There are some aspects of character improvement that aren't so powerful that they must always wait for a new level to achieve. Similarly, sometimes options that seemed good when first taken turn out to be less useful than anticipated. Making these small improvements and rectifying regrettable choices can be handled during play from a character perspective using Downtime. Realm of Runes has extensive rules for both scenarios to allow for both a feeling of organic character growth over time, and to inspire confident choices of options with the knowledge that most can be undone if you feel it necessary.
SPECIALIZED TEACHERS
Both Study and Retraining sometimes make use of a specialized teacher. These teachers are usually another creature that already has the new option you want. These can be NPCs offering to help for favors, cash, or just because they like you and want to be helpful. Teachers can also be other party members, too. Some magic spells or items can also function as a specialized teacher, making it possible to use Study or Retraining alone, even in the middle of the wilderness. If a use of Study or Retraining requires a specialized teacher, that teacher must be present and actively teaching throughout every shift spent. However, as long as a teacher is present, it does not have to be the same teacher for each shift.
RETRAINING
There are many different aspects of a character that can be altered or replaced through Retraining. Each one requires some number of Downtime Shifts to complete, and many require a Specialized Teacher to accomplish. As with most Downtime activities, it is not necessary to finish Retraining all at once, and any amount of intervening time can be spent between shifts without hampering your character's progress with Retraining. Even better, redoing aspects of your character does not require any checks, and thus never has a chance of failure. If you want to swap one choice for another, you will be able to do it at your discretion. That being said, there are some aspects of a character that can't be undone through retraining. Some options, like biological ancestry feats, are not able to be swapped this way. Sometimes magic can help with such otherwise irrevocable decisions instead.
While there are a few choices that can't be fixed through Retraining, there are many more that can. Each one has its own length requirement to represent how extensive a change it is. The more ingrained an option is into your character's capabilities, the more shifts it requires to replace. This process usually can't be sped up, except by certain magic. In every case, one the requisite number of shifts has been completed, your character replaces one aspect of that category for a new one. This new choice does not have to be one that was available at the time it was originally made. If you've leveled up a few times before you decide one of your feats isn't working for you, for example, you can pick any feat for which you qualify now when you Retrain the old one away. In all cases, your character's current capabilities continue to function exactly as well right up until they are swapped out. You're never stuck with any dud time where aspects of your character do not function at all.
RETRAINING AN ABILITY MODIFIER
You can use Downtime to rearrange your ability modifiers. This can be particularly helpful if you find that you expected one ability to be more useful than it turned out to be, and you wish that you had just put those ability boosts somewhere else. Retraining an ability modifier always takes 7 shifts. Once complete, your character reduces one of its modifiers by 1, then increases another by 1. Retraining an ability modifier does not require a specialized teacher. Once the change is made, recalculate all statistics and resources derived from each ability modifier changed. This can cause a character to gain or lose maximum hit points, or increase the size of its daily resource pools like Spell Points or Resonance.
RETRAINING AN ANCESTRY FEAT
You can use Downtime to alter your character's immersion with the culture of its ancestry. This can be particularly helpful if your character's relationship with its ancestry has changed somehow, but can also be done just because you find the feat's abilities aren't as useful to you as they seemed to be during character creation. Retraining an ancestry feat takes 7 shifts. Once complete, your character replaces one non-biological ancestry feat with another non-biological ancestry feat. Retraining an ancestry feat requires a specialized teacher.
RETRAINING A CLASS FEAT
You can use Downtime to swap one of your class feats for a different one. This can be particularly helpful if your focus within a class has changed or been refined over time, or simply because another feat has effects you like better or that have good synergy with some other aspect of your character's growth that hadn't been planned on. Retraining a class feat takes one shift per level of the new feat, making higher-level feats take more effort to gain this way. You cannot retrain a class feat that is used as a prerequisite for any other option, and if you want to you have to first retrain away whatever the feat was used as a prerequisite for. Once complete, your character loses one class feat and gains another for which you meet the prerequisites, of the level you chose by the time you spent. Retraining a class feat does not require a specialized teacher.
RETRAINING A CLASS FEATURE OR SPECIALIZATION
Some class features offer a choice of benefits, rather than always providing the same effect to every character of that class. All classes offer some sort of specialization within the class, such as an Alchemist's discipline or a Cleric's deity. You can use Downtime to alter the choices made for both of these categories of expertise. Retraining a class feature choice always takes 7 shifts. Retraining a specialization takes 2 shifts for each class feat or feature you have that is altered by the change. Once complete, your character loses all the benefits of the previous choice and gains all the benefits of the new choice instead. Retraining a class feature choice does not require a specialized teacher, but retraining a specialization does.
RETRAINING AN ESOTERIC PROFICIENCY
You can use Downtime to rearrange your esoteric proficiencies. This can be especially helpful if you decide that you're failing too many saving throws of a certain type, or if you want to focus on a different type of weapon and you just aren't getting full use out of some of your existing proficiencies. Retraining an esoteric proficiency takes 10 shifts. Once complete, your character reduces its proficiency tier with one esoteric proficiency and increases its proficiency tier with another by one step each. The character must meet the minimum level requirement for the new tier. Retraining an esoteric proficiency only requires a specialized teacher if improving from untrained.
