Features and Leveling Up
Features are how your character does things. They are not spells, not cooldown buttons, not "+2 when flanking on a Tuesday." A Feature is a domain of active competence — a style of action, a school of magic, a physical discipline — and it plugs directly into your Power Score.
The Three Golden Rules
- Domains of action, never button presses. A Feature is never a single spell or a hyper-specific MMO trigger ("+2 when striking a poisoned target from behind"). It is a broad category of active competence.
- Strictly active. Features are never passive. They grant no static stat bonuses and no passive immunities — narrative defenses and weaknesses are handled exclusively by Mitigations. A Feature's usage always reads: "Applies When: Actively [performing X]..."
- No Feature narrower than T0. If a Feature would apply to fewer than about 1-in-72 actions, it is too narrow — it must be broadened.
Your Seven Features
Characters typically begin with 7 Features: 3 Racial (1 primary from your base Race + 2 secondary from your Subrace), 3 Class (1 primary from your base Class + 2 secondary from your Subclass), and 1 Background "Flare" Feature that you invent yourself with your Director's help — your character's unique flavor, ensuring no two builds play alike. More can be acquired in play, but be sparing: every Feature competes for Skill Points.
Specificity Tiers (T0–T5)
Every Feature is rated T0–T5 on how broad its usage description is — never on how often your campaign happens to need it:
| Tier | Name | Applies to | Exp. Mult |
|---|---|---|---|
| T5 | Cosmic / Reality Manipulation | ~1-in-2.25 actions | 0.375 |
| T4 | Overarching Pillar | ~1-in-4.5 | 0.429 |
| T3 | Core Stat Equivalent | ~1-in-9 | 0.5 |
| T2 | Tactical Discipline | ~1-in-18 | 0.6 |
| T1 | Focused Specialty | ~1-in-36 | 0.75 |
| T0 | Constrained Specialty | ~1-in-72 | 1.0 |
Examples across the scale: Reality Weaving [T5], Arcane Weave Manipulation [T4], Elven Precision [T3], Ambush & Camouflage [T2], Eloquence in Bluffing [T1], Mastery of (one specific weapon) [T0].
Skill Points and the Constraint Slider
Every Feature begins with a 1.00 Skill Modifier and plugs straight into the Power Score. Each Skill Point grows the modifier by a compounding 4%: Skill Modifier = 1.04^(Skill Points × Tier multiplier). Broad Features scale more slowly per point — that's the balance mechanism, not a penalty. With no applicable Feature you operate Untrained at 0.75.
The Constraint Slider lets any Feature step down up to 2 Tiers (never below T0) — scaling faster per point — if its usage is bound to an external focus, object, or environmental requirement the Director can narratively challenge, suppress, or take away. A standard focus costs 1 Tier (Arcane Magic [T4] requiring a staff or wand becomes T3); a rare focus or strict dependency costs 2 (Blade Combat [T2] bound to a specific ancestral weapon becomes T0).
Leveling Up: Infinite Progression
The system is built for infinite scaling, using a soft cap 20 — Level 20 is the peak of natural human capacity, and characters can continue leveling indefinitely:
- Stat Points: gain 2 at Level 3 and every 3 levels after.
- Skill Points: gain 5 per level, plus a massive 15-point keystone burst at Levels 5, 10, 15, and onward — plus the Wit trickle from WIT.
- The Intelligence Cap: the most Skill Points you can invest in a single Feature is set by INT (SC = [INT × (Level + 4)] / 5). Choose between specialized mastery and versatile breadth — and as you level, the cap rises, so your skills keep growing either way.
During an Episode you only track Energy and Morale; at level-ups you just distribute new points on the sheet, which drops them into the unspent section below where they're spent. Leveling mid-session is minimally disruptive — as it should be when the story is the point.