Skills & Research
Where each art is taught
The Town Hall teaches one art per class per tier — the old three. Everything else is taught where the trade actually lives, which is a reason to raise those structures beyond drilling in them:
| Building | What it teaches |
|---|---|
| Barracks | Blinding Dust, Bulwark, Lookout, The Long Column |
| Laboratory | Quickening Balm, Vitriol Flask, Quicken, Mend the Column, Immovable Object, Unstoppable Force |
| Shadow Guild | Shadow Step, Assassinate, Poison Blade, Steal |
| Bestiary | Beast Bond, Wild Heart, Ensnare |
Nothing is innate
Your Lord begins with steel and a title, not a technique. Every skill is studied at a Town Hall — including your own class's art, which is simply the cheapest project on the list and the one to start with.
Every hero carries up to three skills, and every one of them is studied first and assigned afterward from the unit sheet — including the art of their own class.
Where an art is worked
Every art belongs to one of three arenas, and the Skills button on the command dock gathers all three in one sheet:
- Always — passives, simply true while the hero lives. Rally, Shield Wall, Plunder, Field Mending.
- In battle — thrown on the field, spending that hero's action. They appear as chips in the battle dock on their turn.
- On the map — worked between fights, from the Skills sheet. One a day per hero.
Essence: what an art costs
Every soldier carries Essence, not only the alchemists — a warrior starts with 12, a rogue 14, a keeper 16, an adept 20, and it grows with every level. It is what arts are paid from, and it is the only thing stopping a hero throwing a net every single turn.
| Art | Costs |
|---|---|
| Shadow Step, Lookout, Steal | 3 ✨ |
| Ensnare, Blinding Dust, Quicken | 4 ✨ |
| Quickening Balm | 5 ✨ |
| Vitriol Flask, Assassinate, Immovable Object | 6 ✨ |
| Unstoppable Force | 8 ✨ |
| Mend the Column | 10 ✨ |
Transmute Blast is the exception: each cast spends half the remaining pool and deals that plus your craft, so its price is its effect — and a caster keeps casting, in the dice and on the field alike, until the pool runs below 10.
Craft: what an art is worth
Essence is what an art costs. Craft (⚗) is what it is worth. The two damages are separate: steel and bowstring on one side, the working on the other. A Transmute Blast lands for half your pool plus your craft; a vitriol flask and a quickening balm both add it too.
Adepts carry the most craft and gain more with every level; keepers carry some; a rogue a little; a warrior none. A flask is the way to buy more of it, and it charges you melee and reach for the privilege; a grimoire in the off-hand adds a little more and asks nothing back — see Arms & Artifacts.
Essence comes back a fifth as fast as blood, and only where blood does — standing on your own territory, or under Field Mending. Recovering your arts means going home. Plan a campaign around it: a hero who spends everything in one fight is carrying dead weight for the next several days.
The Philosopher's Stone
Its bearer's Essence never runs down — but the working comes out of them instead, a third of the price in blood. It can never be the blow that kills them. See Arms & Artifacts.
How research works
Research happens at the Town Hall of any city you own; the hall's level is the city's level, and it gates what can be studied:
| Hall level | Opens | Cost | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The class arts (tier 1) | 60🪙 4💎 | 2 days |
| 2 | The deeper studies (tier 2) | 150🪙 10💎 | 5 days |
| 3 | The masterworks (tier 3) | 200🪙 16💎 | 6 days |
One project sits on the bench at a time, guild-wide. Once a skill is mastered it belongs to the whole guild forever: any hero of the right class can assign it from their unit sheet, from that day on, and a mastered skill can be unassigned and reassigned freely.
The warrior's line
| Skill | Tier | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| 📣 Rally | 1 | The whole party fights at +2 attack and +2 defense while this hero leads |
| 🛡 Shield Wall | 2 | The party braces at +3 defense whenever it is the one attacked |
| 📯 Warcry | 3 | The enemy line falters: every foe fights at −2 attack and −2 defense |
Warriors anchor a line. Rally is always on; Shield Wall turns a garrisoned warrior hero into a wall worth breaking armies on; Warcry is the siege-breaker, softening a deep garrison before the blades cross. Warcry saps their blows as well as their guard, so Rally and Warcry together swing every exchange by six points.
The rogue's line
| Skill | Tier | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| 🌫 Ambush | 1 | A free opening volley whenever this party attacks, +15% to a fleeing Lord's escape, and ambushes are sprung more often |
| 🪙 Plunder | 2 | Hoards turn up in 60% of taken holds instead of 40%, and dungeon chests run half again as rich |
| ⚔ Overwhelm | 3 | The class counter (warrior beats rogue beats alchemist beats warrior) deals double damage instead of half again, for the whole party |
Rogues profit from initiative and greed. Ambush makes every attack begin a step ahead; Plunder pays for itself within a few raids, and it belongs on whichever hero storms the most holds; Overwhelm rewards building a party that counters what your enemy fields. Rogue heroes also sneak parties past dungeon floors, and flee down stairs mid-fight.
