Skills define what your character is adept at. The wider the range of skills you take the more versatile you will find yourself in game. Yet, the fewer skills you take, the better you can train. Try to strike a balance, though there is no wrong in being a jack-of-all-trades or a specialized master.

It is also possible to help other players along the way by teaching them your skills. To become an effective teacher and contribute to the gain of a student, the teacher must have 20 more skill in the being checked at the time. There may only be one teacher per student, and a student may not have more than one teacher. If you are a teacher, you may not be a student and vice versa.

A student will gain 20% more skill per check when the teacher is within 4 squares of them. A student will gain this bonus in any skill used that qualifies as a teaching skill (teacher has 20 more than student).

This command will designate a student, and is used by the teacher. This will overwrite the previous teacher on a student.

This command will remove the teacher or student marker from a student. This must be used to remove the marker before a new teacher may be assigned to a student.

Most skills simply gain the more you use them. Some skills, however, are Rate over Time (RoT). RoT skills do not gain if you use them continuously. They only gain if you wait a few minutes in between uses. The amount of time needed between uses to provide a skill gain goes up as the skill goes up. For instance, if a player has 40 lockpicking, they may only need to wait 5 minutes or so between uses in order to produce gain. If, however, a player has 90 lockpicking, they may need to wait 10-15 minutes.

• Common Lore
• Conjuration
• Diplomacy
• Examination
• Hiding
• Leadership
• Lockpicking
• Musicianship
• Ritual
• Search
• Snooping
• Special Lore
• Stealing
• Stealth
• Survival
• Taming
• Tracking
• Willpower

For detailed information about the custom combat system used in Dark Age, read the Combat Guide.

• Cost: 4
• Uses: Increases the amount of damage dealt in combat, and the effect of bandages. Also used to evaluate a mobile’s strength and dexterity.

• Cost: 1
• Uses: Handle tamed creatures, and fighting while mounted.

• Cost: 3
• Uses: Attack/Defend against ballistic weapons.

• Cost: 3
• Uses: Extra damage when attacking mobiles that aren’t in warmode, and when coming out of hiding (using .backstab)

• Cost: 3
• Uses: Chance of ignoring the target’s armor on an attack.

• Cost: 4
• Uses: Dodging attacks. (Usage detailed on the combat guide)

• Cost: 4
• Uses: Attack/Defend with fencing weapons.

• Cost: 3
• Uses: Controlling hired NPCs (mercenaries) and benefits for town rulers.
• A guide to leadership

Characters with the Charismatic background will also receive an additional hired follow.

• Cost: 4
• Uses: Attack/Defend with macing weapons.

• Cost: 4
• Uses: Parry an attack with a weapon or shield (Usage detailed on the combat guide)

• Cost: 4
• Uses: Attack/Defend with swords.

• Cost: 5
• Uses: Avoid getting hit in combat.

• Cost: 3
• Uses: Attack/Defend with fists or gloved weapons (wrist razors)

• Cost: 4
• Craft command: .alchemy , .foragefor (with optional reagent parameter)
• Uses: Making potions and other items with alchemical components, evaluating unknown potions, foraging for reagents.
• A practical guide to alchemy

• Cost: 5
• Craft command: .blacksmith
• Uses: Crafting metal weapons and armor.
• A practical guide to blacksmithy

• Cost: 3
• Craft command: .carpentry
• Uses: Crafting wooden items.
• A practical guide to carpentry

• Cost: 1
• Craft command: .cooking
• Uses: Cooking, and also farming.
• A practical guide to cooking and farming

• Cost: 1
• Uses: Fishing.
• A practical guide to fishing

• Cost: 3
• Uses: Copying spell scrolls or recipes, and also crafting some items.
• A practical guide to inscription

• Cost: 3
• Craft command: .mining , .minefor (with optional resource parameter)
• Uses: Mining for stone, clay or metals, cutting gems, and also craft things with stone or clay.
• A practical guide to mining

• Cost: 4
• Craft command: .tailoring
• Uses: Crafting clothes and armor with furs, cloth or hides.
• A practical guide to tailoring

• Cost: 4
• Craft command: .tinkering
• Uses: Crafting small gadgets, tools, and traps.
• A practical guide to tinkering

• Cost: 4
• Craft command: .woodworking
• Uses: Crafting bows, crossbows, decorations, and gathering lumber
• A practical guide to woodworking

• Cost: 3

Hidding is used to disappear from plain sight, allowing a character to escape from combat, sit in peace, or even move while hidden using Stealth. Once hidden, your character will remain unseen until you move or until your character is found by another player using Search.

