Universal Specialties¶
Blitz Eternal: Adventures Beyond the Mists — v0.3 Draft¶
Specialties any Character can buy through Advancement regardless of Class, as distinct from a Class's own Growth Potential list (Class-specific Specialties, see each class file's Appendix) and from Starting Specialties (a Class-curated, creation-time-only menu; see starting-specialties.md). A universal Specialty is bought the same way as any other, with Advancement Points granted at a Level (see character-creation, Advancement).
This document is the home for that family. It holds Fluid Footwork today and is where future Class-agnostic Specialties belong as they're designed, rather than scattering them into whichever rules section happens to touch their mechanic.
Fluid Footwork¶
Cost. 2 Advancement Points.
Effect. Splits a Character's Move around their Action instead of the default Move-then-Act order (core-rules, Part Five): some movement before the Action, the rest after. Grants no additional movement, only splits an existing Move into two segments.
Example. A Character with Fluid Footwork and a Speed of 5 wants to step out from cover, attack, and then duck back. Without this Specialty, all 5 Speed must be spent before or after the Action, not both. With it, they spend 2 Speed moving into the open, Act (attack), then spend the remaining 3 Speed retreating back into cover, all in the same turn.
Design note. Adopted alongside Move, Act, and Free Interaction becoming formally distinct turn components; before that split existed, there was no "around the Action" to speak of. See open-questions and retired-mechanics for the turn-economy history.
Second Loadout [STUB]¶
Cost. Not yet finalized; likely 2 Advancement Points.
Requires. None.
Flavor. Two trades, mastered. You carry the tools of both and change your mind as the fight turns.
Effect. You carry a full second Kit, perk and all, alongside your active one. As your Free Interaction for the turn (core-rules, Part Five), you may swap which Kit is active. Only one Kit is active at a time, so you benefit from only one perk at a time, and the one-Free-Interaction-per-turn limit means at most one swap per turn. Reconfiguring either Kit still happens only in downtime (kits.md).
Design note. Stub, 2026-08-01. The paid, deliberate version of carrying two loadouts, kept off the free baseline so ordinary Characters commit to one Kit per fight (kits.md, Reconfiguring a Kit) while the ordinary sidearm covers the "never left with nothing" case (kits.md, Sidearms and backups). Open: the final cost, whether the swap should be once per turn or once per Combat, and whether pairing two two-handed Kits needs a carry restriction. [PLAYTEST]
Assassin and infiltration Specialties¶
Migrated from the older Legends system and rebuilt on this engine (2026-08-01). Every one is open: any Character who meets the requirement may buy it through Advancement, regardless of Class. This is what lets a Ranger, a Knight, or anyone else take assassin tools without changing Class. The Assassins Guild (05-setting/guilds) deepens several of them and gates the strongest.
Two conventions apply throughout, both now core rules: a Specialty grants a flat extra die, +1d6, never Advantage (see core-rules, Part Seventeen), and per-fight limits are written "Once per Combat," never "per encounter." Requirement tiers are read against the Competence ladder (core-rules, Part Seventeen): Trained is 5-6, Skilled is 4-6.
Vanish¶
Cost. 3 Advancement Points.
Requires. Finesse Skilled (4-6) or greater, or membership in the Assassins Guild.
Flavor. The line breaks, a shout goes up, and where you stood there is nothing. The one you mean to kill is still watching the space you left.
Effect. As your Action, choose one enemy that could plausibly lose track of you, meaning there is cover, a crowd, smoke, or the churn of a melee to vanish into, and make a Finesse Check against a Difficulty the GM sets by how exposed you are. On a success, that enemy is Unaware of you (core-rules, Part Eleven) until you act against it or it detects you. While it is Unaware of you, your hits against it bypass its screen, an enemy Character's Company or a cluster of lesser foes the GM is running to shield a larger threat, and land on that target's own Card, exactly as the Unaware rule already provides. The first hit you land on a target made Unaware this way each Combat carries Rend 2.
Worked example. The party fights an ogre warded by a swarm of goblins. The Knight and Skirmisher grind at the goblins, and every hit lands on that screen. A Ranger who has taken Vanish spends her Action instead to slip behind an overturned cart and makes her Finesse Check against the ogre. It succeeds. The ogre is now Unaware of her. On her next turn she strikes: her hits ignore the goblin screen and land on the ogre's own Card, and the first of them carries Rend 2. The ogre never saw the knife.
