NOVEL NEXT Chapter 4: Magics, Skill Charts, and Stats, Oh My
Level Stats
Strength
8
120 base pound-lifting capacity, -10% melee damage, -6% running speed
Agility
20
-50% enemy hit chance, +50% hit chance with all weapons, +18% running speed, +.5 critical modifier
Dexterity
12
+10% base success for crafting and physical skill success rate, 20% chance to raise base weapon damage roll by one step
Endurance
8
-2 base Stamina, -20% Stamina Recovery Rate, -20% base Health Recovery Rate
Toughness
8
-2 base Health, -10% base Health, -10% base Stamina, -1 to resist poison, disease, and physical status effects
Perception
10
Connection
10
Capacity
10
Appearance
14
Handsome
Non-Level Stats
Intelligence
20
+100% skill acquisition rate, may gain rare and difficult skills.
Magic
16
+24% Magic Effects. +1 Maximum affinity.
Charisma
10
Luck
10
The Fates neither dislike nor care for you
Secondary Stats
Birth Perks
Race: High Elf
-2 to Strength, Endurance, and Toughness stats base
+2 to Agility and Magic stats base
Increased chance for Being magics and Wyld magic. Gain an additional ability at Level 2, 10, and every 10 thereafter from one of those magics if possessed.
Lifespan average of 400 years. Maximum of 3 perks positive and negative each, with standard chance of inheriting or acquiring at birth.
Rank: Natural
May obtain Level 80 without ascension, access to extremely rare or upgraded magical abilities.
Graceful Body
+4 Agility, +2 Dexterity, +4 Appearance
Predator
+4 Agility, +10% critical chance, +.5 critical modifier
Line of Stardew
+4 Magic, always start with Wyld, gain 1 additional Wyld ability at Level 2, Auras for Wyld are gained 10 levels earlier and this can exceed maximum level, and may gain 2 higher maximum Wyld affinity.
*Genius
+10 Intelligence, increased magic ability access. May gain +2 maximum Mind affinity.
*Being Arcane
With the appropriate prerequisite abilities and stats, upon obtaining Level 30, may gain any or all of the Arcane abilities: Kinesthetic, Cognitive, or Empathetic.
*Aura Mastery
May gain auras as if 10 levels higher, including access to auras that are beyond maximum level once reached.
Acquired Perks
Low-Self Esteem
-2 check to resist despair effects. Failure, especially significant failure, can lead to further negative perks.
Skills
Level
Effect
Athletics
11
+33% to run speed, +11 to check to climb or avoid obstacles
Level 10 Special Skill: Burst Fighter: For up to 5 minutes, all stamina expenditures are halved.
Business
2
+6% to expected income, and -2% to expected costs, for operating any business
Dodge
7
+21% to dodge incoming attacks
Instruction
4
+2% increase in learning rate of someone learning from you per point of difference in your skills
Mixed Arts Fighting
8
+16% to hit and damage with fists, +8% to dodge, +4 to trip, pin, or incapacitate and avoid the same.
Natural Sciences
19
Extremely detailed understanding of the non-magical components of the world and how they work.
Research
8
+16% base rate to discover information in archives, +16% to daily chance to discover something new while researching, modifying Intelligence rate
Seduction
1
People find your attempts to seduce them 2% more favorable than baseline, compared to what they are looking for
Small Blades
2
+8% to hit and parry, +4% to damage, and +4% critical chance with small blades
Sword
4
+12% to hit and parry, +12% damage with swords
Abilities
Effect
Body
Mind
Soul
Wyld
Metal
Combination
Leo sat backdown again, beside the brook. The information was overwhelming at a certain level. He could deduce quite a bit from what was here—and guess at more—but it was entirely too much for him to handle all at once.
I need to process it in sections, Leo thought to himself. You've already done the existential crisis thing today. Don't worry about the implications of magic, or your lifespan, or the Servants of Telos. Just focus on what you can see.
Given the racial modifiers and perks, it's obvious that ten is the average in this world. I don't know what that is compared to human, truly, but my gut instinct tells me that ten is the human average. So I'm still really smart, and now I'm exceedingly agile. But, even at thirty-five, I was considerably stronger and tougher than normal, and now I could lose a fistfight to a leaf pile.
Also, I wonder who the Stardew are? Does everyone have a 'line' with magical benefits? Is there a reason why that line perk stacks so neatly with the magical perks that I guess my soul brought over?
Also, I've never picked up a sword in my life. Like the language, this must be something I inherited from this body, somehow.
If my guesses as to the numbers are anything close to accurate, it would probably take less than seventy percent of the trauma to kill me than a normal person—human—could take. I need to be careful and should probably try to avoid getting hit at all. Not that I wouldn't anyway, to a degree, but it needs to become even more important.
Leo snorted to himself, remembering a comedy sketch he had seen on YouTube featuring a guy failing his video game quest and dying with every tiny mistake. Difficulty Mode: Asian.
He stood, filled with renewed purpose. Stop spending all your time navel gazing. Get to some civilization somewhere and ask the people about your status sheet, and what it all means. It's quite likely you're guessing at answers someone else has known for centuries. The goal is the same—get to civilization, then get home. All the other stuff is an intellectual puzzle you can pursue later.
Leo adjusted his ragged, blood-stained clothing, put his gear back on, and stared downstream in the direction he meant to head.
An enormous, brown-furred wolf stared back at him from roughly a hundred feet away. It was approximately the size of a pony, its back midriff high, and it stared at him with red eyes.
"Um, nice doggy?" Leo said, his voice trailing up in an embarrassing squeak. "Let's not fight, 'kay?"
Leo backed up a few paces, his hand at his belt, where he had pushed the sword.
The wolf stared at him for a few moments, then dipped its head once, almost regally. It turned and raced into the forest, away from the brook, disappearing from sight in seconds.
Did that wolf just nod at me?
Leo let out a short, almost-hysterical laugh. "Man, screw the outdoors. Especially the magical outdoors."