Mind represents your character’s intellect, mental discipline, perception, willpower, and magical affinity. It governs reasoning, memory, intuition, and resistance to psychological stress or manipulation.
When your character attempts a task involving pure intellect, willpower, recall, or perception that isn’t clearly covered by a specific skill (like Lore, Insight, or Magic), the GM may call for a direct Mind Check.
- Mechanic: Roll 2d10 and sum the dice.
- Difficulty: The GM sets a difficulty target number (typically from 4 to 16, see benchmarks below) based on the challenge’s mental demands.
Success: Your roll is equal to or less than your Mind score AND equal to or less than the GM’s set difficulty target.
- Failure: Your roll exceeds either your Mind score OR the difficulty target set by the GM.
Typical Difficulty Benchmarks with Examples:
- Simple: 16 or less (e.g., remembering a commonly known fact; recalling where you left your keys moments ago).
- Routine: 14 or less (e.g., recalling the details of a recent conversation; resisting a weak sales pitch).
- Moderate: 12 or less (e.g., solving a simple riddle; noticing something slightly out of place passively; resisting mild fear effects).
- Difficult: 10 or less (e.g., recalling specific details from something read long ago; resisting moderate mental manipulation or illusions).
- Challenging: 8 or less (e.g., deciphering a simple code without tools; resisting strong fear or charm effects).
- Severe: 6 or less (e.g., solving a complex logical puzzle under pressure; resisting powerful magical compulsions).
- Heroic: 4 or less (e.g., recalling obscure forgotten lore instantly; resisting overwhelming psychic assaults or direct divine commands).
Example in Play:
Kaelen (Mind 17) attempts to recall the specific sigil associated with a minor noble house mentioned briefly weeks ago. The GM decides this requires recalling specific, non-crucial information and sets the difficulty target at Difficult (10). Kaelen rolls 2d10.
- Scenario 1: Kaelen rolls a total of 8. Since 8 is less than or equal to his Mind (17) AND less than or equal to the difficulty target (10), he succeeds and clearly pictures the sigil.
- Scenario 2: Kaelen rolls a total of 12. Since 12 is less than or equal to his Mind (17) BUT greater than the difficulty target (10), he fails. His intellect is sharp, but this specific memory eludes him at this moment.
- Scenario 3: Kaelen rolls a total of 18. Since 18 is greater than his Mind (17), he fails automatically, regardless of the difficulty target.
Derived Statistics and Abilities
Mind determines several important derived statistics and abilities:
- Magic Skill Base: Your initial Magic skill equals your Mind score.
- Mana Points (MP): Initially equal to your Magic skill percentage, representing the magical energy available to cast effects.
- Quickness: Average your Dexterity twice and Mind once, then divide by three [(Dex + Dex + Mind) ÷ 3], rounded down. Quickness influences your Initiative order in combat.
Mind strongly influences skills such as Magic, Lore, Investigation, Insight, and Perception, as well as social interactions requiring intellect or willpower. Characters with high Mind are insightful, quick-thinking, resilient against mental influence, and adept at magical or intellectual tasks. Low Mind characters may be impulsive, slow to react, susceptible to trickery, and struggle with magical or cerebral tasks.
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File Created: 04/28/2025 Last Modified: 04/28/2025