Design note. The bypass itself is not new; the Unaware rule already routes an Unaware defender's damage past its screen. Vanish's actual grant is the power to re-impose Unaware in the middle of a fight, turn after turn, at the cost of a whole Action and a Check that can fail. That tempo cost is the balance. [PLAYTEST] against Initiative's "ambusher acts first" rule.
Lost in the Melee¶
Cost. 2 Advancement Points.
Requires. Vanish.
Flavor. When steel is already ringing an arm's length away, no one is watching for you. You step into the noise and are gone.
Effect. While you are adjacent to an ally who is engaged in combat, you may use Vanish without making its Finesse Check. It succeeds automatically. This changes nothing else about Vanish: it still costs your Action, and the target must still be one that could plausibly lose track of you. Away from an engaged ally, Vanish works as normal and requires the Check.
Design note. Turns Vanish from a gamble into a certainty under the one condition an assassin most wants, a melee already underway beside them. The Action cost is kept, so this does not become a free every-turn bypass; the ally's fight buys reliability, not tempo. Whether the Action cost should also be waived is [PLAYTEST].
Crippling Strike¶
Cost. 2 Advancement Points.
Requires. Finesse Trained (5-6) or greater.
Flavor. You do not always aim to kill. Sometimes you aim to stop.
Effect. When you assign one of your hits to a target, you may spend that hit to impose a wound instead of dealing damage. Choose one: the target is Slowed until the end of your next turn, or the target takes the arm wound and is disarmed, dropping its weapon and contributing no die until re-armed or healed. Usable once per turn. Slowed and the arm wound follow their existing rules (core-rules, Parts Eight and Nine); this Specialty only lets the attacker, rather than the defender, dictate the harm.
Design note. Merges the old Hamstring and Muscle Slice into one pick. The engine already lets a defender choose arm or leg per point of damage; this hands that choice to the attacker for one hit, which is the whole of a called shot.
Quick Hands¶
Cost. 2 Advancement Points.
Requires. None.
Flavor. The vial is empty and back on your belt before anyone saw you reach for it.
Effect. Once per turn, use one carried item as a Free Interaction instead of an Action: drink a potion, coat a blade in poison, ready a flask. This overrides the default that drinking a potion costs a full Action (core-rules, Part Five).
Design note. Real action-economy value, but only for a Character who invests in consumables, which keeps it from being the universally correct pick. [PLAYTEST] whether it should cost 1 or 2.
Mist-Step¶
Cost. 2 Advancement Points.
Requires. Finesse Trained (5-6) or greater.
Flavor. The blow passes through a curl of mist where your throat had been.
Effect. Once per Combat, when a Hit would land on your own Card, negate it and move 1 square. You lose your Free Interaction on your next turn.
Design note. Kept Character-scale and once per Combat so it does not tread on the Blade Retainer's Elusive or Shadow Step, or on the Sword-and-Shield Guard token.
Contortionist¶
Cost. 1 Advancement Point.
Requires. None.
Flavor. There is always a smaller space than anyone thinks.
Effect. You roll Stealth (Finesse) Checks with one extra die (+1d6, so 4d6 on a standard 3d6 Check). You may re-hide as part of your Move rather than spending an Action, provided your Move reaches cover.
Design note. Cheap support for Vanish and for out-of-combat infiltration.
Shadowed Sight¶
Cost. 1 Advancement Point.
Requires. None.
Flavor. Dark is only dark to those who still need the sun.
Effect. You are never Blinded by darkness or poor light, and you fail no Check for want of light alone. You cannot be made Unaware by an attacker relying on darkness or concealment you could reasonably sense.
Design note. Scoped tighter than the Night Fey Lineage Specialties (Creature of the Dark, Shadow's Favor), which grant a flat bonus in darkness, so the two do not simply repeat each other. This one is denial: light-based Blinded and darkness ambushes do not work on you.
Read the Foe¶
Cost. 2 Advancement Points.
Requires. Wits Trained (5-6) or greater.
Flavor. Every guard has a habit. Every beast has a tell. You have already found it.
Effect. Before a fight, or as an Action during one, make a Wits Check against a target. On a success you learn its Tier, Hit Points, Speed, Range, and any attack keywords (Rend, Piercing, Inevitable). If the Check clears a Difficulty of 2 or more, your side also gains one extra die (+1d6) on its first roll against that target.