Movement: Once hidden, you are not allowed to move without becoming unhidden. To move unseen, you need to use Stealth. An exception is for those characters with over 100 hiding, who receive three free steps even without stealth. This allows for quick movement from where you hid to make detection harder.

Avoiding Detection: When trying to avoid other players using Search, try to stay as far away from the other player as possible. If you are within two tiles of another player who is searching, you are guaranteed to be detected, no matter your skill! Otherwise, your skill in hiding works against another character searching. If you are detected, you won’t be able to hide again for a short period!

Nighttime Bonuses: Hiding is best done at night when other players are hampered from searching. While it is dark out, you’ll receive a bonus for remaining hidden regardless your skill.

• Rogues
• Dungeon Crawlers (escaping near death)

• Cost: 3

Lockpicking is used to open locked chests and doors, including the houses and boats of other players. Lockpicking is also required to open chests produced during treasure hunting, in addition to Cartography. To determine how difficult it is to pick a lock you need to use Examination.

For more information about hunting for treasure, see Cartography.

Becoming a criminal: When picking locks in town, if you fail, a rumour will be generated stating “John Smith was seen picking the lock of Bob’s house!” This will also result in being added to the Jail on Sight list, causing guards to attack you whenever you come too close. Lockpicking in town is only for the truly brave – or stupid. For those lockpickers just starting out, make sure to do any practice outside of town.

Loot Etiquette: When breaking into another player’s house, Dark Age II leaves the type and quantity of items you steal up to your character. The more you take, the more likely the owner will notice and alert other players to hunt you down for punishment. Dry Looting, or the theft of numerous items without reason will be reported by the house owner to the Staff and punished harshly.

• Cost: 4

Poisoning is used to apply poison weapons or food. The damage and duration of poisoning is dependent on your character’s skill and the type of poison applied.

Once a weapon is poisoned, the next target you successfully hit will become poisoned. The poison remains on a weapon only for one hit; once you successfully poison an opponent, you will have to re-apply a new vial. If poison remains on a weapon too long it will become useless, so only poison weapons when you know you are entering combat. To apply a poison vial, perform the following:

1. .skill poisoning
2. Select a vial of poison
3. Select the weapon you wish to poison

Poison can be applied to any type of weapon. When using a bow or throwing dagger, apply poison to the item you place in your hand, not the stack! Otherwise, you’ll waste a bottle of poison for nothing.

When poison is applied to food, the next target that eats the item will become poisoned. You can poison entire stacks of items such as bread or ale, making it easier to affect multiple targets as opposed to weapons which only poison one target.

There are multiple types of poison, each with varying difficulty to apply. All poisons are made with Alchemy. The more difficult the poison to apply, the more damage it causes.

* Note: Iocane and Thanathosis are only craftable with resources produced during quests. Keep an eye out and maybe you’ll get lucky!

• Rogues, Assassins
• Warriors

• Cost: 2

Snooping is used to look into other character’s packs. Once the pack is open, you can use Stealing to take an item.

Progression in snooping is different from other skills. You success at snooping is dependent on multiple variables:

• Your snooping skill
• Target’s dexterity

The difficulty of successfully snooping a target is primarily based on the target’s dexterity. Players in heavy armor will be relatively easy to snoop, while players in plain clothes will be more challenging. Upon successfully snooping a target, you will have access to the target’s backpack for a short duration based upon your current skill. The better you are at snooping, the longer you’ll be able to look what the other player owns.

There is no skill to judge how likely you will succeed at snooping a target. The best judgment for success is using Anatomy on NPCs, while snooping from other players is a dangerous guessing game best left to seasoned thieves.

Intelligence: Apart from dexterity, if your character is smarter than the target character, you will get a small bonus to snooping. Conversely, if your character is dumber than the target, you’ll receive a negative modifier to your success at snooping. End point? Smarter is better!

