Player's Handbook · Chapter 5

Core Skills

Core skills are the ladders of mastery that define what a character can do in the Grayleaf System. Each one has six rungs, from Level 0 to Level 5. Level 0 is a total novice: you can hold the tool, but that doesn't mean you can use it. Level 5 is superhuman: you do the things the world calls impossible, and make them look easy.

How skill levels work

Two rules govern every Core skill:

Level gates access. Each new rung unlocks what the previous rung had as Effortless Actions, as well as new weapons, techniques, knowledge, authority.
Level adds to rolls. When a skill clearly covers what you're attempting, add a number of d6 equal to the skills level to your base 2d6 skill roll . A Master (level 4) with a sword hits where a Novice (level 0) only flails.

Every Core skill follows the same shape: novices barely function, experts are precise, and the fifth rung breaks human limits.

Two benefits appear in every ladder, at different rungs:

Specialization. Which come in two forms you may choose from.
General specialization; Choose a named art, weapon, technique or form that you have mastered: add 2d6 to any skill roll involving your specialization.
Exact specialization; Choose a named scenario, a specific weapon, gadget or make and model of vehicle that you have perfected the use of: add 4d6 to any skill roll involving your specialization and the SDM is lowered by 1 for you.
Effortless Actions/Attack/Magic. As in Core Rules, an Action that requires no roll. But during combat, its more a surge of maximum effort that looks effortless. You can do it, but you can't sustain that level for a whole fight. Declare it before you act, and it lands. The rung that grants it determines how many you get per combat.

Firearms

Firearms is the Core skill for guns, bows, and explosives.

Level 0 — Total Novice. You can use any firearm-class weapon, but with +2 SDM on any attack rolls, and you can only reload out of combat, and you cannot use Special ammunition or Special explosives.
Level 1 — Initiate. You can reload small weapons in combat, but you still cannot use Special ammunition or Special explosives.
Level 2 — Trained Fighter. You can reload small and medium weapons in combat, and you can use Special ammunition.
Level 3 — Expert. You can reload all weapons in combat, but you cannot yet use Special explosives.
Level 4 — Master. You are allowed 1 weapon specialization, you can use Special explosives, and you gain 1 Effortless Attacks per combat.
Level 5 — Superhuman. You are allowed 2 weapon specializations, you can use all weapons, you gain 4 Effortless Attacks per combat, and every reload becomes an Effortless Action.

Melee

Melee is the Core skill for all melee weapons and most vectored weapons.

Level 0 — Total Novice. You can only use knives and short clubs.
Level 1 — Initiate. You can use staffs and clubs.
Level 2 — Trained Fighter. You can use all weapons but great and mega weapons.
Level 3 — Expert. You can use all weapons but mega weapons.
Level 4 — Master. You can use all weapons, gain 1 weapon specialization, and gain 1 Effortless Attacks per-combat.
Level 5 — Superhuman. You are allowed 2 weapon specializations and gain 4 Effortless Attacks per-combat.

Martial Arts

Martial Arts is the Core skill of unarmed combat: strikes, grapples, throws, and the bare-handed techniques that turn the body into a weapon. Melee weapons are the province of the Melee skill; guns, bows, and explosives, the province of Firearms. A Martial Artist who picks up a sword is using Melee. But a fighter who loses the sword can still be armed.

