of these tiers, you may unlock certain bonuses, or the option to purchase new perks.

Field Progression

Here is the table for the Transport - Land skill field. In order to reach the Apprentice level in this skill field, you must have lived at least 5 Life Cycles (15 years of age for many species), you must have a Physical attribute of at least 9, and you must have three skills from the table at a skill level of 9 or higher. These skills could come from the Novice level skills listed, but they don't have to. You could have earned some of the skills in the Transport - Land skill field by progressing in another skill field - for example, you may already be a Companion in the Industry skill field (see below), and may have taken the Logistics skill from that skill field already, even though that skill is locked to you on the Transport - Land skill field.

However you get there, reaching the Apprentice level in Transport - Land grants you an immediate bonus of +1 to your Stamina deriviative. If you reach the Apprentice level in a skill field during character creation, it will also automatically make it possible for you to experience life events related to that skill field.

Continuing forward, if you hope to reach the Companion level in Transport - Land , you must have lived at least 7 Life Cycles, you must have both a Physical aatribute and a Stability attribute of at least 10, and you must have five skills from this skill field at a level of 12 or higher. Reaching the Companion level grants you an immediate bonus of +1 to your Vitality stat. This may or may not increase your Physical and/or Stability attributes, and your Health or Stamina derivatives as a consequence. These updates are all automatically managed by the Character Tool, and any skills impacted by adjusted attributes are similarly updated automatically.

In order to reach the Master level, you must have lived at least 9 Life Cycles, you must have both a Physical aatribute and a Stability attribute of at least 11 and you must have seven skills from this skill field at a level of 15 or higher. Reaching the Master level grants you an immediate bonus of +2 to your Health derivative and unlocks the Direction Sense perk, making it available for you to purchase for 2 experience points.

Finally,in order to reach the Grandmaster level, you must have lived at least 11 Life Cycles, you must have Physical and Stability attributes of at least 12, and you must have nine skills from this skill field at a level of 18 or higher. Reaching the Grandmaster level grants you an immediate bonus of +1 to your Strength stat (which may or may not increase your Physical and/or Intensity attributes and associated skills, and your Health or Resolve derivatives as a consequence). It also unlocks the Strong Back perk, making it available for you to purchase for 4 experience points.

Skill Synergies

It is worth mentioning that there are 193 skills distributed across 28 skill fields, but many individual skills appear in multiple skill fields. For example, the Haggling skill appears in the Basic skill field, as well as the Artisan, Trades and Business skill fields. This means that investing in the Haggling skill contributes to your progression in all of these skill fields simultaneously. When planning your character, and when progressing through character creation, it is a good idea to keep track of your progression in all the skill fields, not just the ones you are specifically focusing on. You may be close to unlocking bonuses or access to perks from other fields without even realizing it.

Hitting Caps

It is possible, though unlikely, that you will hit one of the skill caps in a skill field. For example, imagine your character has a Mental attribute of 15, but has not yet lived for 5 Life Cycles and you choose to purchase a skill roll in the Industry skill field. With a roll of 11 skill points, allocating 2 to Cartography, 2 to Geography and 3 to Mathematics, will raise all three skills at 13. Because your character is not old enough they will be and unable to rise to the Apprentice level, but also unable to allocate the remaining 4 skill points. You would need to invest those skill points in a different skill field (in the Character Tool you can deallocate the points and then choose to spend them in a different skill field where you are not blocked by Skill Caps).