Heavy Armor: Just as snooping is easier on targets in heavy armor, it’s also harder to successfully snoop while in heavy armor. Any penalty to your dexterity will also decrease your chance of successfully snooping. End point? Snooping while in plain clothes will provide the best chance of success.

Getting Caught: When snooping other players, in town or not, a failure will result in the player being notified. A roll will occur between your snooping skill and their Search skill. If you win, they will receive the message “You recall someone bumping into you, and have the strange feeling something is missing from your bag..” within a few seconds (giving you a short chance to run and hide). Otherwise, they will be immediately informed of your failure and will likely take violent action. Be careful when snooping other players!

Becoming a criminal: When snooping in town, if you fail, a rumour will be generated stating “John Smith has been caught snooping on Bob!” When you truly botch a snooping attempt, it will also result in being added to the Jail on Sight list, causing guards to attack you whenever you come too close. Snooping in town is only for the truly brave – or stupid. For those thieves just starting out, make sure to do any practice outside of town.

• Rogues

• Cost: 3

Stealing is used to steal items from other players or NPCs. When first learning, its best to target NPCs outside of town. As your skills progress, you can become more daring and attempt stealing from other players – at your own risk.

Progression in stealing is different from other skills. You success at stealing is dependent on multiple variables:

• Your stealing skill
• Target’s dexterity

The difficulty of successfully stealing from a target is primarily based on the target’s dexterity. Players in heavy armor will be relatively easy to steal from, while players in plain clothes will be more challenging. Upon successfully stealing from a target you will take an item from the target’s pack and place it in your own. The better you are at stealing, the heavier the item you can steal. When just starting out, you’ll be mostly limited to gold, while at higher levels you’ll be capable of stealing light weapons and armor.

There is no skill to judge how likely you will succeed at stealing a target. The best judgment for success is using Anatomy on NPCs, while stealing from other players is a dangerous guessing game best left to seasoned thieves.

Intelligence: Apart from dexterity, if your character is smarter than the target character, you will get a small bonus to stealing. Conversely, if your character is dumber than the target, you’ll receive a negative modifier to your success at stealing. End point? Smarter is better!

Heavy Armor: Just as stealing is easier on targets in heavy armor, it’s also harder to successfully snoop while in heavy armor. Any penalty to your dexterity will also decrease your chance of successfully stealing. End point? Stealing while in plain clothes will provide the best chance of success.

Heavy Items: The heavier the item you try to steal the less likely you are to succeed. Even the best thief cannot lift a platemail piece from the dumbest of targets. It’s best to learn your own limits through practice.

Getting Caught: When stealing other players, in town or not, a failure will result in the player being notified. A roll will occur between your stealing skill and their Search skill. If you win, they will receive the message “You recall someone bumping into you, and have the strange feeling something is missing from your bag..” within a few seconds (giving you a short chance to run and hide). Otherwise, they will be immediately informed of your failure and will likely take violent action. Be careful when stealing other players!

Becoming a criminal: When stealing in town, if you fail, a rumour will be generated stating “John Smith has been caught stealing from Bob!” When you truly botch a stealing attempt, it will also result in being added to the Jail on Sight list, causing guards to attack you whenever you come too close. Stealing in town is only for the truly brave – or stupid. For those thieves just starting out, make sure to do any practice outside of town.

• Rogues

• Cost: 4

Stealth allows a character to walk while hidden and to wear disguises. Characters become visible once again if too many steps are taken or if an action like opening a door or picking a lock is performed. The success rate and number of steps allowed is based on a characters skill level. Failing a stealth roll does not reveal you, but it does mean you cannot move again until you succeed at a stealth roll.

Stealth can be used to apply disguises which can change your name, hair color, skin color and other attributes surrounding your image. There are three types of disguises: simple, complex, and masterful, all of which are crafted by Alchemy.

* Note: Changing your gender makes your disguise easier to detect! Not every man is made for drag.

Disguises will remain applied until a criminal action is performed or it is revealed by another player using Examination. The higher your stealth, the less likely you are to be revealed by other players. The actual roll to remain disguised is your stealth skill against the opponents examination skill. Depending the complexity of the disguise, detection will be easier or harder for the opponent.