Level 0 — Total Novice. You fight with fists and feet, wild and untaught. You add no skill bonus, and your unarmed strikes deal 1 + Strength level.
Level 1 — Initiate. You have drilled the first forms until they are boring. Add your Martial Arts level to every unarmed attack roll, and your unarmed strikes deal 2 + Strength level. Basic holds open up: you can grapple and restrain.
Level 2 — Trained Fighter. Your hands are weapons. Throws and counters come naturally: you may reroll any attack roll you don't like but must keep the new result.
Level 3 — Expert. Precision strikes: your unarmed strikes deal 3 + Strength level. You read a fight like a page — melee attacks aimed at you have +1 SDM.
Level 4 — Master. Choose one Specialization — a technique or form such as Iron Palm, striking, or grappling. Gain 1 Effortless Attacks per-combat. As an action, when a character within melee range of you make a melee attack, even if not directed at, you catch their attack mid-swing. You both become locked in this state until one of you makes an Opposed Strength roll, to either pull the weapon from their hands, or pull the weapon from your grip; either way the caught attack fails.
Level 5 — Superhuman. You are no longer limited by the human body. You hold 2 Specializations, your unarmed strikes deal 7 + Strength level, and gain 4 Effortless Attacks per-combat. As an Action: you catch slower ranged attacks, grabbing an arrow, bolt or thrown object out of the air as long as you see it and have a hand free.

Magic

Magic is the Core skill of channeling the supernatural. It is used for magic rolls alongside Presence, governing how cleanly you call power and how much of it you can hold without breaking.

Level 0 — Total Novice. This is where most non-players remain for their entire lives. You cannot channel at all.
Level 1 — Initiate. The first real rung of the ladder. If you are at this level your character must have become Unbound or a Demon. You gain 1 General Specialization: a chosen action, tradition, or style of magic you truly have sway over.
Level 2 — Trained Practitioner. Your power obeys you now, rather than controls you: your spells fire more cleanly, and the strain of Warp takes longer to leave you weak.
Level 3 — Expert. You can weave and hold effects that would have scattered lesser beings, you now have -1 MSDM to all Ritualized magic and can attempt any ritual on your own.
Level 4 — Master. You gain a second Specialization of your choice, and can perform 1 Act of Magic per-day without gaining Warp.
Level 5 — Superhuman. You gain a third Specialization of your choice, and can perform up to 5 Acts of Magic per-day without gaining Warp, and now have -1 MSDM to all Spontaneous magic.

Technology

Technology is the Core Skill for everything with a circuit, a piston, or a login screen: hacking, coding, building and maintaining machines, crafting gadgets, not getting scammed by websites, and just using a computer in general.

Level 0 — Total Novice. A total Luddite. You cannot open an email, cannot put a nut on a bolt, and assume every error message means the machine is dead.
Level 1 — Initiate. You can follow a tutorial without breaking anything, find your way around systems you've used before, and perform simple maintenance.
Level 2 — Trained Operator. You can write simple code, crack weak passwords, repair common machine faults, and spot a scam website before it spots you.
Level 3 — Expert. You can build working gadgets from loose components, hold your own in a live hack, and machines you fix tend to stay fixed.
Level 4 — Master. You gain 1 Specialization — a named field you have truly mastered, such as hacking, robotics, or cybernetics — and machines begin to feel like an extension of your hands, Gain 1 Effortless Action per-day.
Level 5 — Superhuman. You gain a second Specialization. Code and machinery read like a native language: you work machines and code with an almost magical fluency, and systems that should be impossible to touch open for you anyway. Gain 4 Effortless Actions per-day.

Medicine

Medicine is the Core skill of the body: checking a character's health, healing with medical supplies, improvised healing, and surgery. It is also added whenever magical healing is performed.

Level 0 — Total Novice. You struggle to apply a band aid.
Level 1 — Initiate. You can clean and dress a wound, take a patient's vitals, and tell a broken bone from a sprain — usually.
Level 2 — Trained Healer. You can treat common injuries with proper supplies, stabilize a bleeding ally, and run basic triage without panicking.
Level 3 — Expert. You can improvise treatments from whatever is at hand and perform real surgery with the right tools.
Level 4 — Master. You gain 1 specialization — a named field you have truly mastered, such as trauma surgery, toxicology, or field medicine — and your hands know what to do before your eyes finish looking. Gain 1 Effortless Action day.
Level 5 — Superhuman. You gain a second specialization. You perform literal medical miracles: injuries that should be fatal become survivable, and healing magic flows through your hands with terrifying precision. Gain 4 Effortless Actions per-day.