Design note. A recon Specialty. There is no soak or damage-resistance to read in this engine, so it reports the stat line and keywords that actually exist.
Never Unarmed¶
Cost. 1 Advancement Point.
Requires. None.
Flavor. They took your sword at the gate. They did not take everything.
Effect. An arm wound can never disarm you. Redirect any arm wound you would take to the leg instead, and you never drop out of the Pool to a disarm.
Design note. Built around the arm-versus-leg wound choice that is the real disarm mechanic here. The appear-unarmed flavor lives in the Hidden Blade Kit (kits.md), so this Specialty stays purely the durable disarm immunity and the two do not overlap.
Nondescript¶
Cost. 1 Advancement Point.
Requires. None.
Flavor. Average height. Average build. A face people are sure they have seen before, on a name they cannot place.
Effect. You have a knack for blending in. Anyone describing you struggles to pick out a single distinguishing trait beyond your gear. Witnesses recall your cloak, your blade, your horse, and not your face, your voice, or your bearing. Change or discard that gear and the description falls apart. This is a social and investigative edge, not a combat one; it does nothing once a fight has begun and you are seen acting.
Design note. A pure intrigue Specialty, the assassin who cannot be described to a magistrate. Deliberately gear-dependent, so it is beaten by the obvious countermeasure of changing what you carry, and scoped out of combat so it never touches Unaware or the Pool math.
Perfect Opening¶
Cost. 2 Advancement Points.
Requires. Finesse Trained (5-6) or greater.
Flavor. The best and the worst a moment can offer, arriving in the same breath. You have been waiting for exactly this.
Effect. You can read Extremes in your Pool (a natural 1 and a natural 6 in the same roll; see core-rules, Part Eighteen). Once per turn, when Extremes appears, one hit from that turn may be assigned directly to the Card of a target that is Unaware or Helpless, bypassing any screen. If no such target exists, that hit instead carries Rend 1.
Design note. The unlock for the Extremes pattern, which nothing reads by default. With Vanish or a Contract setting up Unaware targets, a Perfect Opening turns the rare, perfect roll into a strike no bodyguard can stop. [PLAYTEST]
Command and support Specialties¶
Migrated from the older Legends system's Diplomat archetype and rebuilt on this engine (2026-08-01). Every one here is open: any Character who meets the requirement may buy it through Advancement, regardless of Class, though several suit the Chancellor and other command-minded Characters best. The full migration record, including what did not translate and why, is in diplomat-migration.md. Two conventions apply throughout, both core rules: a Specialty grants a flat extra die, +1d6, never Advantage (core-rules, Part Seventeen), and per-fight limits are written "Once per Combat." Requirement tiers read against the Competence ladder (core-rules, Part Seventeen): Trained is 5-6.
Reopen the Question¶
Cost. 1 Advancement Point.
Requires. None.
Flavor. A mind made up is not a mind closed. You find the one loose thread and pull, and suddenly the matter is open again.
Effect. Out of combat, against one subject who has already settled on a position, you may compel a Presence Check that would not otherwise be offered. The subject is not persuaded by this alone; you have only reopened the question. Because you are arguing against a decision already reached, the Check is made at one Difficulty tier higher than the same argument would face on an undecided subject. Usable on a given subject once per day, and never on a close ally.
Design note. Migrates the Legends Diplomat's Force the Precipice. "Requires an additional success" becomes "one Difficulty tier higher" on the Check ladder. Renamed from the Legends jargon, since Hynafol has no precipice concept.
Encourage¶
Cost. 2 Advancement Points.
Requires. Presence Trained (5-6) or greater.
Flavor. A word at the right moment is worth a second sword. You steady the hand that was about to slip.
Effect. Once per Combat, and once per social scene out of combat, you may grant one ally within earshot a flat extra die (+1d6) on a single roll they are about to make, a combat Pool roll or a Check. You are not joining their effort in the Help sense, so you add no Bust risk of your own; you simply hand them the die. You must be able to speak and be heard for this to work.
Design note. Merges three near-identical Legends voice buffs (Encourage, Motivating Words, Save the Day) into one. Situational Advantage becomes the flat +1d6 per core-rules Part Seventeen. Distinct from the Help loop in that it adds no Bust risk.
Rally¶
Cost. 3 Advancement Points.
