fatal

Wisdom
The most abstract ability, Wisdom is a
character’s potential to actualize what they have and
know; it is an ability to adapt to situations. Wise
characters tend to make decisions that they do not
regret. Wisdom is comprised of 4 sub-abilities:
Drive, Intuition, Common Sense, and Reflection.
A high Wisdom ability score indicates that a character
is likely to be determined and disciplined, receptive
to subtle cues, adapt well to situations, and reflect
frequently on their life.
Drive: A Drive may be considered a
character’s determination, willpower, persistence, discipline,
and perseverance. A character with high
Drive sub-ability does not necessarily always approach
everything with a high Drive, but has the
ability, should it be necessary, preferred, or desired.
Drive also is used to determine whether creatures
remain in combat or flee (see Chap. 10: Combat), and
it also initially affects Life Points (see Chap. 10: Combat).
The column entitled Hours Relaxing indicates
the number of hours per day that, if it were up to
the character in question, they would generally relax
and refrain from all exertion. Drive affects the skills
Animal Conditioning and Combat Spellcasting (see
Chap. 8: Skills).
Intuition: This sub-ability is a character’s
familiarity with, or awareness of, subconscious and
subtle cues or clues; Intuition is an acuteness of perception
and attention to nearby, local, or observable
detail. Characters with high Intuition are still
limited by the physical world, unable to glean facts
or feelings that do not present themselves or are
fully hidden. Often, what is attributed to Intuition
is subtle information that we are unable to attribute
to its source, so we consider it metaphysical when it
is not. For instance, a female may have an uneasy
feeling when a stranger looks at her. Though she
does not realize it in this example, the pupils of the
male’s eyes are not dilated but very narrow. This is
a biological cue that the male is either in bright sunlight
or displeased. Likely, the animal in her human
nature recognizes his displeasure as he looks at her,
though she is not consciously aware of the cue.
Intuition is a form of knowledge that is independent
of experience or reason. Some claim that it is
only through Intuition that characters come to know
their god. Therefore, some consider morality to
depend on Intuition. Some contrast Intuition with
Intelligence, declaring Intuition to be the purest form
of instinct. Intuition affects skills (see Chap. 8: Skills)
such as Animal Conditioning, Animal Handling,
Blindfighting, Chemistry, Cosmetics, Direction
Sense, many forms of Divination (Alectromancy,
Anthropomancy, Aspidomancy, Austromancy,
Axinomancy, Belomancy, Ceraunoscopy,
Chiromancy, Cleromancy, Crystalomancy,
Dririmancy, Gastromancy, Gyromancy,
Hydromancy, Libanomancy, Lithomancy,
Lunomancy, Necromancy, Numerology,
Omphalomancy, Oneiromancy, Onomancy,
Oomancy, Ornithomancy, Pyromancy, Scatomancy,
Sortilege, Stichomancy, Urimancy, and Xenomancy),
Etiquette, Haggling, Read Lips, Sculpture, Search,
and Teaching.
Common Sense: It is easier to describe what
this sub-ability is not, than what it is. Examples of
individuals lacking in Common Sense are often those
who are gullible and have a tendency toward idealism
more than pragmatism. Common Sense, as a
sub-ability, is an abstract measure of how much a
character is in touch with reality. Nerds are good
examples of people who may have some high forms
of Intelligence, but may lack Common Sense. On
the table presented later in this chapter, examples
of each category of ability demonstrate what a character
may be “Likely to” do. Common Sense affects
skills (see Chap. 8: Skills) such as Agriculture,
Basketweaving, Bookbinding, Brewing, Brickmaking,
Candlemaking, Cleaning, Cobbling, Cooking, Disguise,
Divination (Alectromancy), Fishing, Foresting,
Gambling, Genealogy, Girdlemaking, Grooming,
Hatmaking, Heraldry, Hide, Inkmaking, Milking,
Milling, Mining, Minting, Perfumemaking,
Pewtersmithing, Pottery, Pursemaking, Ropemaking,
Saddlemaking, Search, Sheathemaking, Silence, Skinning,
Soapmaking, Tailoring, Tanning, Teaching,
Thatching, Tilemaking, Tinkering, Trapping,
Wainwrighting, Weather Prediction, and Weaving.
Reflection: While Intelligence, or learning,
is more concerned with short-term mnemonic accuracy,
the accuracy of long-term memory correlates
with a gain in Wisdom over time as the decisions
made by the individual reflect the inclusion of
Chapter 3: Abilities
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