Wisdom is an important mental ability in Realm of Runes. It governs Perception, Will - perhaps the most critical of saving throws - and five out of twelve base classes can, or must, use it as the key ability for casting spells. Much like Strength and Agility, then, Wisdom doesn't need a large quantity of skills at its disposal to remain relevant to everyone. But, while Wisdom might have the fewest innate skills of all the mental attributes, the ones it does have pack a lot of punch. This basic allotment can also be expanded through investment within these skills, or through investment in other skills, such as Medicine, which can become a Wisdom skill if you need it to be.
NATURE
Nature is the skill associated with the primal magical tradition, the tradition used by Druids, Rangers, and some Sorcerer bloodlines. As a tradition skill, it can be used to perform all of the important magic-related skill uses like casting while threatened, learning extra spells, and identifying spells and magic items created with the primal tradition. Like several other skills, when trained, Nature also functions as a Knowledge Specialty and when using Nature this way you can use your Nature skill in place of Knowledge for required checks.
Perhaps even more critically, Nature is the skill used to interact with animal minions, such as animal companions. Animal minions are creatures that are under the control of a character, but are distinct from mindless minions, which have no will of their own, and intelligent minions, which are smart enough to coordinate with their masters through language. Animal intelligence is defined in Realm of Runes as a -4 Intelligence modifier or lower, but not a null value (which is mindless). Creatures in this range are directed to use tricks they know rather than relying on clear communication and understanding.
While all animal companions in Realm of Runes begin knowing several tricks that they can use from the start, one of the most important uses of the Nature skill is to teach these animal minions more tricks. Since animal companions have their own proficiency, they improve in many areas as their masters level up, but a large amount of their actual capability must be taught. With enough time investment, even a low-level companion can know a lot of tricks, but each trick an animal minion knows makes it more difficult to learn a new one. To have a lot of tricks requires a lot of effort, but that effort is rewarded with a minion that becomes incredibly effective.
Nature can also be used to domesticate wild animals, turning them into minions. While most animal minions don't automatically advance in level along with their masters like animal companions do, the Nature skill can be used to turn any animal minion into an animal companion as well. So while Druids, Rangers and Paladins are the most likely classes to have animal companions, any character in Realm of Runes can make use of them if it fits the character concept to do so and they're willing to invest in Nature.
Nature skill feats tend to either focus on primal magic or animal training. Veterinarian causes any of your healing skill checks, such as Treat Wounds, used on a creature with the animal, beast or insect trait to always resolve as one step better than rolled, while Pack Trainer lets you teach a trick to many different animal minions at once, even those belonging to others. Primal Ritualist lets you learn the ritual versions of long-casting-time primal spells, making you permanently able to cast those spells using a skill check instead of spending spell slots or other magical resources to do so. Legendary Nature skill feats include Alpha, which can be used in combat to immediately domesticate a wild creature and causes the newly domesticated animal to immediately begin fighting on your behalf, as quickly as that very turn.
RELIGION
Religion is the skill associated with the divine magical tradition, the type of magic granted by deities. Like other tradition skills, Religion can be used for the important magic-related skill uses, such as casting while threatened, learning extra spells, and identifying spells and magic items of the divine tradition. It can also be used as a Knowledge Specialty by those that are trained in it, and when using it this way the check can be made with Religion instead of Knowledge.
Beyond its use as a magic tradition skill, Religion has a lot in common with Performance and, with some investment, a lot of social interactions can be replaced entirely with the Religion skill, which helps wise, but perhaps uncharismatic, individuals use the influential power of religion to get others to pay attention to them. This doesn't even require the user to personally ascribe to any faith in particular to be effective, as the nature of religion itself tends to discourage uncomfortable questions from those under its sway.
Religion skill feats tend to focus on divine magic or expanding the use of Religion into new areas. Cult of Personality lets you use Religion as any Diplomacy, Intimidation or Society check against creatures, while Minister lets you use Religion during downtime to tend to a flock of believers, even if you don't personally share their belief, in exchange for cash donations. Religious Connections gives you a bonus to many different skill checks against creatures that follow the deity whose iconography you display, but be careful. If a creature catches you using this ability in the guise of a religion it opposes, or a different religion from the last time you influenced it, the bonus turns into a stiff penalty. Legendary Religion skill feats include Invoke Intervention, which causes a deity you choose to intercede on your behalf to change the outcome of a die roll, as long as you are currently in that deity's good graces. Once used, the duration until intervention can be invoked again depends on your Religion skill.
SURVIVAL
Survival is an important quality-of-life skill. While characters that rely on camping gear and supplies will probably not have to use it much, those that invest in Survival have no fear of roughing it using just their wits and the bounty of nature. Survival is also the skill used to follow tracks, or cover your own, and can be used to keep your bearings and avoid getting lost. With investment, Survival can also be used to replace several aspects of other skills that can be helpful in staying alive, both in the wild and in combat.
Survival skill feats help you worry less about environmental dangers, so you can focus your concern over more active threats like monsters. Hazard Endurance lets you use Survival as any save against a disease, poison, trap, or weather effect, while Canny Survivor lets you use Survival as a Knowledge Specialty for the purposes of identifying natural creatures, but also to Recall General Knowledge about unnatural ones, since one of the best ways to stay alive is to know what's trying to kill you. Master Survivalist dramatically increases the time it takes you to starve or dehydrate, potentially indefinitely, and can even let you ignore otherwise devastating weather conditions like severe and extreme heat and cold. Legendary Survival skill feats include Animal Friend, which makes it so that wild animals, beasts and insects are never hostile to you unless you act hostile to them first, potentially saving a lot of time and energy on combat encounters and, if experienced with Nature, giving you plenty of calm time with them to domesticate them if you choose.
Wisdom skills, while few in number, have a lot of potential for broad applications, turning an already strong ability into a force to be reckoned with for those that choose to focus on it. This concludes our look at skills in Realm of Runes. Next time we'll continue our exploration of classes with one of the classes most likely to heavily invest in Wisdom skills like Nature, the Druid.
Comments