The stat system is used to personalise your character, letting you choose strengths and weaknesses that differentiate them from others. Each stat offers a variety of different benefits, as listed below. The system is managed with Wailing Widow, a custom-made Discord bot.
The Stats
Please note, the stats may be used for situations and actions that the word (Social, Finesse, etc.) are often associated with. The descriptions here are just guidelines to cover the basics of how these stats may be used.
- Vitality: Encompasses the DnD stats of Strength and Constitution. Can be used for athletic feats like as enduring altitudes or temperatures, prolonged exercise, moving heavy objects, etc.
- Finesse: Encompasses the DnD stat of Dexterity. Can be used for more subtle physical acts, such as acts of balance, sleight of hand/pickpocketing, stealth, etc.
- Wisdom: Encompasses the DnD stat Wisdom, with a small amount of Intelligence wrapped in. Used for tracking people under Stealth and looking for subtle details or hidden objects in an area.
- Social: Encompasses the DnD stat Charisma with a small amount of social Wisdom. Used for weaving deceptions, persuading people, noticing lies and communicating your intentions to creatures wordlessly. Requires player consent when used on them, but works on NPCs without consent.
Training
Similar to Spell Casting & Learning, stats can be raised by training them. Trains are done using the command: s!train <vitality/finesse/wisdom/social>. Just as with learning spells, trains may be done in a roleplay channel or in #learns-and-trains. You must roleplay the training scenario, but it does not have to be long and one sentence will suffice.
You are allowed to train once every 2 weeks. A new train will be available every second Friday at 9 am GMT. Each train will give you half a point, and so you must train twice in a stat to increase it.
You may have a maximum of 90 stat points in total, and 30 in each individual stat. Stats are capped for people in each year: for details, see the Yearly Stat and Dodge/Willpower Caps section below.
If you miss trains (say, due to taking a break from the server for real-life reasons), you can catch up stat trains by using s!catchup <vitality/finesse/wisdom/social> <number+partial>. For example, s!catchup wisdom 6 will set your character's wisdom to 6, and s!catchup finesse 8+1 will set their finesse to 8 plus a half-point towards the next level. You can only do this to catch up stat trains you missed; you can't use it to get ahead, or go above the caps, or reduce one stat so you have more room to increase another.
Stat Checks
The primary use of stats is stat checks: rolling to determine whether an action your character makes succeeds or not. To use the above examples, you might roll vitality for your character to attempt to move a heavy object, or wisdom to attempt to notice someone using stealth.
To perform a Stat Check, use the command: s!roll <vitality/finesse/wisdom/social>. The bot will roll a dice, of the same size as your spellcasting dice, and the roll will be added to your number of stat points in that stat to give your final result.
Combat Stat Checks
In the spell sheet, you'll notice that certain spells have "Dodgeable" or "Willpower" attributes. These both refer to special stat checks that are often used in combat:
- You may attempt to avoid dodgeable spells with
s!dodge, which rolls your spellcasting dice and adds both your Vitality and Finesse stats. - You may attempt to resist willpower spells with
s!willpower, which rolls your spellcasting dice and adds both your Wisdom and Social stats.
s!dodge and s!willpower can effectively be used instead of casting a shield or evasive spell, to try and avoid or overcome an incoming spell. They can also be used outside of combat in suitable circumstances, just like s!roll. More information regarding the combat system can be found here.
Note that although both s!dodge and s!willpower add two stats together, the combined total of those stats is capped for each year level. These caps are displayed in the following section.
Yearly Stat and Dodge/Willpower Caps
Each year, there is a cap on your stats, and your modifiers for dodge and willpower rolls. You will not be able to train any individual stat once you have reached the stat cap, and your dodge or willpower modifier cannot exceed the dodge/willpower cap. The maximum dodge/willpower modifier possible is 26.
| Year | Stat Cap | Dodge/Willpower Cap |
|---|---|---|
| Year 1 | 4 | 4 |
| Year 2 | 7 | 7 |
| Year 3 | 10 | 10 |
| Year 4 | 13 | 13 |
| Year 5 | 16 | 16 |
| Year 6 | 19 | 19 |
| Year 7 | 22 | 22 |
| GradA | 25 | 25 |
| GradB | 26 | 26 |
| GradC | 27 | 26 |
| Adult | 30 | 26 |
Modifiers
Similar to both Spell Casting & Learning and The Potions System, stats use their own modifier system. These can be added at the end of a command:
- A modifier: (A)ssisted: Increases your dice size by two for this check only. (i.e. 1d4 --> 1d6)
- The usage of an 'A' will depend on the type of scenario you're playing.