Overweight: When carrying too much weight, your character will become ‘overburdened’ and be more likely to fail a stealth roll. Failing a roll while overburdened will cause your character to be revealed. To prevent being overburdened, keep your weight below your strength x 2. For a character with 70 strength, they can carry 140 stones before becoming overburdened.

Heavy Armor: Wearing heavy armor such as chainmail or platemail will reduce the number of stealth steps you can take. For each -1 dexterity due to armor, you’ll lose one stealth step. Keep this in mind when deciding between light armor such as leather or heavy armor such as chainmail or plate.

Lifting Objects: When lifting heavy objects, there is a chance to be revealed. This is to prevent dragging and dropping heavy objects to avoid the overweight penalty. The same penalty for being overweight is applied when lifting a bag or item, allowing you to be revealed if the bag is too heavy.

• Rogues

• Cost: 2
• Uses: Used in conjunction with magery to summon, speak with, and control conjured creatures.

• While both magery and meditation contribute to helping a mage not cause backlash with his spells, conjuration does such with a greater efficiency and is essential to a mage who plans on using a lot of spell options or high thread count spells of seven or more.

• Cost: 5
• Uses: Enhances the effectiveness of a spell. Curses will be more harmful, protection spells will be stronger, and offensive spells will do more damage. Magic Power, not magery, determines how potent your spells are.

• Magic specialization points are used to either learn a spell school or increase the tier level of an already learned school. These points can be viewed or spent using the command .myspecialization and each level costs one point. Once a point is spent GM approval must be given before it can be removed and occurs very rarely.

• Cost: 6
• Uses: This skill measures your magical knowledge and your ability to cast. Difficult spells will require greater magery. Note: to cast spells, you do need to select the witchblood background.

• Cost: 3
• Uses: Used to resist mind-effecting spells, and with .rage
• NOT FULLY IMPLEMENTED.

• Cost: 3
• Uses: When used in conjunction with the witchblood background, can be used to cast Spellsongs. Without witchblood, it is a tool of entertainment and can be used to gather coins from townsfolk.

• Cost: 3
• Uses: Used for advanced spells that are cast in a ritual.
• NOT FULLY IMPLEMENTED.

• Cost: 2
• Uses: Regenerates your mana faster. Meditating, regardless of your skill level, also increases the regeneration rate of your stamina and hitpoints.

• In addition to allowing a character to regenerate his or her mana and stamina when used adds to a mage’s memorization points. Memorization points allow mages to keep their spells and memory and thus able to cast them without using a spell scroll. The amount of memorization points required to keep a spell in memory is determined by the amount of mana a spell takes to cast. Every point of meditation adds one more memorization point to the mage’s pool.

• Cost: 4
• Uses: The amount of faith this character has in the divine. Priests should select faith, not magery. The lower cost of faith is a result of magic being more potent.
• NOT FULLY IMPLEMENTED.

• Cost: 1

Special lore is used to determine the quality of materials and how difficult they are to work with. For instance, a tailor may want to know deer hide is average quality, while drake hide is of exceptional quality. Similarly, a blacksmith may want to know iron is of normal difficulty to work with, while silver is much easier to work with.

High quality resources make crafting exceptional items easier, while resources that are more difficult to work with make an item harder to craft.

For town leaders, special lore also increases the amount of money brought into the city through taxes.

• Higher quality items tend to have higher difficulty as well.
• The higher the quality, the more likely you are to craft a better weapon. Common Lore can be used to determine the quality of a crafted item.
• The higher the difficulty, the more likely you are to fail at crafting. For instance, if you have a 50% chance of making a platemail breastplate, higher difficulty resources will reduce this to potentially 25% chance of success.

• Crafters
• Town rulers

• Cost: 1

Common lore is used to evaluate the quality of armor, weapons and clothes. The better the quality, the better the item performs. For a sword, this means a masterpiece is far more dangerous than an average blade. Common Lore is invaluable for merchants and characters looking to not get scammed by purchasing low quality items.

For town rulers, common lore also improves the amount of money brought into the city from taxes.

• Crafters
• Town rulers
• Players looking not to get scammed

• Cost: 2

Survival is used to cover your tracks from Tracking and also gives a character a chance of recovering consciousness once killed (knocked out).