Crafting

Crafting is the Core skill for turning random junk into something useful, or reading a manual and building exactly what it tells you to. It overlaps with Technology; a GM may let you add Crafting to rolls for physical tech instead, but Crafting is mainly for non-tech building and repairing: wood, cloth, leather, stone, and anything held together by stubbornness.

Level 0 — Total Novice. You'd fail to connect Lego bricks. The manual is a suggestion, and the suggestion is wrong.
Level 1 — Initiate. You can follow simple plans, make basic repairs, and produce rough but functional pieces.
Level 2 — Trained Maker. You can build sturdy, reliable items from raw materials and improvise simple tools when you lack the right ones.
Level 3 — Expert. You can read complex manuals and execute them, turn salvaged junk into genuinely useful gear, and repair things others have written off.
Level 4 — Master. You gain 1 specialization — a named craft you have truly mastered, such as metalwork, leatherworking, or mechanical repair — and your pieces outlast their builders, Gain 1 Effortless Action day.
Level 5 — Superhuman. You gain a second specialization. Give you a pile of logs and a spool of solder and you can probably find a way to make a working car. Nothing is scrap; everything is a component, gain 4 Effortless Actions per-day.

Stealth

Stealth is the Core skill for sneaking and skulking, moving unseen, unheard, and making yourself look like you belong somewhere you don't. Not much more than that, and that is already a lot.

Level 0 — Total Novice. You fail to hide in a room with no lights. Guards hear you thinking about sneaking.
Level 1 — Initiate. You can move quietly, stick to shadows, and slip into a crowd you roughly match.
Level 2 — Trained Infiltrator. You can cross a guarded room, tail someone through a busy street, and vanish into terrain that offers even a little cover.
Level 3 — Expert. You can move through places you have no business being in and blend into environments where you plainly do not belong.
Level 4 — Master. You gain 1 Specialization — a named style you have truly mastered, such as shadowcraft, infiltration, or pickpocketing — and people's eyes simply slide off you, gain 1 Effortless Action per-day.
Level 5 — Superhuman. You gain a second Specialization. You vanish like a Hollywood ninja: one moment you are there, the next you're gone, and they will argue to their dying day they never saw you leave, gain 4 Effortless Actions per-day.

Investigation

Investigation is the Core skill for dedicated searches for information or objects: locating a file, digital or physical; following someone or something's trail; figuring out which clone is the original. It is what you roll when you stop guessing and start looking.

Level 0 — Total Novice. You'd overlook a folder literally titled "Our evil plans."
Level 1 — Initiate. You can search a room properly, follow a fresh trail, and find things that weren't hidden very well.
Level 2 — Trained Sleuth. You can reconstruct what happened in a scene, spot inconsistencies in documents, and follow cold trails with patience.
Level 3 — Expert. You can find what people worked hard to hide, connect scattered evidence into a picture, and interview witnesses without them realizing they're being interviewed.
Level 4 — Master. You gain 1 Specialization — a named focus you have truly mastered, such as forensics, forgery detection, or tracking — and nothing stays hidden from you for long, gain 1 Effortless Action per-day.
Level 5 — Superhuman. You gain a second Specialization. You might as well be Sherlock and Poirot fused into one super sleuth: you read a crime scene like a sentence, and the truth has a habit of walking up and introducing itself, gain 4 Effortless Actions per-day.

Intimidation

Intimidation is the Core skill for bending others to your will with threats or shows of force. It is not about volume, it's about making someone believe the price of defiance isn't one they are willing to pay.

