Introduction

Recently, I've been rethinking how the minor skills should work and I think I've come up with a solution that makes all of them viable and sensible during gameplay. With this new system, the minor skills will allow the player to use different play-styles in certain scenarios, as well a special action for certain minor skills. This in turn means rewriting the levelling system and the xp formula but in return, we should have a game with more replayability, and an overall better gameplay experience.

The specifics of the action system have not been fully thought out yet and I'll be making another post once they've been fully conceptualized but they will work similarly to the skill checks in Dungeons & Dragons. In short, you roll a d20 and add the corresponding minor skills level. If the result is higher than the "difficulty" of the task, you succeed. Otherwise, you fail the check and something(usually bad) happens.

All minor skills will have the ability to be "tagged" when you create your character. Tagged minor skills increase in level at a faster rate than non tagged skills.

Strength

The minor skills reliant on strength govern all forms of physical damage. They include Stab Weapon, Blunt Weapon, and Slash Weapon. Weapons will still scale off of their respective attribute like before(short swords use dexterity, axes use strength etc), but each weapon will now deal a specific type of damage whether that be stab, blunt, or slash. Extra damage will be awarded based on the corresponding minor skills level.

Dexterity

The dexterity minor skills are Acrobatics, Thievery, and Stealth. 

• Acrobatics effects your dodge chance but will be more heavily used in the action system for jumping over gaps and such. 
• Thievery will be used for opening non-magically sealed doors as well as accessing an NPC's inventory without killing them. 
• Stealth governs how close a hostile needs to be in order to spot you.

Intelligence

The intelligence minor skills are Artificing, Identification, and Medicine.

• Artificing will be used heavily in the planned magic/artifact system which will be described in more detail at a later date but in layman's terms, it gives more potency to artifact abilities.
• Identification allows the player to discern more detailed effects of items, artifacts, and potions.
• Medicine governs the player's ability to heal wounds, reduce pain, and prevent scarring.

Wisdom

The wisdom minor skills are Dissipation, Perception, and Religion

• Dissipation nullifies negative effects from artifact abilities, and can dispel magical seals on doors.
• Perception governs your field of view radius in dungeons and can give you more detailed descriptions of the world around you.
• Religion will use the action system heavily to provide buffs to various attributes through prayers and sermons.

Charisma

The charisma minor skills are Deception, Intimidation, and Persuasion. These skills will mainly be used during dialogue but I am open to the idea of "charm-type" abilities/actions in order to bend the will of an NPC.

Conclusion

In conclusion, my hope is that this will add more depth to the gameplay and make play-styles more unique. I'd love to hear your ideas on the action(s) each minor skill could provide. More on the magic/artifact system at a later date.

Stay tuned,

Jason