Attributes & Resources

Just about every task a character performs in will be modified, whether for better or worse, by a character's Attributes. Meanwhile the act of performing many actions will require the character to spend a number of resources. The two are connected together in that attributes will affect a character's resources and ability to improve those resources. Generally speaking a character's attributes are the most important thing and define a character. However, their resources are used to determine a character's limits of performing certain actions and tasks.

## Attributes

Just about every task a character performs is effected, for better or worse, by the their attributes. Attributes are divided into Quality Attributes and Action Attributes. Attributes determine a character's basic physical, psychological, and sociological capability and capacity. There are nine Attributes all together, which are broken down into a three by three grid. The nine attributes and their abbreviations are: Charisma (Cha), Cunning (Cun), Dexterity (Dex), Intellect (Int), Perception (Per), Spirit (Spi), Strength (Str), Vitality (Vit), and Willpower (Wil). These nine attributes are divided into a three by three grid base upon the categories they fall into. The Body, Mind, and Soul categories make up three of the six categories. Meanwhile, Power, Finesse, and Resilience make up the other three.

* **Body:** The attributes under the Body column pertain to a character's Physical aspects.
* **Mind:** The attributes under the Mind column pertain to a characters psychological aspects.
* **Soul:** The attributes under the Soul column pertain to a character's sociological aspects.
* **Power:** The attributes in the Power row pertain to a character's ability to alter their environment.
* **Finesse:** The attributes in the Finesse row pertain to a character's ability to use power efficiently.
* **Resilience:** The attributes in the Resilience row pertain to a character's withstand and resist power exerted against them.

The table below shows the breakdown of the attribute and their categories.

Table 1.1 - Attributes
 Finesse
 Resilience

### Body Attributes

* **Strength:** Measures muscular and physical power.
* **Dexterity:** Measures hand-eye coordination, agility, balance, and reflexes.
* **Vitality:** Measures health, stamina, and fortitude

### Mind Attributes

* **Intellect:** Measures ability to learn and reason.
* **Cunning:** Measures common sense and ability to apply knowledge.
* **Willpower:** Measures mental toughness, discipline, and confidence.

### Soul Attributes

* **Charisma:** Measures strength of personality, persuasiveness, personal magnetism, and ability to lead.
* **Perception:** Measures awareness, intuition, and ability to interpret sensory data.
* **Spirit:** Measures strength of spirit, faith, and devotion.

## Attribute Scores

Character's gain a bonus of penalty for the score of their Attributes. This bonus or penalty is known as a modifier. The average attribute score is a 10. While a score of 11 is considered slightly above average it is not enough for any significant effect. Attributes suffer a penalty (negative) modifier for score of 9 and below, while scores of 12 and above provide a bonus (positive) modifier. The table below shows the modifiers for different attribute scores.

## Resources

Resources, simply, measure a character's ability to perform and withstand physical and mental activities. There are three resources that every character has: Health, Mana, and Stamina.

### Health

Health, or Health Points (HP), determines how well characters handle injury. HP decreases every time a character gets hurt. When a character reaches 0, or below, they become unconscious. Once unconscious a character will begin to slowly die from wounds sustained. If a character reaches -10HP, they die. Health is directly affected by the Toughness Discipline, which relies on the Vitality attribute

### Ether & Mana

Mana and Ether determine how many spells a character can cast in a given time. Mana is used when casting Divine Spells while Ether is used to cast Arcane spells. They are separated because both functions differently from one another.

#### Ether

Ether, or Ether Points (EP), is used when casting Arcane spells like those of a Mage. Ether functions like Health in that a character may cast an Arcane spell that depletes their Ether pool below 0. In such an even the character immediately becomes unconscious after casting the spell. However, unlike health they do not start dying. Should an Arcane spell caster cast a spell that depletes their Ether to or below -10, the character dies instead of going unconscious. Ether is directly affected by the Acuity discipline, which relies on Willpower.

##### Ether & Phycantium

While Mages receive their spell powers through partially innate abilities their practice of the Arcane is believed by many to violate the will of the gods. All characters can only replenish half of the Ether (rounded down) through rest. They then must consume Phycantium to replenish the other half. Once consumed, the effects of Phycantium begin to wear off after several hours. When the effects begin to wear off the character will automatically lose 1EP, per character level, every hour until the effects have completely worn off or they replenish their Ether by consuming more Phycantium. When performing actions that require Ether, half of the Ether consumed comes from innate Ether and the other half from Phycantium fueled Ether. Consuming Phycantium is addictive and can be deadly when taken beyond the character’s tolerance levels, which is equal to half a character’s Base Maximum Ether score.

