- For Skills in Bannerlord, see Skills (Bannerlord).
A skill grants an ability or buff to a character or a party. The level of the skill determines its potency. Each of a character's skills can be increased from level 0 to level 10. There are 24 skills.
Each skill has a base attribute. A character's level of a skill cannot surpass one third of their level in its base attribute (except through the use of Books). For example, Tactics has Intelligence as its base attribute; if Intelligence is level 9, Tactics cannot surpass level 3. For players, initial skill levels are dictated by your character's background and may exceed this limitation.
Type[]
The type of a skill determines how it affects the party. There are three types of skills:
- Party skill
- A party skill grants an ability to the party as a whole. The level of a party skill is chosen from the party member who has the highest level in that skill. If the player and another party member both have a party skill trained to level 2 or higher, a bonus may be awarded (see below).
- Leader skill
- Like a party skill, a leader skill grants an ability to a party. However, only the party-leader's level in the skill is used.
- Personal skill
- A personal skill grants an ability to an individual party-leader or companion. In general this ability only benefits the individual. However, in the case of 'Trainer', the whole party benefits from bonus experience. Therefore multiple companions with 'Trainer' can be used to give a greater advantage to the party.
Party Leader Skill Bonus[]
The skill will become more effective if the leader (you) also knows something about it. In other words, a party skill’s effective level is a combination of the skill level of the person who has the best rank in it, as well as a bonus based on your own rank in that skill.
Your Skill Level | Party Skill Bonus |
---|---|
0-1 | (+0) |
2-4 | (+1) |
5-7 | (+2) |
8-9 | (+3) |
10 | (+4) |
The party skill bonus is applied even if you are the person with the highest rank in the skill. So if you have a rank of 8 in Tactics, then the effective level of the skill for the party is 8 + 3 = 11.
Assignment of Skill Points[]
When a character levels up they are granted a skill point (characters are ready to level up when they have a '+' next to their name). To assign a player's character's skill points use the 'Character' screen. To assign a companion's skill points:
- Select their name on the 'Party' screen;
- Click 'Talk';
- Select 'What can you tell me about your skills?'.
List of Skills[]
Name | Type | Attribute | Effect |
---|---|---|---|
Ironflesh | Personal | Strength | Increases hit points by 2. Maximum of 20 additional hit points. |
Power Strike | Personal | Strength | Increases melee damage by 8%. Maximum of 80% more damage. |
Power Throw | Personal | Strength | Increases throwing damage by 10% and increases the velocity and range of thrown projectiles. Some thrown weapons require a few points in Power Throw to use (e.g. axes, javelins). Maximum of 100% more damage |
Power Draw | Personal | Strength | More powerful bows have a minimum Power Draw requirement to use. Power Draw also adds 14% to each hit with the bow, until four levels beyond the bow’s minimum Power Draw requirement; for example, if the bow’s Power Draw requirement is 2, then a skill level of 2 will add 28%, while a skill level of 6 will add 84%, while any level beyond 6 will still add 84%. Finally, higher Power Draw makes powerful bows easier to use by improving your accuracy and the time you can keep your aim steady while the bow is drawn, though this cannot overcome having a low proficiency with bows. Maximum of 140% more damage. |
Weapon Master | Personal | Agility | Each skill level adds 40 points (starting from 60) to your weapon proficiency limits. Beyond this limit, you cannot increase weapon proficiencies by investing points into them. Weapon proficiencies can also be increased during combat - even beyond the limit set by Weapon Mastery - the rate of proficiency gain depending on your Weapon Master skill. |
Shield | Personal | Agility | Each point reduces the damage to your shield takes when blocking a hit by 8%. It also increases your shield’s effective size versus ranged attacks and improves how quickly you can block with a shield. Extremely high shield skill may cause you to catch arrows that would have otherwise missed you and defend others standing close to you from arrow fire. Maximum of 80% damage reduction. |
Athletics | Personal | Agility |
Increases your base running speed, either making a lightly encumbered character run faster than normal, or letting a heavily encumbered character move at normal speed. This skill also improves a unit's overland speed on the map if they are not mounted, improving the average speed of the party they are part of. Encumberance has a much larger effect than this skill is able to overcome at higher weight levels, meaning completely unarmored Looters can still outrun an extremely heavily armed and armored man or woman on foot even if he or she has 10 points in this skill. Noticeably increases movement speed in Viking Conquest. |
Riding | Personal | Agility | All horses (except the arena mount) have a minimum riding requirement; this skill also increases your speed and agility while sitting astride a steed, but only up to a certain point. Even at 10, this skill will not allow a Sumpter Horse to outrun a Courser or a War Horse to outmaneuver a Sarranid Horse. This skill also improves a unit's overland speed on the map if they are mounted on a horse, improving the average speed of the party they are part of. Couched lance damage is directly affected by this skill, provided the horse ridden is actually fast enough to allow for it. Acceleration and deceleration are also benefitted by this skill, allowing a horse to reach top speed or stop in less than three steps at higher levels. |