Requires. Presence Trained (5-6) or greater.
Flavor. You do not close the wound. You make them forget it long enough to keep standing.
Effect. Once per Combat, in place of your Action, restore 1 Hit Point to one adjacent Retainer or ally who has not Fallen. This cannot revive a Fallen combatant and cannot raise a target above its starting Hit Points.
Design note. Migrates Inspiring Words and Inspiring Presence, cut down from a flat 5-point radius heal to a single point, in line with the Priest Retainer perk (companies-and-command, Part Five) and deliberately weaker than The Priest's Hand. Priced at 3 because preventing a Fall is the most valuable thing a support Character can do in this engine. The overlap with the Priest is accepted; this stays open rather than Guild-gated.
Diplomatic Immunity¶
Cost. 2 Advancement Points.
Requires. None.
Flavor. They came for you and found they had a better reason to be somewhere else. Someone always does.
Effect. Once per Combat, when an enemy attack would target you specifically and a valid alternative target is within that attacker's reach, you may force the attacker to strike the other target instead. Cannot be used while you are Unaware (core-rules, Part Eleven), the same restriction Intercept carries, and cannot redirect an attack that has no other legal target.
Design note. The defender-side mirror of the Chancellor's Redirect command effect. Redirect reroutes an enemy's next attack onto a Retainer of the Chancellor's choosing; Diplomatic Immunity reroutes an attack away from oneself onto any legal target the attacker can reach. The thematic echo is intentional.
Bonded¶
Cost. 1 Advancement Point.
Requires. None.
Flavor. You know the mood of your household the way you know the weather. A soldier in trouble three valleys away tugs at you like a change in the wind.
Effect. At any distance, you always know the broad state of each of your Retainers and any ally you have named: whether they are safe, in a fight, wounded, or Fallen. This is a standing sense, not a roll, and it works across the Mists.
Design note. A near-literal migration of the Legends Bonded, trimmed to the states the system tracks and extended to "Fallen." Touches no combat math. Suits the Chancellor's large Company and the Falling-back-to-a-Retainer rule.
Read the Room¶
Cost. 2 Advancement Points.
Requires. None.
Flavor. You walk into a hall and you already know who is afraid, who is lying, and who is about to reach for a knife.
Effect. Out of combat, once per scene, make a Wits Check to read the disposition of a group or a key figure: who holds real authority, where the tension sits, and whether violence is close. On a Check that clears Difficulty 2 or more, if that reading turns into a fight you move to preempt, you take the Initiative and act first (core-rules, Part Four). This does not apply if an enemy springs a genuine ambush; a successful read means you were not caught unaware, but it never lets you act ahead of an attacker whose surprise you failed to detect.
Design note. A new Specialty in the archetype, replacing Legends' Snap Response, which keyed Initiative off an attribute Hynafol's 2d6 Initiative has no room for. The ambush clause resolves the potential conflict with Part Four's "ambusher acts first" rule: reading the room successfully is itself the detection that prevents the ambush.
Standard Bearer's Word¶
Cost. 2 Advancement Points.
Requires. None.
Flavor. One steady voice at the right moment turns a rout back into a line.
Effect. Once per Combat, as your Action, remove one Condition (Weakened, Slowed, Stunned, or Blinded) from an adjacent ally or Retainer, or grant one ally immunity to the next Condition that would be applied to them before your next turn.
Design note. A new Specialty giving the support family the roster's only clean Condition-removal effect. Uses only the existing named Conditions (core-rules, Part Nine), adds no new machinery, and counters the Chancellor's own Anchor and Pacify as well as monster Conditions.
Hold the Line¶
Cost. 2 Advancement Points.
Requires. None.
Flavor. Your voice carries further than any banner. As long as they can hear you, they hold together.
Effect. While you can be heard, your Company's Communication Range (companies-and-command, Part Four) rises from 10 squares to 15, letting your Retainers spread further and still act as one Pool rather than splitting into separate Detachments.
Design note. A new Specialty carrying the command-and-control fantasy of the Legends Formations through a rule Hynafol already has. Deliberately reconciled against the Bard Guild's Performer, which doubles the same range to 20: Performer stays the stronger, Guild-gated version, and Hold the Line is the open, shallower one. Voice-based, so unlike Performer it needs no instrument and functions in a fight.
The Whole Line Moves¶
Cost. 2 Advancement Points.