Level 0 — Total Novice. You could start making demands with a ticking bomb in your hand and everyone would just laugh at you.
Level 1 — Initiate. You can be menacing when you have the upper hand, and most people will think twice before crossing you.
Level 2 — Trained Enforcer. Your threats carry weight: you can browbeat the weak-willed and make a room go quiet just by standing up.
Level 3 — Expert. You can shake trained professionals, intimidate without raising your voice, and make violence feel like a promise instead of a possibility.
Level 4 — Master. You gain 1 Specialization. a named style you have truly mastered, such as interrogation, terror tactics, or the quiet stare — and people believe you mean every word, Gain 1 Effortless Action day.
Level 5 — Superhuman. You gain a second Specialization. You can shatter a person's will with a few well-placed words: they will do what you want, and thank you for the privilege, gain 4 Effortless Actions per-day.

Persuasion

Persuasion is the Core skill for bribing, non-violent extortion, changing a person's mind, far-reaching white lies, and making someone do what you want when they don't want to. Where Intimidation threatens, Persuasion offers — and the offer is always good.

Level 0 — Total Novice. You couldn't convince someone to keep breathing.
Level 1 — Initiate. You can haggle, make a reasonable case, and talk your way past the easier doors.
Level 2 — Trained Negotiator. You can change minds given time, defuse tempers, and get people to do small favors they'd rather not.
Level 3 — Expert. You can sell ice to a glacier: turn a hostile crowd, win over a skeptic, and make the unappealing sound almost reasonable.
Level 4 — Master. You gain 1 Specialization — a named art you have truly mastered, such as negotiation, seduction, or propaganda — and your words can find the cracks in anyone, gain 1 Effortless Action per-day.
Level 5 — Superhuman. You gain a second Specialization. You could talk a turtle out of its shell: people give you their life savings for nothing and walk away from the conversation feeling like they came out on top, gain 4 Effortless Actions per-day.

Deception

Deception is the Core skill for outright lying to someone who knows the truth, hiding information, pretending to be someone you're not, and general dishonesty. Persuasion makes people want what you offer; Deception makes them believe what you say.

Level 0 — Total Novice. You literally couldn't lie convincingly to save your life. Your face is a confession.
Level 1 — Initiate. You can tell small lies, keep a secret, and pass yourself off as someone roughly adjacent to who you are.
Level 2 — Trained Liar. You can lie to your friends, lie to the authorities, and keep a cover story straight under questioning.
Level 3 — Expert. You can impersonate specific people, bury the truth inside a mountain of true-sounding details, and lie to people who know the truth — and make them doubt themselves.
Level 4 — Master. You gain 1 Specialization — a named art you have truly mastered, such as disguise, forgery, or the long con — and your lies have their own internal consistency, gain 1 Effortless Action per-day.
Level 5 — Superhuman. You gain a second Specialization. You can convince someone they've died and become a ghost in the middle of a conversation: reality bends to whatever story you're telling, gain 4 Effortless Actions per-day.

Driving

Driving is the Core skill for getting behind the wheel; basic everyday driving, and also doing a triple backflip off a freeway during a high-speed chase without dying. Driving could also be used for carriages or aircraft in the right setting. Though god help you if you commit to navigating 3D space with pen and paper.

Level 0 — Total Novice. You can't even find the ignition, let alone drive yourself anywhere.
Level 1 — Initiate. You can drive in normal conditions, nervously: parking, traffic, and staying on the correct side of the road.
Level 2 — Trained Driver. You no longer need to make a roll for normal drives. Everyday driving is simply something you do.
Level 3 — Expert. You can drive fast and hard: high-speed chases, rough terrain, and maneuvers that make passengers scream.
Level 4 — Master. You gain 1 Specialization — a named style you have truly mastered, such as pursuit, stunt driving, or off-road — and you can do a triple backflip off a freeway in the middle of a chase and land it. Gain 1 Effortless Action per-day.
Level 5 — Superhuman. You gain a second Specialization. Anything short of driving out of a plane into a pipe barely wider than your vehicle no longer needs a roll — and with your Baby, even if that one is just a Tuesday, gain 4 Effortless Actions per-day.

Manual updated Aug 19, 2026.