In addition to the chance of recovering once knocked out, survival reduces the time you can be tracked before your tracks become indistinguishable again. This is a direct roll against the tracker, so the higher your survival skill the more likely they’ll only get a few seconds to see where you’re going before disappearing.

• Dungeon crawlers (solo recovery)
• Rogues (evade tracking)

• Cost: 1

Cartography is used to interpret maps for finding treasure and for improving the speed of sailing.

All characters are capable of sailing, but not all of them well. Cartography gives the sailor a speed boost based on their skill level which is invaluable for combat on the high seas or escaping fast moving sea monsters. The bonus is exponential, so the higher your skill, the much faster you sail! For quick escape, you can also try to jump over the side of your boat without unlocking the plank using .boardboat, though the success is again based on how well you sail.

Treasure hunting requires the use of three skills to find and open the treasure chest; cartography is used to decode a map, lockpicking for opening up the chest, and search is used to determine how long the location appears on screen. To try and find a treasure map, the map must first be decoded by double clicking it, and then a pick axe or shovel must be double clicked and the map targeted to begin finding the map. Repeat the last step once standing on the location of the treasure to dig it up, and upon double clicking the chest or trying to pick its lock guardians will appear based on the level of the map. The numbers in the below chart represent the level to have a 50/50 chance and not 100% success.

If maps are not decoded after a certain amount of time after being found, (number of days?), the map will take on the title “Old (insert map name) map. Old maps tend to have less treasure in them, but also have the difficulty on the amount of cartography needed to decode them and lockpicking required to open the chest reduced by 10 skill points.

• Sailors
• Treasure Hunters

• Cost: 2

Search is used to reveal hidden items such as traps or hidden players and monsters. As your skill progresses you will be able to sweep a larger area with a single glance and detect for stealthy foes. Succeeding at a search roll does not mean you will reveal everything in the area; you are in direct competition with the hiding skills of your opponents or the traps they’ve laid. For the cautious, a higher search is always best.

Nighttime: During the night, your chance at successfully searching is reduced in half.

Inside Your Home: When inside your own home or a home you co-own, you’ll get a sizable bonus for detecting hidden traps or players. You of all people know the nooks and crannies where people may hide away.

Nearby: If you are within two steps of a hidden target, their hiding skill no longer matters in evading detection. So long as you perform a successful roll, the target will be detected. Whenever possible, get close to where you last saw your prey!

• Thief Catchers
• Guards
• Dungeon Crawlers (revealing traps, monsters)

• Cost: 3

Healing uses bandages to restore health and halt bleeding. Used in conjunction with anatomy, it is also possible to revive a player that has been killed (knocked out). Left alone, a player will begin to bleed after too many wounds. This will result in a steady decrease in health until 0, but will not cause death. Healing can reverse this decline in addition to giving a fraction of health back.

• Healing amounts are reduced in half if healing yourself. Its always better to have a partner heal you.
• At least 40 healing and 40 anatomy are required to attempt reviving another character when bleeding out.
• Even if you fail at healing damage, you may still stop bleeding.

• Warriors
• Healers, Support Class

• Cost: 2

Examination is used to produce evidence from items and corpses, discover lock quality, and reveal disguises.

Skill progression in examination is different from other skills as a skill check only occurs when trying to reveal another player’s disguise. All other examination information can be produced by a character with 0 or 100 skill. Successfully revealing a disguise is a direct roll between your examination skill and the opponents stealth.

When examining another player, if you successfully roll against a disguised players stealth, you will reveal the players disguise. Disguises are used in game to mask a character’s identity from name all the way through gender and skin color.

Corpses: When examining a corpse, information about the killer and the weapon used will be revealed. This requires no skill check, so 0 examination is just as useful as 100 examination.

Containers and Doors: Examining a container or door reveals information on the difficulty of picking a lock tied to the object and whether the object was trapped. For items that were trapped, examination will reveal the name of the trapper. This requires no skill check, so 0 examination is just as useful as 100 examination. For lock difficulty, the following information is returned:

Items: Examining items will reveal whether the item has been poisoned, and if so, by which player. This requires no skill check, so 0 examination is just as useful as 100 examination.