Requires. The Commander's Mace Kit (kits.md).
Flavor. You level the mace and the whole line leans forward. Nobody waits to be told twice.
Effect. Once per Combat, in place of your attack, raise the mace and call the advance: every Retainer and ally in your Company gains +2 Speed until the start of your next turn.
Design note. Deepens the Commander's Mace's "Commands" perk from a single redirected Hit into a company movement order, the requested Kit upgrade. A pure Speed grant is the safe axis for a Company-wide effect (companies-and-command, Part One names reach and movement as the buff that does not touch Pool size or Combo math). Migrates the Legends Flow formation, the one Formation that survives the pass. Pairs with the Chancellor's Field Command, which delivers the same order through the command economy rather than a Kit.
Guardian and defensive Specialties¶
Migrated from the older Legends system's Guardian archetype and rebuilt on this engine (2026-08-01). The Legends Guardian was a combat tank; its protector core became Warden-exclusive Specialties (classes/warden.md), while the general durability and positioning entries below are open to any Character. The full migration record, including the self-heal that was omitted for design consistency and the Defense, soak, resist, and momentum abilities that do not translate, is in guardian-migration.md. Conventions as above: a Specialty grants +1d6, never Advantage (core-rules, Part Seventeen), and per-fight limits read "Once per Combat."
Guarded Grip¶
Cost. 2 Advancement Points.
Requires. None.
Flavor. A long haft is a bar you can set against a blade as well as swing. Held right, it turns like a shield.
Effect. A two-handed melee weapon you wield can bank Guard tokens exactly as a shield does (core-rules, Part Eight, and the Sword-and-Shield Guard perk in kits.md): when you score a Hit, you may bank it as a Guard token instead of dealing damage, negating one incoming Hit on your next turn. Does not stack with a shield Kit, since a Character already carrying Guard gains nothing from this.
Design note. Migrates the Legends Guardian's Large Weapon Defense. Hynafol's shield currency is the Guard token, so the port grants Guard to the Greatsword, Polearm, Pike, and Warhammer families, which otherwise have no access to it. A real trade: the two-handed Kit gives up its own perk-turns for durability.
Iron Constitution¶
Cost. 2 Advancement Points.
Requires. None.
Flavor. Blows that would put another down are, to you, a reason to keep your feet.
Effect. Your Hit Points increase by 2. May be taken twice, for a maximum of +4.
Design note. Merges the Legends Sturdy Build and Thick Skin, both raw durability, into a flat Hit Point bump, since Hynafol expresses armor and toughness as extra Hit Points and has no soak value (core-rules, Part Eight). Matches the "Armor, as extra Hit Points" category named in starting-specialties.md. The +2 value and the two-purchase cap are [PLAYTEST], to be adjusted during testing.
Unstoppable¶
Cost. 2 Advancement Points.
Requires. None.
Flavor. The world tries to make you stop. You have made a habit of declining.
Effect. Once per Combat, as a free reaction, ignore or immediately end one Condition affecting you: Weakened, Slowed, or Stunned.
Design note. Migrates the Legends Unstoppable, mapping disoriented, stunned, and called-shot penalties onto the named Conditions Hynafol has. Self-only and reactive, which keeps it distinct from Standard Bearer's Word above, the ally-facing Condition-remover; the two share design space and are priced against each other.
Create Opening¶
Cost. 2 Advancement Points.
Requires. None.
Flavor. You take the blow meant to break the line, and in the taking you show everyone exactly where the enemy is soft.
Effect. Once per Combat, when an enemy within your reach attacks you or an adjacent ally, you may create an opening: attacks against that enemy gain one extra die (+1d6) on their Pool roll until the start of your next turn.
Design note. Migrates the Legends Create Opening. The original granted Advantage; per core-rules Part Seventeen an earned feature grants +1d6, so that is the port. Reactive and attack-triggered, which keeps it distinct from Encourage above (proactive, one ally, one roll).
Retribution¶
Cost. 2 Advancement Points.
Requires. None.
Flavor. Every blow you take is a debt, and you are punctual about collecting.
Effect. Once per turn, when you Intercept a Hit, negate one with Guard or Borrowed Strength, or absorb one with Bulwark, your next Hit against that attacker this Combat deals 1 additional damage.
Design note. A new Specialty in the Guardian pass, giving active defense a small offensive payoff so a pure damage sponge does not feel inert. Leans naturally toward the Warden but open to any Character; the Borrowed Strength and Bulwark triggers simply do nothing for a Character who lacks them.