The alchemist's line
| Skill | Tier | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| ⚗️ Transmute Blast | 1 | Burns half the hero's remaining Essence — plus their craft — as armor-ignoring damage, and keeps casting while the pool holds (on the tactical field, a cast at range 3) |
| 🩹 Field Mending | 2 | The whole party heals an extra 10% of max HP every day, even on the march |
| 🌀 Quicksilver March | 3 | The hero's craft lightens every boot: the party marches +3 move points a day |
Alchemists win wars between the battles. Transmute Blast scales with Essence, so a leveled alchemist Lord opens with a thunderclap; Field Mending keeps a campaigning army whole without ever going home; and Quicksilver March makes one army fight like two by arriving first. Put March on the party that answers threats, and Mending on the one that never stops pushing.
The arts taught in the trade halls
These are not on the Town Hall's bench. Each is studied where its trade lives, which is the reason to raise those buildings past drilling in them. Most are active — used on the battlefield, spending the hero's turn.
Barracks · the warrior's yard
| Skill | Tier | Used? | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| 💨 Blinding Dust | 2 | active | Grit in a foe's eyes: their blows go wide half the time for two turns |
| 🧱 Bulwark | 3 | passive | A hero who spends their turn holding ground gives +2 guard to every ally beside them |
| 🚩 The Long Column | 3 | passive | This hero leads ten soldiers instead of eight |
The Long Column is the one art that changes the shape of an army rather than the outcome of a swing, and it belongs to whoever is actually leading: a second hero marching in the ranks carrying it adds nothing. Split them off into a banner of their own and the two extra places go with them.
Laboratory · the alchemist's bench
| Skill | Tier | Used? | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| 💧 Quickening Balm | 2 | active | Lays a balm over a patch of ground that settles a few battlefield turns later and heals every ally standing in it |
| ⏱ Quicken | 2 | active | Hurries one ally: they come round in the turn order much sooner |
| 🧪 Vitriol Flask | 3 | active | Hurls a flask that eats everything in a three-tile square — friend and foe alike, so mind the throw |
Quickening Balm is shared: learning it opens it for Beastmasters too, though in their hands it tends only the beasts.
Shadow Guild · the rogue's trade
| Skill | Tier | Used? | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🌑 Shadow Step | 2 | active | Melts into cover: much harder to hit until this hero's next turn |
| 🗡 Assassinate | 3 | active | A killing blow struck from behind a foe — or from above. Nothing from the front |
| 🧪 Poison Blade | 3 | passive | This hero's blows leave a wound that keeps bleeding for three battlefield turns |
Bestiary · the keeper's arts
The Beastmaster is a calling of its own — hired at a Bestiary, never mustered, and no guild is led by one. Beast Bond and Wild Heart are theirs alone, and only once they are raised to hero.
| Skill | Tier | Used? | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🕸 Ensnare | 2 | active | Throws a net over one foe: they cannot take a step for two turns, though they can still fight |
| 🐾 Beast Bond | 2 | passive | Every beast in this hero's party fights at +3 attack and +3 defense |
| 🫀 Wild Heart | 3 | passive | Beasts in this party keep for half the gold, and mend 15% of their health each day |
Trades overlap. Ensnare is a rogue's art that keepers share — the same net, thrown by either. Quickening Balm is shared the other way: the adepts mix it, and in a keeper's hands it tends only the beasts.
Arts worked on the map
Studied like any other, but used between fights from the Skills sheet — once a day each.
| Skill | Who | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| 🧷 Mend the Column | Alchemist | Dresses the whole party's wounds at once: a quarter of every soldier's health |
| 🪨 Immovable Object | Alchemist | Calls up a boulder. On the map it shuts a tile for good — nothing routes through it again |
| 💥 Unstoppable Force | Alchemist | The same boulder, or on the field a shove that puts a foe two tiles back. If a drop is behind them, they take the fall |
More arts of the field
| Skill | Who | Used? | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🔁 Lookout | Warrior | active | Changes places with an ally within walking distance. It costs the march, not the blow — both of you can still fight |
| 🫳 Steal | Rogue | active | Lifts a draught or charter off a foe in reach. They do not get it back |
Reading the research screen
Open any city's Research tab. The list is ordered by what an art asks for: whatever is on the bench first, then everything that could go on it today, then what is still shut — cheapest gate first — and what you have already mastered at the bottom. Each row says what it wants in its own words: "needs hall 2" for a Town Hall study, "needs a Shadow Guild (level 2)" for a trade-hall one.
The pills across the top cut the list down: All, Open (only what can be started today), or one calling at a time. An art two callings share — the net — shows under both.
Tap any row and the panel on the right explains it and carries the button. Upgrading any one city to level 3 opens the masterworks for the whole guild.