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Skills and Abilities
Skills are a low point way of gaining mastery in various talents.
Amberites tend to have a long view on things. They can take years in shadow learning to be really good at anything. Say an Amberite wants to learn to paint. They can leave Amber, go to a fast shadow, study painting for 2 years, and return to amber having only been gone a few weeks. Perhaps an Amberite meets a woman who is a botanist. Wanting to woe her he says he too is an expert botanist. She invites him on a 'nature walk' in two days. So he hightails it into a shadow amber, spends a year learning the names and properties of the plants of Amber, and returns filled with enough knowledge to impress the comely wench. Anything an Amberite wants to know about he can study, to the level of a bachelor degree, without breaking a sweat.
This is fairly easy for Amberites. Consequently even the dullest of them is filled with an encyclopedic knowledge of things that interest them. A person with Amber Rank Warfare can plan a battle or a campaign as well, and better, than most earth generals. The Amber rank of Endurance would allow them to beat marathon runners, and Amber Strength is right about Olympic gold medal level for super-heavy weights. A slim, delicate, very feminine Amberite with an Amber Rank Strength can bend steel, break bones with their grip, out bench press nearly all humans, and punch out professional boxers.
Amberites all seem to have some rudimentary medical knowledge. So if your arm was broken any of them could set it, disinfect it, and cast it. But if you are really sick, you want a doctor.
But suppose what they want is something more definite? Something that would make them 'known' for an art or something they truly love? Such as Corwin's musical ability, Caine's juggling, Jullian's hunting, Benedict's gardening, Brand's painting, or Gerard's knowledge of drinking vessels and beers.
Thus Skills.
A player can allocate points becoming Master, Known, or Preeminent, or Paramount in a skill.
1 point=Master Level. A complete, encyclopedic, knowledge of an art or science. Roughly equal to a Master's degree.
2 points=Known Level. As above but with an extra step of creative ability, depth, or detail. Roughly equal to a PHD or MD level. Amberites who have taken medical training to such a degree that they have gone through the rigorous of becoming a doctor are 'known' for their medical knowledge. This level is the level where people will comment on you particularly for a study or art.
4 points= Preeminent Level. This denotes a fanatical, even obsessive study of this art to the detriment of others. Considering how hard points are to get in Amber putting 4 into playing the guitar is pretty extreme. It means you always have a guitar with you. The tools of the art are always with you or near at hand. People would seek you out to ask where they should study the art you know or to get training from you. People also might be unwilling to mention the art in your presence for fear of being unable to get you off the subject.
8 Points=Paramonut Level. An Amberite who is paramount in a skill has really gone far over the edge in studying it. Benedict has 8 points in Strategy, Tactics, Logistics, Training & Swordsmanship. Thus he is the Master at Arms for Amber. Eliciting the following exchange from Corwin to Ganelon:
"With only one arm he will be needing a good man about. He could-"
I began to laugh and restrained myself quickly, for the sound of laughter seems to carry a good distance. Also, Ganelon's feelings were involved.
"I am Sorry." I said," excuse me, please .You do not understand. You really do not understand who it was we talked with in the tent that night. He may have seemed an ordinary man to you-a handicapped one at that. But this is not so. I fear Benedict. He is unlike any other being in Shadow or Reality. He is the Master of Arms for Amber. Can you conceive of a millennium? A thousand years? Several of them? Can you understand a man who, for almost every day of a lifetime like that, has spent some time dwelling with weapons, tactics, and strategies? Because you see him in a tiny kingdom, commanding a small militia, with a well-pruned orchard in his back yard, do not be deceived. All that there is of Military Science thunders in his head. He has often journeyed from shadow to shadow witnessing variation after variation on the same battle, with but slightly altered circumstances, in order to test his theories of warfare. He has commanded armies so vast you could watch them march by day after day and see no ends to the columns. Although he is inconvenienced by the loss of his arm, I would not want to fight him either with weapons or barehanded. It is fortunate that he has no designs on the throne, or he would be occupying it right now. If he were, I believe that I would give up at this moment and pay him homage. I fear Benedict"
Guns of Avalon
To spend this kind of effort at anything takes a fanatical devotion to it. 8 points is a lot. Consider that sorcery is 15 points. It is a magical art requiring devotion and stress, and the willingness to tempt fate and the pattern. Becoming Paramount at anything requires that kind of devotion. Note in the example of Benedict that he is paramount in many different skills.
When it comes to what skills to study, the finer you split the disciple the better you are. If you can paint, and put one point into landscapes you can really catch the feel of a place. Trump artists should have, but are not required to, spent at least 1 point on painting/drawing and maybe another for portraiture. Because this is not required, a trump artist may be able to create and empower a trump, but art critics might think his skill at painting average.