Immovable Object¶
Cost. 2 Advancement Points.
Requires. None.
Flavor. Push all you like. The ground and you have an understanding.
Effect. You cannot be moved against your will. Forced movement, a shove, a push, a Whirlwind Kit's knock-back, a monster's displacement, simply fails against you. You are also never Slowed by an enemy effect, though terrain still slows you normally.
Design note. A new Specialty in the Guardian pass, using only concepts already in play (push effects on the Whirlwind Kit and in the bestiary; Slowed as a named Condition). Fills the positioning-denial gap the Legends list gestured at with Overbearing Presence but never gave the Guardian itself.
Ranger and wilderness Specialties¶
Migrated from the older Legends system's Ranger archetype and rebuilt on this engine (2026-08-01). These are the open members; the Ranger-exclusive ones (Quarry, Patient Aim, Volley, Sixth Sense) live on the Ranger's own Growth Potential list (classes/ranger.md). Full record in ranger-migration.md. Conventions as above: +1d6 never Advantage (core-rules, Part Seventeen), per-fight limits read "Once per Combat."
Steady Draw¶
Cost. 2 Advancement Points.
Requires. None.
Flavor. You take the extra half-second no one else does, and the shot is better for it.
Effect. Once per Combat, grant yourself one extra die (+1d6) on a single ranged attack Pool roll. A second purchase of this Specialty raises it to twice per Combat.
Design note. Merges Ranged Expertise and Increased Expertise. Advantage became +1d6, and the upgrade became a repeat purchase.
Suppressing Fire¶
Cost. 2 Advancement Points.
Requires. None.
Flavor. No one crosses that ground while you are watching it. They have tried.
Effect. As your Action, make a ranged attack against a point as a Radius Area of Effect (core-rules, Part Sixteen). Rather than dealing damage, every enemy in the radius is Weakened (hit range narrowed one tier, core-rules Part Nine) until the start of your next turn.
Design note. Legends put the target and adjacent squares at a disadvantage on their attacks; Weakened is exactly that, and the Radius shape carries the reach. The ammunition cost and move-through-the-zone rider are dropped, as Hynafol tracks neither.
Longshot¶
Cost. 2 Advancement Points.
Requires. None.
Flavor. Others measure the range and call it impossible. You have already made the shot.
Effect. A bow or crossbow you wield gains +2 Range.
Design note. Migrates the reach half of Strongarm Archery; the attribute swap has no Hynafol equivalent. The Character-side twin of the Archer Retainer's Keener Eye (companies-and-command, Part One).
Friend of Beasts¶
Cost. 1 Advancement Point.
Requires. None.
Flavor. The wild does not read you as a threat. It never has.
Effect. Ordinary animals and simple beasts do not attack you unless provoked or driven to it. You may attempt a Wits Check to read and communicate with an animal in simple terms for a short while. This is a social and exploration edge, not a combat one.
Design note. A near-literal migration, the Legends knowledge roll becoming a Wits Check. Touches no combat math.
Free Runner¶
Cost. 2 Advancement Points.
Requires. None.
Flavor. Walls, enemies, broken ground. To you they are all just floor at a different angle.
Effect. You may move through squares occupied by enemies without stopping (you may not end your Move there), and doing so does not trigger reach-based reaction attacks such as the Polearm and Pike Kits' free strikes (kits.md). As part of your Move you may also run along walls and steep faces at your normal Speed, falling clear at the end of the turn if you are not on stable ground.
Design note. Merges Battlefield Flow and Wall Running. The momentum-fueled dodge half of Battlefield Flow is dropped, as there is no momentum.
Pathfinder¶
Cost. 1 Advancement Point.
Requires. None.
Flavor. Give you a day in a place and it stops being able to surprise you. The cold, the mire, the trackless dark: all of it becomes ground you know.
Effect. After a stretch attuning to an environment, you ignore movement penalties from its natural terrain and take no Fatigue from its conditions (heat, cold, wet, thin air). You function without penalty in severe weather there, and you leave no trail an ordinary tracker can follow.
Design note. Merges Self-Sustaining and Natural Stride. Personal and passive, deliberately distinct from the Bard Guild's The Long Watch (an instrument played for the whole Company) and the Root Ritual's Blessing of the Long Watch (communal and ceremonial): those reach the whole Company, this protects only its holder.