Encountering raw, unprocessed, Phycantium Ore often results in death for all the Races except those not capable of Arcane magic. They are the only ones capable of mining the mineral and handling it. Primarily Dwarves perform such duties, who develop the process and technology, to process it.

#### Mana

Mana, or Mana Points (MP), function similarly to Ether, but with one significant difference. Unlike Ether, a Divine spell caster cannot cast a spell that would deplete their Mana pool below 0. Once a character’s Mana has be exhausted to 0 they are unable to cast any more Divine spells. A character’s Mana pool is unable to go below 0. Mana is directly affected by the Essence discipline, which relies on Spirit.

### Stamina

Stamina, or Stamina Points (SP), determines a character's capacity for physical activity like swinging a weapon or running. Running and fighting will drain a character's SP quickly, but stamina is recovered much quicker than the other Resources. Stamina is effected by the Endurance Discipline, which relies on the Vitality attribute. Each character replenishes 1SP, per character level, every 5 minutes after they have ceased activities that cost SP. The table below shows some examples of activities and their Stamina cost.

Table 1.3 - Stamina Cost Examples
 Avoidance
 Attack, Single Handed Weapon
 Attack, Two Handed Melee Weapon
 Attack, Two Handed Ranged Weapon
 Note: Two-Handed Melee Weapons cost 2SP every other action.

## Attribute and Resource Values

The values, or score, of an attribute or resource determine the very structure a character is built on. They provide advantages, penalties, and limits to how far a character may excel. These values are broken down into three types: Base, Maximum, and Current.

### Base Score

A base value is the foundation for a character's attribute or resource. Base values primarily deal with attributes. A base value is a character's attribute score when devoid of any magical or unnatural influences. Each race has modifiers to these scores. For resources a base score would be in reference to what their resource value would be without any magical or outside influences. So, this is what their HP, EP, MP, and SP would be using the character's base quality attribute values.

### Maximum Score

The maximum value is the current limit of a character's attribute or resource. Maximum attribute values denote the maximum score a character may advance in a particular attribute. This will be based upon a character's race and background traits selected in the character creation process. Meanwhile for resources, the maximum value is the absolute limit of a character's resource score in their current condition, including all magical or unnatural effects. For example, if a character's maximum HP is 21, that character's HP cannot be raised above 21 until they are influenced in some manner to raise the maximum score. Maximum scores may be broken down into a Base and Current Maximum. The Base Maximum would be the character’s Maximum resource using only their base attribute values, while current would be the character’s maximum resource value with any effects.

### Current Score

A current value is the present value of that attribute or resource. A current score may or may not be the same as a character's base or maximum value. For example, a character's current health might be lower than their maximum and base score due to being buffed but also being injured in battle. Likewise, a character's current strength score may exceed their maximum value due to a spell, buff, potion, or magical item.

### Changing Attribute Scores

Over time, a character's attribute scores will change. There are limits, however, to how much an attribute score may increase. Points at which attribute score changes occur include the following:

* Character's receive an additional creation point at all even numbered levels: 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, and 20 which are spent to permanently improve a character's base quality attribute score.
* Many spells and magical effects temporarily increase or decrease attribute scores, which may exceed a character's maximum attribute score.
* Magical items may improve or decrease attribute scores while in use, which may exceed a character's maximum attribute score.
* Some rare magical items are capable of permanently boosting a base attribute score, and in some instanced their maximum score as well.
* Poisons, diseases, and other effects can temporarily harm an attribute (attribute damage). Attribute points lost to damage return on their own at a rate of 1 point per day for each damaged attribute.
* Some effects drain attributes, resulting in either a permanent or temporary loss (attribute drain). Points of this kind may return depending on the effects.
* As a character ages, some attribute scores go up and others go down. The table below shows this.

Table 1.4 - Aging Effects on Attribute Scores

When an attribute score changes, all skills, disciplines, or other details about a character associated with that score change accordingly. For example, when a Fighter reaches level 2, they decided to add their additional creation point into their Vitality score, going from 15 (+2) to 16 (+3). In doing so, both their HP and SP will likely improve due to the new attribute modifier.