RETRAINING A GENERAL FEAT
You can use Downtime to swap out General Feats. Since many General Feats represent specialized tactics, this can be especially helpful if you find yourself making use of a different combat or magic style than you expected. Retraining a general feat takes 3 shifts per level of the new feat. You cannot retrain a feat used as a prerequisite for any other option, and if you want to you have to first retrain away whatever the feat was used as a prerequisite for. Once complete, your character loses one general feat and gains another for which you qualify, of a level determined by the time spent retraining. Retraining a general feat requires a specialized teacher unless you are gaining another rank of a feat you already have, such as another rank of Toughness or Remarkable Resonance.
RETRAINING A SKILL FEAT
You can use Downtime to choose a different Skill Feat. When you do, the new feat does not have to belong to the same skill as the one being trained away, making this option particularly helpful if your character finds itself relying on different skills than initially expected. Retraining a skill feat takes 2 shifts per level of the new feat. You cannot retrain a skill feat that is used as a prerequisite for any other option, and if you want to you have to first retrain away whatever the feat was used as a prerequisite for. Once complete, your character loses a skill feat and gains another for which it qualifies, of a level determined by the time spent retraining. Retraining a skill feat requires a specialized teacher unless you are an expert with the skill the new feat belongs to.
RETRAINING A SKILL PROFICIENCY
Retraining a skill proficiency works much like retraining an esoteric proficiency. Like retraining skill feats, this can be helpful if your character isn't getting a lot of use out of one of its skills and wishes it was better with another. Retraining a skill proficiency takes 7 shifts. Once complete, your character reduces its proficiency tier in a skill and increases its proficiency tier in another by one step each. You cannot retrain a proficiency tier if it is being used as a prerequisite for a skill feat, and if you want to you have to first retrain away any skill feats the tier is being used as a prerequisite for. The character must meet the minimum level requirement for the new tier. Retraining skill proficiency only requires a specialized teacher if improving from untrained.
STUDY
Whereas Retraining is used to replace one option with another, Study is instead used to make improvements to your character that don't require you to lose anything in exchange. Study is a bit more open-ended than Retraining, and the number of shifts it takes to complete a period of study can be widely variable. Study is primarily used for learning a new language, or improving your fluency with one you already know, or for adding new Knowledge Specialties to your skill set. Both of these aspects of your character can be improved instantly through class, general or skill feats if you want or need to, but Study is a great option for when these improvements aren't urgent, or if you think there might be a while before you get a chance to gain a new level. Study always requires a specialized teacher of some sort.
STUDYING A KNOWLEDGE SPECIALTY
Knowledge Specialties have a huge influence on what a character is likely to remember about important topics. The difference between Recall Knowledge and Recall General Knowledge (which has a stiff penalty), is whether or not the information corresponds to a Knowledge Specialty you have. Everyone that is trained in the Knowledge skill has at least one specialty to work with, and several other skills also function as additional specialties in order to provide for a well-rounded experience base. Adding new Knowledge Specialties can make a character even more well-rounded, but isn't nearly as potent of a benefit for a feat choice as, say, an action economy enhancer like Power Attack or Sudden Charge.
When you Study a Knowledge Specialty, the specialized teacher is usually another creature that already has that specialty, but you can use a book or a library as your teacher instead if you want to. Using a book is typically harder than learning from a living being. After each shift Studying a Knowledge Specialty, your character attempts an Intelligence check. This represents your character's ability to retain the new information it's trying to learn. If this check is a success, congratulations! Your character has added a new specialty to its capability. If you fail, don't worry. You can keep trying with more Study, and your efforts are still rewarded by an increasing bonus to your next attempt until you succeed. Even if your character isn't particularly good at intellectual pursuits, enough Study will get you where you need to be.
STUDYING A LANGUAGE
It can be particularly frustrating if your character is always getting left out of important conversations because they're happening in a foreign language. On the other hand, if your character makes extensive use of Lingual effects, being more fluent with a language can give you an edge over others. Most characters are fluent, or at least conversant, with a few languages at character creation. Getting to academic fluency or learning new languages from scratch can be achieved using Downtime without spending feats that could be more helpfully allocated to other capabilities.
When you Study a language, the specialized teacher is usually another character that is more fluent than you are, but you can use an extensive text if you want to or that's all that is available. Using a text to learn a language is harder than learning it from a living being. After each shift Studying a language, your character attempts an Intelligence check. This represents your character's ability to grasp the structure and grammar or the language better. If this check is a success, your character improves its fluency with the language by one step, or by more than one step if the check turns out to be a critical success. As with Studying Knowledge Specialties, if you fail your continued practice makes the next check a little bit easier until you succeed.
Study and Retraining are incredibly useful tools for converting game time into organic changes to a character's capability. Study helps a character grow in important ways without feeling pressure to sacrifice more potent capabilities for ones that typically feel more like flavor. Retraining ensures that you aren't always stuck with an option that turns out to be less helpful, either because it doesn't work like you thought it does or because your character has simply grown away from it. Next time we'll explore how alignment works in Realm of Runes, how it's determined, and how it impacts your character.
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