Mounts and cavalry¶
Rider¶
Cost. 2 Advancement Points.
Requires. None beyond narrative access to a trained mount.
Flavor. You come to the field already moving, from a height, at a speed the ones on foot spend the whole fight trying to answer.
Effect. You keep a trained warhorse or comparable mount and may ride it into battle. While mounted, your Speed increases by 4; the mount adds no die to the Pool and reads no Combos, in line with the one-die rule and the mounted-Retainer guidance (companies-and-command, Part One). You may charge: moving at least 3 squares in a roughly straight line toward a target before attacking counts as a charge, which enables charge-keyed effects such as the Lance Kit's Couched Charge (kits.md). The charge grants nothing on its own without a weapon that uses it. The mount layers onto any Kit, so a mounted archer, lancer, or sword-and-shield rider is this one unlock plus the Kit they already carry.
Drawbacks. A mount is a large body a braced spear line is built to punish: the Halberdier's 2-square reach, the Pike's 3-square reach, and any Set Against the Charge or Polearm Reaction perk threaten a charging rider before arrival, and a mounted Character has no special protection against them. A mount is useless where it cannot go: corridors, stairs, dense woods, rooftops. Being unhorsed is handled as a dismount rather than a wound at the GM's call: you lose the mount's benefits and must remount, an Action or a downtime beat.
Design note. Modeled as a Specialty rather than a Kit so it does not multiply the weapon list (every "Mounted with X" is this one unlock plus the weapon Kit), and rather than free gear so riding into battle is an earned choice. The Character-side companion to the Retainer growth option Fleet or Mounted (companies-and-command, Part Three). The +4 Speed value and the unhorsing trigger are both [PLAYTEST]. See beasts-and-mounts.md for the full record.
Warrior and weapon-technique Specialties¶
Migrated from the older Legends system's Warrior archetype (2026-08-01). The Warrior has no namesake Class, so all of these are open, with the Knight and Skirmisher as natural buyers. Most of the Legends Warrior was already delivered by the Kit list or rested on subsystems Hynafol lacks; full record, including the large cut list, is in warrior-migration.md. Conventions as above: +1d6 never Advantage, per-fight limits read "Once per Combat."
Practiced Blade¶
Cost. 2 Advancement Points.
Requires. None.
Flavor. You have made this cut ten thousand times. The ten-thousand-and-first is not going to be the one that misses.
Effect. Once per Combat, grant yourself one extra die (+1d6) on a single melee attack Pool roll. A second purchase of this Specialty raises it to twice per Combat.
Design note. The melee twin of Steady Draw, built the same way. Migrates Melee Expertise and Increased Expertise; Advantage became +1d6, the upgrade a repeat purchase.
Follow Through¶
Cost. 2 Advancement Points.
Requires. None.
Flavor. The blow does not stop at the first body. Why would it.
Effect. Once per turn, when a two-handed melee weapon lands a Hit on a target, one adjacent enemy also takes 1 Hit. The carried Hit cannot itself carry further.
Design note. Migrates Carry Through as a clean cleave without a second roll. Named Follow Through to stay clear of the retired Cleaving Strike Kit perk (kits.md).
Fight Anywhere¶
Cost. 1 Advancement Point.
Requires. None.
Flavor. Hanging off a railing with your sword in your teeth. A ledge, a bog, a rolling deck. It is all just where the fight happens to be.
Effect. You take no penalty for fighting from awkward footing or an unusual position: broken ground, a narrow ledge, hanging from a wall, prone, or in water. Checks and attacks another Character would make at a penalty or one Difficulty tier harder for footing alone, you make normally.
Design note. A near-literal migration, touching only situational penalties. Distinct from the Brawler pass's Sure Footing, which is about movement over terrain; this is about acting without penalty once you are in a bad spot.
One-Handed Grip¶
Cost. 2 Advancement Points.
Requires. Might Skilled (4-6) or greater.
Flavor. They built the blade for two hands. You were not consulted.
Effect. You may wield a two-handed melee weapon in one hand, freeing your off-hand for a sidearm, a torch, a grip on a ledge, or a grapple. This does not grant a shield's Guard, which still requires a shield Kit; the freed hand is for utility, not a second Kit perk.