- You may use an 'A' if your player is an expert at a 'fluff' activity. Such as dancing.
- In an adventure, a Pathfinder may give you the right to use an 'A'.
- The usage of an 'A' will depend on the type of scenario you're playing.
- B modifier: (B)urdened: Reduces your result by 1 for this check only.
- Normally used when you're injured or compromised in some way.
- L modifier: (L)uck: Doubles your stat modifier/bonus you get from training for this check only.
- Similar to destiny in spellcasts. It can only be used once a day and refreshes at 9 am GMT.
Examples of use include s!roll vitality a to roll for Vitality with the Assisted modifier, and s!roll finesse bl to roll for Finesse with the Burdened and Luck modifiers.
Resolving Stat Checks
You may be asked to do a stat check by a Plotrunner, Adventure runner, a Professor in class, or as part of some other official event. Outside of these scenarios, you may also do a stat check in any circumstance in a roleplay where you feel it makes sense. In such informal scenarios, you may use whichever rule for resolving the stat check that you wish, provided the other roleplayer(s) you are using the stat check on, if applicable, is in agreement. This is particularly important for Social rolls.
Some guidelines for resolving stat checks are listed below:
Check vs Check
You roll a stat check or an avoidance check against each other, the higher result wins. There will be issues in balance with regard to how many stats each player has based on year, but modifiers such as L can be used to even the odds. Some imbalance is to be expected due to the huge variance that can arise both physically and mentally between the student years, and in non-official scenes you may work out specific rules for the scene to balance that if you like.
Check vs Avoidance Check
In these cases, you may run a stat check against an Avoidance check, and compare the results. For instance both parties may consent to having one of the characters involved with a high Social modifier roll a stat check for it in an attempt to charm another character; the opposing character can perform a s!willpower avoidance check in response to try and resist. Another case would be someone performing a vitality or finesse roll against you, and you can perform an s!dodge avoidance check to try and circumvent it.
Please note: Rolling social checks against player characters requires OOC consent from both parties, and should not be considered the normal use for Social rolls.
Check vs Goal
In some cases, you may set a goal for a roll to hit; you do this by either taking into account the size of the dice and modifier of the person making the check so it is a number they could feasibly hit, or in the case of an adventure or a larger event, you may offer a goal to the group and they can decide which character is most likely to achieve that goal.
Check vs Roll
In these cases, you may put a check up against a regular !roll that is tailored to suit the situation, this is similar to the check vs goal, only the goal has a random element to it. So for instance if you're in a scene with a first year, and they are trying to do a Finesse check, you can quickly consult their modifier and their dice, and do: !roll 1dx, with the X adjusted to be within the realm of possibilities of their modifier. This is optional also, if the stakes are high and what is being !roll'd for should be hard to beat, you can just do a normal 1d20 instead.
Alternatively, you can do a !roll against a !roll, but then add your modifier for the Stat at the end as a “boost”, or to mimic a character pushing past their limits in a time of need. Here is an example scenario:
You are rolling a finesse check against a 1d20 roll, you have 3 finesse. The challenger rolled a 17, and that is the number you need to beat. You roll a 1d20 in return and get a 15, but after you add on the +3 of your finesse, you have an 18 and are able to beat the roll.
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Those are just some of the examples you can use to resolve stat checks, and you are absolutely encouraged to make your own rules and methods as you please. Once more, these rules are flexible and this system has primarily been developed to mitigate how random 1d20 rolls can be; it is absolutely believable for students to have specialities that give them an edge in certain situations, which is something we were unable to adequately systemize before.