Horse Archery | Personal | Agility | Reduces accuracy and damage penalties for using a ranged weapon from a moving horse. Note that no penalties are applied if you are mounted but not moving. |
Looting | Party | Agility | Increases amount looted at villages (ex. Cows) and after battles by 10%, and decreases the time needed to loot a village. Maximum of 140% more loot including party bonus. |
Trainer | Personal (but stacks with party) | Intelligence | At midnight of each day, a hero with the Trainer skill adds experience to every other party member of a lower level than himself. This includes the Player and normal soldiers (as appropriate for their Character Sheet level, not tier). Higher ranks in Training add more experience to each eligible party member. If multiple party members have the skill and are higher level, the effects stack for each eligible party member. |
Tracking | Party | Intelligence | A single point in Tracking allows you to see tracks left by other parties on the world map. Additional points let you spot tracks from a greater distance and make each track reveal more information as well as lasting longer before fading. |
Tactics | Party | Intelligence | Every two levels of this skill increases your starting battle advantage by 1. Battle advantage determines how many soldiers you can have on the battlefield at the start of a battle and how large your reinforcements will be. This skill will also let you retreat from a battle with fewer casualties. Up to 7 additional battle advantage including party bonus. |
Path-finding | Party | Intelligence | Increases Party speed on the map by 3%. Up to 42% more speed with party bonus. |
Spotting | Party | Intelligence | Increases sight range on the map by 10% per level. Increases sight by a maximum of 140% with party skill bonus. |
Inventory Management | Leader | Intelligence | Increases Inventory capacity by 6 slots per level. 60 additional slots at maximum. |
Wound Treatment | Party | Intelligence | Each point adds 20% to your party’s healing speed; it also increases the chance of crippled horses healing if they are in your inventory. Crippled horses can still take quite some time to heal however, so patience is necessary. Up to 280% faster healing speed including party bonus. |
Surgery | Party | Intelligence | Each point adds a 4% chance that a party member, when struck down, will be knocked unconscious instead of dying. This chance is added to a base chance of 25%. Also, the chance applies only to regular troops, since heroes can't be killed. Maximum of 81% chance for troops to be knocked unconscious, including the party bonus. |
First Aid | Party | Intelligence | Each point will allow your hero characters to regain 5% of the health they’ve lost during a particular skirmish or battle. Note that this is added to a base rate of 10%. First Aid cannot be triggered consecutively by entering multiple small battles in a row within less than a minute. Maximum of 80% health recovery with party bonus. |
Engineer | Party | Intelligence | This is used to determine how quickly you can build siege machinery. It also affects the speed and cost at which improvements can be built at a fief which you own. |
Persuasion | Personal | Intelligence | Increases the chance that other people will accept your point of view. At least one point is require to succeed at persuasion attempts. This lowers the cost of the optional bribe required for successful persuasion, increases the chance of prisoners accepting to join your army by 4%, and increases the chance of routed enemies surrendering when offered the choice of capture or death. 40% chance to persuade prisoners at max. Also, each point gives you +1 hidden relation, +10% effect of positive relations, and ignores 5% negative relations with everyone you talk to, maxing out at +10 hidden relation, +100% effect of positive relation, and ignoring 50% of negative relations. Also reduces morale penalties between hero party members that don't get along, allowing one to effectively have more heroes. |
Prisoner Management | Leader | Charisma | Increases maximum number of prisoners by 5. This skill also reduces the chance of prisoners escaping from your party once captured. An incredible profit can be turned out after every battle with the help of this skill. Maximum of up to 50 prisoners. |
Leadership | Leader | Charisma | Increases maximum number of troops by 5, decreases troop wages by 5%, increases party morale by 5% and decreases the chance that a recruited prisoner escapes by 5%. Note that the extra morale does not cover the group size penalty you incur while being at the cap. Up to 50 more troops and cuts wages by 50% at maximum skill level. |
Trade | Party | Charisma | Decreases trade penalty by 5%. When using assess local prices, it also informs of one more possible profit opportunity by skill level. Maximum reduction of trade penalty is 70% including party bonus. |
With Fire & Sword[]
Name | Type | Attribute | Effect |
---|---|---|---|
Grenade Throwing | Personal | Strength | Each point to this skill increases your throwing damage by 10%. Additionally, the damage radius is increased by 1 stride for every 2 levels. |
Shooting from Horseback | Personal | Agility | Reduces damage and accuracy penalties for shooting and throwing from horseback, and you will less frequently fall out of the saddle. |