Once a player chooses his character's Discipline, he chooses talents from those available in that Discipline and assigns a rank to each one. When creating a character, each player has 8 Rank Points to assign to his or her character's talents. He may assign 1, 2, or 3 Rank Points to the talents available to his First Circle character. This number becomes the talent's Rank. If an Archer player decides to assign 2 Rank Points to his character's Missile Weapons talent, his Archer uses that talent at Rank 2.

Each talent is based on an Attribute, which appears in the game information for each talent. To use a talent, the character adds the talent rank steps to the step of an Attribute. For example, a character with a Dexterity Value of 13 uses a Dexterity Step of 6. By assigning 2 Rank Points to his Melee Weapons talent, the Archer now uses Step 8 (Dexterity Step 6 + 2 steps) when using the Melee Weapons talent. The Step/Action Dice Table shows that the Archer's player rolls 2D6 when the character uses the Melee Weapons talent.

Do not record a talent on your Character Record Sheet to which you can assign no Rank Points. Your character does not have that talent. (See Versatility, for an exception to this rule.)

Nearly every time your character uses a talent, he makes a test to determine if and how successfully he used that talent (see Rolling Dice and Tests in Game Concepts). This test often replaces an Attack Test (see Combat). The step number he uses for the test is determined by one of your character's Attribute steps and the talent rank. The Difficulty Number for the test—the number the character's dice roll must equal or exceed— is usually the target's Spell or Physical Defense Rating. Other Difficulty Numbers appear in the individual talent descriptions.

To make a Talent Test (also referred to by the name of the talent, i.e., Melee Weapons Test), the character rolls the Action dice indicated by the talent step number against a Difficulty Number (see Step/Action Dice Table, p. 36). For the test to succeed, the dice roll result must be equal to or greater than the Difficulty Number. If the dice roll result exceeds the Difficulty Number by a substantial margin, the character using the talent may have achieved an advantageous success level, which would increase or change the effect of the character's talent use (see Test Results in Game Concepts).

Related Tests

Many talents are used for combat. The effects of these talents may cause damage to a target. After successfully using such a talent, the character makes a Damage Test to determine how many points of damage his attack caused to the target (see Make Damage Test in Combat). To make a Damage Test, the character rolls the Action dice for the Damage step number of the weapon used in the attack (per the item's description in the Goods and Services chapter.). The dice roll result is the number of Damage Points the attack inflicts on the target.

The effects of non-combat talents appear in the individual talent descriptions. For example, some talents allow a character to resist the effect of a social interaction (see Interaction Tests in Gamemastering Earthdawn). A successful test allows the character to resist the effect of his opponent's social interaction, such as intimidation, persuasion, or taunts. The Resist Taunt talent provides a good example of this type of test.

Some talents require characters to add an extra boost of magical energy to the talent use. This extra energy comes from the character's Karma, and represents a way for characters to siphon off a smaller amount of magical energy than that required to weave a thread (see Workings of Magic). This extra boost also makes it more likely that the Talent Test will be successful. To use Karma for a talent, roll the character's Karma dice at the same time you roll the dice for the Talent Test.

The individual talent descriptions in this section give rules for using each talent.

Certain talents represent abilities that every character should have in order to be a well-rounded person. The Default Attribute system allows characters whose Discipline does not make these talents available to use the Default Attribute to perform the actions normally allowed by these fundamental talents. For example, a character who did not have the Melee Weapons Talent could still swing a sword using his Dexterity, because the Melee Weapons Talent defaults to the Dexterity Attribute. That character would use his Dexterity step to make the Melee Weapons Test. Only the talents listed below default to an Attribute.

The effects of certain talents have a stated duration. A talent's exact duration is usually determined by multiplying the talent rank by an increment of time (rounds, minutes, hours, and so on). This is usually shown as "The effect of Engaging Banter lasts a number of rounds equal to the character's Engaging Banter rank," or "a number of rounds equal to the Engaging Banter talent."

A round is a timekeeping unit used to keep the action of the adventure flowing. A round represents the time required to take an action, and equals 10 seconds of game time. A round of action during combat is referred to as a Combat Round.

