Gifts

Gifts are special abilities a character has, whether bequeathed by his species, training in a career, or personal interest. Some gifts are social (such as wealth), some are physical (such as a great dodge), and some are mental (like the ability to read and write!). Some gifts become exhausted after a use and require some kind of rest before being used again.

Terminology
These terms occur within the specific gifts: come visit this page whenever an ability or word on a specific Gift doesn't quite make sense!

Action
This is an ability you would declare as an action in combat on your turn. If this action declares something common like "Melee Attack", then this ability is an upgraded version of that common action. If multiple gifts give upgrades to a common action, then those abilities stack! (Lucky you!)

Reaction
These abilities can be used during someone else's turn as long as your character is reactive: not Reeling, running like a coward, asleep, tied up, or anything that would prevent them from paying attention and reacting. Y'know, like a normal person.

Sometimes this has a descriptor like "Reaction (Parry)". This means that this reaction falls under the field of Parry, and is basically an augmented version of that. So, for example, if some jerk attacks you, and you have a gift that allows you for a Reaction: Guard, then you'd need to guard against that attack to use the special ability. Not Parry, not Counter, but Guard. Pretty basic stuff. Otherwise, there are no restrictions other than needing to be reactive.

Trigger
This ability comes into effect when the trigger is pulled. For example, a thaumaturge's supernatural shield triggers whenever they Guard.

Refresh
Some gifts require rest. Different types of required rests include:

Battle
At the start of every battle, these gifts are refreshed (as long as the player doesn't botch their Initiative roll). During the battle, a character may use an action to refresh a battle gift again, thus allowing for potentially unlimited uses.

Respite
These gifts require a full eight hours of sleep and a meal before using again, and even then can only be refreshed at the beginning of that species' cycle (for example, a Common Cat could only use Frenzy once night rolls around again, even if they were awake in the afternoon).

Chapter
These gifts can only be renewed when the GM begins a new segment/chapter of the adventure.

Influence
After a day has passed, the GM decides whether the gift has refreshed. This should allow the GM to decide whether social influence can be exhibited in that sphere again: even a noble can only demand so much.

Special
Some gifts have special subrules described in the book.

Physical Gifts

 * Acrobat
 * Brawling Fighter
 * Charging Strike
 * Contortionist
 * Coward
 * Fast Climber
 * Fast Jumper
 * Fast Swimmer
 * Giant (requires Body d12)
 * Hiking
 * Keen Ears
 * Keen Eyes
 * Legerdemain
 * Melee Finesse
 * Mounted Fighter
 * Night Vision
 * Pacifist
 * Parkour
 * Springing Strike
 * Sure-Footed

Mental Gifts

 * Animal Handling
 * Artist (of choice)
 * Clear-Headed
 * Craft Specialty: [of choice]
 * Dead Reckoning
 * Extra Favorite with [Skill of choice]
 * First Aid
 * Gambling
 * Geography
 * Heraldry
 * History
 * Junk Expert
 * Language
 * Medicine
 * Melee Fervor
 * Melee Guile
 * Mystic of [occult of choice]
 * Overconfidence
 * Pack Tactics
 * Piety of [religion of choice]
 * Sailing
 * Spelunking
 * Teamster
 * Tracking
 * Unshakable Fighter
 * Vengeful Fighter