Guide on Novels and Games - FANTASY - SKILLS & POWERS

In this section I'll talk about the famous / infamous skills we see in anime, manga, novels and games

**WHAT ARE THEM?**

Skills are abilities, something that one is able to do... their meaning and function in novels are not that different from the ones we found in games but there are some change in their applications, for example a "high speed movement" skill in a game increase evasion and make possible have a turn more often in turn based combat systems but in a novel the same skill grant more agility and speed... okay, I know that said like this they seems the same thing but in the case of game ones they basically change "probability" while in the novel case change physical traits...

**CAN I CONSIDER SPELLS SKILLS TOO?**

In a certain way is possible... since skills are something one is able to do and spells are the same, is not all that wrong consider spells like they are skills... contrary to what some people think, learn a spell is not that different from learn to use a weapon and develop the relative weapon mastery since both of them require time and effort.

**HOW I CAN OBTAIN A SKILL?**

This is tricky... the way one obtain a skill change on the system used by the game or the story... so, let me list the one that I know:

* Level up, when a character level up is possible that it will learn a skill, if the system use a class mechanics the skill will be related to the class otherwise will be connected to talents and abilities of the character, for example a warrior will develop skills for its weapon.
* Teacher, someone that teach to somene else and normally is paid, depending on the system and author's choice is possible learn immediately or after some training.
* Consumable Item, use an item and you learn a skill, the classical example I can use are the famous skill books or skill crystals.
* Monster Kill, learn skills after kill a monster or a certain quantity of monsters is possible, an example of this is a insect slayer skill obtained after killing 500 insect type monsters. This type of learning can be done too by specific skills, in fact there is a story where the main character have a skill like this.
* Eat Monsters, in certain stories I saw that if a character eat enough and certain parts of a monster can learn its skills.
* Transfer, a skill is moved from a character to another, basically instead be a copy-paste action is a cut-paste one.
* Birth, in ceretain stories I saw that characters can born with skills and obtain new one in the time.
* Gods/Goddesses/Spirits, is possible obtain skills by being a follower of a deity or have its blessing... in isekai genre stories usually the character receive its "starting" power from a deity or high level entity.
* Item, different from the "Consumable Item", in this case the skill resides inside the item and the user simple fuel and use it and once separated by the item, the user lost the skill, an example can be a ring with fire generation and once lost it can be used.
* Item Learning, something between the "Item" and the "Teacher", possess an item temp grant a skill BUT once you satisfy certain conditions you'll learn the skill and you'll never need again the item anymore.
* Race, be the member of a race can grant some skills from birth, just think on canine like beastmen that born with an enhanched sense of smell as skill.
* Registration/contract, made a contract with a being or be registered in a magical machine can grant skills, for example a dungeon master have a contract with the dungeon core and so have the ability of teleport in any floor of the dungeon and similar things.
* Training & requirements, in some cases train a certain type of action make possible obtain a skill, for example after cook some edible food is possible obtain a cooking skill. Given the example I gave is possible understand that "training" and "requirement" are something that walk together because some times, despite one can train as much it deisre, certain requirement are need infact, for make another example, for obtain a dragon slayer skill is possible that "kill X dragons" is need (X stay for the number of dragons that is need to kill) In certain cases, skill are obtained via "requirement" in combination for other conditions but let me make a complex example... kill 10 monsters with a spear and the next level up you obtain the weapon mastery spear skill, in this case we have 2 requirements that are the number of kills and the level up.

Conditions can be found in every type of combinations.

In every Isekai story the MC have always, in a way or another, a special power but certain times is not very clear their origin and for this reason basically their power can be classified in this way:

* Chosen, the main character choice his/her power as bonus receiving it by a god/goddess/spirit or whatever will take it into the new world.
* Affinity, the main character obtain a power that have some affinity to him/her like a programmer that have the ability of learn easily spells and modify them without problems.
* Boost, the main character receive only a boost of his/her natural skills and not something new.
* Nothing, the character don't receive anything, I saw this in a couple of work and normally this happen because they already have some special quality that make them strong.

**SINCE YOU LIKE CLASSIFY, I SUPPOSE SKILLS TOO HAVE SOME KIND OF CLASSIFICATION, RIGHT?**

-\_\_\_\_-, joke as much you want but "dissect" and classify is the best way for understand how replicate that and how make it work, plus when we concept something have a list with the main points help in the creation.

Before start the list I need to point that depending on the story is possible that skills have different name so here I'll list the terms and HOW I THINK THEY MUST BE USED... feel free to ignore my personal opinion since I'm not your boss:

* Skills, I think that this word must be used as generic terms for all the skills in stories but if the novel provide a class system, like "thief" and "knight", then must indicate all the abilities of the class.
* Ability, I belive that this word fit better when we do the description of something and if the story provide a class system than can be used for indicate any skill that is not part of the class set, for example indicate lockpicking as skill and coocking as ability.
* Art, the better use of this term is for indicate all the moves made using weapons of via hand-to-hand combat, for example "bash shield" and "triple arrow" are arts while "fire ball" and "ice spear" are magician's skills.