Because talents are powered by magic, characters and gamemaster characters can interrupt or end an opponent's use of a talent by using magic-disrupting spells such as Dispel Magic. The Difficulty for dispelling a talent is based on its rank. Use the Dispelling Table in the Spell Magic section, substituting the talent rank for the spell Circle.

In most cases, knocking the character who is using the talent unconscious also ends the effect of the talent.

The talent descriptions that follow describe how to use each talent and the effect of a successful Talent Test. The text describes the effects of the talent, and boldface entries above each description summarize important game information about each talent. The game information provided falls into the following categories.

Step Number

The Talent Step Number is a number usually determined by adding a number of steps equal to the character's talent rank to an Attribute step. The resulting step number indicates the Action dice the player rolls to make the Talent Test. For example, the Spellcasting step number equals the character's Spellcasting talent rank plus his Perception step. A character with a Perception Value of 13 (Step 6) and Spellcasting Rank 3 would have a Spellcasting Step Number of 9. The Step/Action Dice Table shows that Step 9 is D8 + D6 Action dice.

Certain talents add bonus steps to this basic step number. For example, the Claw Shape talent adds steps equal to the talent rank + 3 steps to the Strength step. This is listed as "Step Number: Strength + Rank + 3."

Some talents count as the single action available during combat (see Actions in Combat). This is noted by the word "Yes" on the Action line for these talents. Those talents which do not count as an action are so noted by the word "No" on the Action line. A "Yes" on the Action line may also indicate that a character can perform no other action while using this talent. (See the talent description to determine this distinction.) Note that not all talents requiring an action can be performed during a single Combat Round; some talents require several minutes or more to perform.

The notation NA appears on the Action line of some talents. This notation indicates that these talents are always in use, for example, Durability and Spell Matrices (see talent descriptions). A character automatically benefits from talents with this notation; he or she has constant access to the applicable effects without performing an action to use the talent.

Requires Karma

Unless the talent description states otherwise, your character can spend only 1 Karma Point to use a talent.

If a talent requires Karma AND is a Discipline talent for your Discipline (see below), your character may choose whether or not to spend the Karma Point.

Discipline Talent Use

Some Disciplines emphasize the importance of particular talents and mold a greater portion of their magic around these talents. These talents are called Discipline talents. When your character uses a Discipline talent, you may spend 1 Karma Point to increase the chance of succeeding at the required test. You must roll the Karma dice at the same time you roll the dice for the Talent Test. Spending a Karma Point on a Discipline talent does NOT increase the damage of the attack.

The Discipline Talent Use line lists the Disciplines that use the talent as a Discipline talent.

Kricklen the Swordmaster is using the Melee Weapons talent during his effort to make a stylistically perfect attack against his opponent. The Melee Weapons talent is a Discipline talent for Swordmasters. That means Kricklen may spend 1 Karma Point to increase his chance of making a successful Attack Test.

Skill Use

Many of the talents can be learned as skills, that is, as a mundane variation of the same ability. If your character can learn a given talent as a skill, this line shows a Yes. Learning talents as skills is harder, takes longer, and costs more, but allows a character to use a talent non-magically. Characters use this method to gain the effects of talents outside their Dscipline. See the Skills section for more information on using talents as skills.

Strain

Some talents need an extra boost of magical energy to work. Of these, some talents take this energy in the form of Karma Points, as described above. Talents that cause Strain drain small doses of your character's life energy for their power. Strain is the number of Damage Points your character takes each time he or she uses the talent. A character may take Strain damage multiple times for a single talent in a single round.

Delthrien the Archer has Rank 3 Quick Shot talent. He may take up to 3 shots per round using Quick Shot. Quick Shot has a Strain of 1. If Delthrien used Quick Shot to take 3 shots, he would take 3 points of damage from Strain.

Your character always takes full, unmodified damage from Strain. Armor and other defensive measures do not protect against Strain damage.

If a talent causes Strain AND is a Discipline talent for your character's Discipline (see above), your character still takes Strain even if he spends a Karma Point to power the talent.