Bard and Shadow Skills

Twelve skills that work with music rather than the sword, with silence rather than noise. The general rules are in Skills.

The bard branch

Four skills work together: Musicianship is the base, and the others build on it. None of them work without an instrument — carry a lute, harp, drum, tambourine or flute (bought from or made by a carpenter) and keep a spare. An instrument has 350–450 uses (100 more if made exceptional); only Peacemaking, Provocation and Discordance use one up on every attempt, successful or not. Double-clicking the instrument to simply play uses nothing up; your instrument does not run out while you train Musicianship that way. When the uses run out, the instrument plays its last tune and breaks.

Every bard skill tries Musicianship first: if you play badly, nothing happens ("You play poorly, and there is no effect."). So raise Musicianship first.

Musicianship

How it rises: double-click the instrument and play. One of the rare skills that rise on their own, without doing anything to anyone; you go from 0 to 100 just by playing.

Once past 100, the excess makes the others easier: every 2 points above 100 lower the difficulty of provocation/peacemaking by 1 point.

Provocation

You make two creatures attack each other. How to use it: press Provocation's blue button in the Skills window → click the first creature → click the second.

The difficulty is based on the average of the two creatures. So pairing a weak animal with a strong creature makes it easier — the classic bard trick.

Road map: start with rabbit/bird pairs, then orc–skeleton, then dungeon creatures. Each time pick the pairing that is hard for you but not impossible.

Peacemaking

Calms a creature (it stops attacking), or calms everyone around you with an area effect. For escaping, gathering up the dead and slipping out of a crowd.

How it rises: the same logic as provocation — calm the hardest creature you can handle.

Discordance

Lowers a creature's skills and resistances. Valuable not only for hunters but for tamers too: a discorded animal is easier to tame.

How it rises: by using it on creatures; the difficulty works the same as the others.

The shadow branch

Hiding

You become invisible where you stand. How to use it: Hiding's blue button in the Skills window.

You cannot hide while someone fighting you is near. That "nearness" depends on your skill: 18 tiles at 0 skill, 8 tiles at 100. So a master thief can vanish even right under the enemy's nose.

You can always hide in your own house: if you are inside your house (or a house where you are a friend), the attempt always succeeds.

How it rises: by hiding again and again. Hard conditions (creatures nearby, a crowd) teach more.

Stealth

Walking unseen after you hide. Two conditions:

• Hiding must be at least 30 (the rule of this era).
• The number of steps you can take unseen is Stealth ÷ 5: 10 steps at 50 skill, 20 steps at 100. When the steps run out you become visible; stop and hide again.

How it rises: by hiding and walking. Armor matters too: moving stealthily in heavy armor is hard.

Stealing

You lift items from someone else's backpack. The rules:

• Both hands must be empty.
• You can steal something weighing at most 10 stones.
• You cannot steal from merchants.
• To steal from players you must have joined the Thieves' Guild.

How it rises: with a pickpocket dip up to 25; after that you need to steal from NPCs or players. The dip is made with Carpentry (Carpentry 73.6, 65 logs; not sold by merchants) and set up in your house; you can also buy one from a carpenter player.

Rules and penalties for stealing from players: Server Rules. You cannot lay a hand on a player without joining the guild.

Snooping

You see inside someone else's backpack — a thief's first step to know what to steal. It counts as a crime; if you are caught, guards may be called.

How it rises: by looking into others' (NPCs') backpacks.

Lockpicking

Opens locked chests and doors with lockpicks. Lockpicks come from a tinker (Tinkering).

How it rises: you practice on your own locked box. You do not need to go to a dungeon.

1. Boxes are made with Carpentry (Containers → small crate or wooden box). If the maker's Tinkering is high enough, the box comes out locked with its key dropped inside ("Your tinker skill was sufficient to make the item lockable."). A box bought from a merchant has no lock.
2. The maker's Tinkering sets the lock's difficulty. Open it, lock it again with the key (double-click the key, target the box), open it again:

As your skill rises, move to boxes made with higher Tinkering. Opening the same box again and again does not stop gains in Lockpicking.

Dungeon chests (Shame, Hythloth, Covetous, Despise…) only open with 57 (level 1), 72, 84, 92 Lockpicking; they are for advanced levels and are trapped. Treasure map chests → Treasure Hunter

Remove Trap

Removes the traps on chests. It cannot be used until Lockpicking and Detecting Hidden are at least 50: first become a lockpicker, open your eyes, then a trapper. Up to which level it works on treasure chests → Character Builds: Treasure Hunter

How it rises: on trapped chests; treasure hunting and dungeon chests are the best source. It goes together with treasure maps (Cartography).

Poisoning

You apply a poison potion to a weapon or food. A poisoned blade is the fencer's and the thief's favorite thing.

Poison potions are made with Alchemy; you go from lesser poison up to deadly poison. How it rises: by applying poison to weapons; it teaches most when the potion's strength is a little above your skill.

Crime: poisoning another player counts as an attack.

Ninjitsu

Shadow arts: animal form, smoke bombs, sneak attacks.

Not usable on our server at the moment. The Book of Ninjitsu is only sold by the ninja merchants in Tokuno, and the Tokuno map is closed in this era. The same goes for the samurai branch (Bushido). If Tokuno opens, this page will be updated; until then, do not put points into it.

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