Said the names I think that I can start listing the elements of the skills:

* name
* effect
* description
* range
* consumption
* cooldown
* number of times & cooldown
* limitations
* type
* how obtain it
* appearance

And now let me talk about them:

* **NAME**, the name of the skill.
* **EFFECT**, the effect of the skill... note that "effect" and "description" differ because the effect is what the skill do while the description describe what the skill can do...
* **DESCRIPTION**, a description of what the skill do.
* **RANGE**, the range of the skill, they always have a min and max range BUT remember that the user's talent and skills are variable for the range, for example an apprentice shoot a fire ball and reach 10 meters while an expert can reach 30 or even 50 meters.
* **CONSUMPTION**, every skill use something as "fuel" or "price" so when one make a skill he/she need to choice what the skill consume (hp, mp, life force, stamina, items, etc.)... in games and novels usually passive skills don't consume nothing.
* **NUMBER OF TIMES & COOLDOWN**, they are bond together... with "number of times" I mean how much times the skill can be used in succession while with "cooldown" I refer to the pause betwee the use of all the "number of times"... not all the skills respect this rule and can be used without limits until the energy used is depleted or the user faint.
* **LIMITATIONS**, all the skills have some kind of limitation, for example shoot a fire ball have as limitation the fact that the attribute is fixed and can't be changed, a racial skill can be used only by memebers of that race, certain skill may require environmental condition like a cloudy sky or night, etc.
* **TYPE**, with the word "type" I refer to the activation method that are basically 3:
	+ Active, skills that the user active at will like a jump boost or an healing spell.
	+ Passive, skills always active that the user don't control and can't de-activate.
	+ Automatic, stay inactive until specific condition are met erect a shield when attacked.
* **HOW OBTAIN IT**, the way a skill can be obtained. In isekai genre novels we usually see that the main character obtain
* **APPEARANCE**, how they appear if they can be seen... technically there are 3 type of "appearance" that are:
	+ Evident, when the skill produce a visive effect that prove the skill is activated like the release of aura when in a certain state.
	+ Not evident, when the skill don't produce any visible sign.
	+ Sign / Mark, basically is something on the user that prove that it have a skill but don't prove when is active, for example have a dragon crest on the shoulder mean that one have a dragon related power but if the crest don't change when the skill is activated then that is a Sign/Mark

After said all of this I want to make a couple of example, some of them may be stupid so bear with that.

**Example 1**

NAME: Sky Swimmer

EFFECT: move in air like is water

DESCRIPTION: The skill grant the ability of swim in the air like is some kind of liquid like water

RANGE: Self (mean work only on the user)

CONSUMPTION: X MP/s (X is the quantity used every second)

NUMBER OF TIMES & COOLDOWN: No number of times limit, once deactivate cooldown of 3 seconds

LIMITATIONS: can't change attribute

TYPE: active

HOW OBTAIN IT: teacher, skill book, skill crystal

APPERANCE: None

**Example 2**

NAME: Metal eater

EFFECT: metal eating and digestion

DESCRIPTION: The skill grant the ability of eat any metallic material and digest it like is normal food

RANGE: Self (mean work only on the user)

CONSUMPTION: none

NUMBER OF TIMES & COOLDOWN: No number of times limit, no cooldown

LIMITATIONS: unique skill, can't be teach or learn via normal ways

TYPE: active

HOW OBTAIN IT: via divine blessing when reincarnated or transfered from another world

**CONCEPTUAL POWERS**

This powers are basically powers that come from concept and so on but let me give you a more logical explanation than this.

Every single thing that exist, in both fantasy and reality, is always based on some sort of principle and powers are not an exception.

When we treat this things we need to divide them into 3 main categories:

* Abstract
* Magical
* Item based

but let see them one at time

1) ABSTRACT

Contrary to what one can think based on the name of this, this category collect all the concept that are normally found in actual science and are not really based on other thing, an example of this can be found in the work "Highschool DxD" where is present, between the various things, "something" that make possible double the power of the user, for the one that know the series than I want you to know that I'm writing this like this for avoid spoilers... anyway, on a first look the power can seems normal and magical but the concept "double the power" is basically a mathematical concept of "multiply for two" that is applied to something supernatural like "power".

2) MAGICAL

This category collect all the powers that are based on supernatural concept like "know and make runes" or "manipulate an element" but let me give you some better example of this... the use / manipulation / summon of an element, despite some attributes like fire (combusion of flammable materials) and ice (freeze water and liquids) can be obtained normally, the speed and the option of make such effects without any resources (like make appear ice from air, I know is possible obtain it by the condensation of the air's humidity but this is not the case) make it supernatural and magical in nature.

3) ITEM BASED

This category basically collect all the powers and skills that can be connected directly to an object but not as source but more "the base concept is take from that item".

A better way of explain this is through the example of have a piece of metal and absorb its properties... for the one that don't know this, metal have various properties and if a character obtain such properties that there will be quite the upgrade, some example of such properties are resistence to corrosion, fusion point (res to heat/fire), conductivity (the properties of let energy through it like heat and electricity), etc.

Despite their origin keep in mind that the moment they become skills they can be considered supernatural in various aspect.

Here I'll list some examples of the various categories, keep in mind that in the large quantity of skills that are present the list will give some

1) ABSTRACT

- Mathematical Powers, technically speaking, any boosting skill and spell is basically a mathematical operation plus if someone is able to calculate vectors and interfere with them then this powers fall in this, a character example is Accelerator of the To aru Majutsu/Railgun series.

- Chemical Powers, any power that make able to create and alterate chemical substances fall in this group, a character example is Gutrot that is one of the transformation of Ben Tennyson of Ben 10, this transformation is basically a being that is a walking chemical laboratory.

2) MAGICAL

- Attribute Manipulation, This category collect all the powers that are based on supernatural concept like "know and make runes" or "manipulate an element" but let me give you some better example of this... the use / manipulation / summon of an element, despite some attributes like fire (combusion of flammable materials) and ice (freeze water and liquids) can be obtained normally, the speed and the option of make such effects without any resources (like make appear ice from air, I know is possible obtain it by the condensation of the air's humidity but this is not the case) make it supernatural and magical in nature.

3) ITEM BASED

- Heat/Cold/Electric Resistence, from items is basically impossible

This category basically collect all the powers and skills that can be connected directly to an object but not as source but more "the base concept is take from that it