• Rogues (discovering lock difficulty)
• Thief Catchers (revealing disguises, gathering evidence)

• Cost: 1

Diplomacy is used for bargaining with merchants and effectively running a town. When you purchase items from NPCs, a successful roll of diplomacy will give you at 10% discount. This happens every time you speak to a vendor, with no action necessary by the character. Diplomacy also increases the amount of money a town generates. If by chance you become a town ruler, diplomacy also increases the income of the city by up to 100%.

• Town rulers
• Nobles
• Players looking to save money

• Cost: 3

Taming is used to command wild animals for a short duration. Once a creature is tamed, they will stay loyal for a duration based on your skill. As your taming improves, you will be allowed to control more animals simultaneously as well as have access to a larger variety of creatures you can master.

Taming improves differently from other skills. Rather than a direct success or failure, as your taming increases, you’ll gain access to more exotic and deadly creatures. Your chance for success is based on how dangerous the creature you’re taming is.

• Animals that have been previously tamed are easier to tame.
• If you fail miserably at taming, the creature will become annoyed and become untamable for a short while.
• The maximum number of followers is also based on the difficulty of leading an animal. For instance, you can lead a multitude of rabbits, while struggle to lead a small number of dire wolves. Just because your follower cap is high, doesn’t mean you can lead that many animals.
• Animal Handling improves your ability to handle strong willed creatures like wolves and serpents. It does not increase the maximum number of animals you can tame.

You can attempt to tame a creature with care, allowing it to follow you for multiple days rather than minutes or hours. When trying to permanently tame, use .tame care. Your chances of successfully permanently taming are much less than with normal taming.

With a high enough taming, you can attempt to steal another players horse using .stealmount. Currently, stealing horses is restricted to riding animals; pack horses cannot be stolen. Your chance for success is based on the quality of the horse. Riding horses are rather easy to steal, while war horses are far more difficult.

• Woodsmen
• Warriors (free companions)

• Cost: 2

Tracking is used to locate players or creatures within a certain area. The great a character’s tracking skill, the wider the range they can cover, and the more details (from foot equipment, to weight, to size) they can find out through the person’s tracks. Once a player is located, a tracker can target the player to follow, regardless if they are hidden or stealthing. However, tracking can be shaken by a player with high Survival.

Once you use the tracking skill you will get a menu of all men and creatures within an area, displaying the following information:

Once you select a target, you will automatically gain information about gender, shoe type, weight, and direction. The appearance of additional information in the original tracking menu is merely to make selecting the correct target easier. Skills such as Survival reduce the duration you can track a character for, while tracking animals is inherently easier and receives a small boost to duration.

When tracking players, the name of the player you are tracking is not presented making it more difficult to choose the right target out of many people in the same area. If you see the character you want to track ahead of time, you can target them with .track which allows you to hone in on a single target much more efficiently. Use the normal tracking skill when trying to canvas a whole area and switch to .track when you find the target to keep on the trail.

If you have Cartography, you will also be able to determine the region of the target you are tracking. This makes it easier for those players familiar with the map in game to distinguish which direction a player is heading rather than just information such as ‘north’ or ‘south west’.

Towns: Once in a town, there are too many footsteps to use basic tracking. Following a specific individual using .track is still possible, but you must stay close to keep the trail.

Underground: Once underground, it’s too dark to use basic tracking. Following a specific individual using .track is still possible, but you must stay close to keep the trail.

• Hunters
• Thief Catchers
• Guards

• Cost: 2

Trapping is used to set traps or to remove traps once they have been discovered using Search. Once set, a trap is triggered by a failed attempt to disarm or by a character touching the trap. Be warned, you can set off your own traps! A general overview of how traps work can be found in this practical guide to traps. The higher your skill level, the more difficult it is for another player to detect a set trap using search.

Trigger Types: S = Step On, C = Open Container, D = Open Door

* Snare traps deal no damage, instead snaring a target for a short duration.

Disarming traps is possible using the trapping skill. Once a trap has been revealed, you must take the following actions to successfully disarm the trap:

• The first time the trap is removed it is only disabled, you can specify a # of seconds based on your skill.
• The second time the trap is removed, it may be dismantled for parts.
• The difficulty to remove a trap is directly related to the skill of the character who set it.
• If you fail to disarm a trap, or move while doing so, you will set it off, taking up to half of the damage it would normally do.

• Rogues, Assassins
• Dungeon Crawlers (removing traps)