Design note. Migrates One Handing It, scoped so it cannot bolt a free Guard onto a greatsword and sidestep the Kit-commit design (kits.md). The exact interaction with a Kit's Hands value is [PLAYTEST].
Straining Blow¶
Cost. 2 Advancement Points.
Requires. None.
Flavor. You put more into the swing than the swing can safely give back. The cost is yours to pay, in the only currency that always spends.
Effect. Once per turn, spend 1 of your own Hit Points to reroll a single missed personal die. This reroll sits outside the push: it cannot cause a bust, and the spent Hit Point is lost regardless of the result. You may not reduce yourself below 1 Hit Point this way.
Design note. Migrates Straining Blow. The push loop already gives free rerolls at bust risk, so the real port is rerolling safely, paid for in blood. Cost and cap are [PLAYTEST].
Breakthrough¶
Cost. 3 Advancement Points.
Requires. None.
Flavor. Four blows land in the same breath, in the same place, with the same intent. No shield wall closes fast enough. There is only the one who was meant to fall.
Effect. You can read a Set (four or more dice showing the same face; core-rules, Part Seven). Once per turn, when four or more of your banked hits show the same face, you may commit them: assign all of those matching hits to a single target, and they bypass that target's screen entirely, landing on its own Card exactly as the Unaware rule routes damage past a screen (core-rules, Parts Ten and Eleven). They cannot be soaked by the target's Company or the lesser foes shielding it, nor Intercepted onto a Retainer. Per one die, one purpose (core-rules, Part Eighteen), dice spent on this Set cannot also feed another Set effect such as the Chancellor's Grand Muster or the Knight's Charge.
Design note. Reimagines the Legends Warrior's With Gusto: soak does not exist to bypass, but the screen does, so an unstoppable blow becomes a screen-pierce, the same thing Vanish and Perfect Opening do. The trigger is lifted to a Set to make four matching dice the big, rare payoff. Grants the Set read to any Character, previously held only by the Chancellor (Grand Muster) and Knight (Charge); that widening and the four-damage screen-pierce are the [PLAYTEST] questions.
Sage and lore Specialties¶
Migrated from the older Legends system's Sage archetype (2026-08-01). The Sage has no namesake Class, and its momentum engine does not migrate; its support-caster identity is distributed across the Witch, the Squire, and the Alchemist, Mage, and Priest Guilds instead. These are the open, non-Guild survivors; the crafting and identification pieces went to Guilds, and the mist-reset became a Priest capstone (05-setting/guilds.md). Full record in sage-migration.md. Conventions as above.
Quick Study¶
Cost. 2 Advancement Points.
Requires. None.
Flavor. You do not know everything. You just know how to know the next thing faster than anyone expects.
Effect. Once per scene, name one field of expertise (a craft, a lore, a language, a trade). Until the scene ends, you act as though you held a Skill in it, taking Checks that field governs at one tier above your governing Virtue (core-rules, Part Seventeen). Only one such borrowed field at a time; naming a new one ends the old.
Design note. Merges the Legends Sage's temporary skill-point (Sage's Knowledge) and its skill-breadth Specialty (Jack of All Trades) into one flexible, on-demand Skill, using Hynafol's existing "a Skill raises one task one tier" rule rather than a point pool.
Mindlink¶
Cost. 1 Advancement Point.
Requires. None.
Flavor. A thread runs between the two of you, thin as a thought, and it carries exactly that.
Effect. Establish a silent, mind-to-mind link with one willing ally, formed during downtime and holding while the two of you stay in the same region. While linked you may communicate wordlessly at any distance you could plausibly still sense each other across.
Design note. A near-literal migration of Spiritual Connection and a clean addition; nothing deployed does this. Complements the Diplomat pass's Bonded, which senses an ally's state but carries no message.
Life Sense¶
Cost. 1 Advancement Point.
Requires. None.
Flavor. The world is never as empty as it looks. You feel the others in it, out past the treeline, around the bend, waiting.
Effect. As an Action, sense the presence and rough direction of sentient life (roughly human intellect or greater) around you, out to a range the GM sets by the terrain. Within a close radius you sense only that something is near, not where. Known allies do not register as threats.
Design note. Migrates Signs of Life. A clean detection utility that touches no combat math.
Trapsmith¶
Cost. 2 Advancement Points.
Requires. None.
Flavor. You were here first. You always are. The ground itself is waiting for them.
Effect. As an Action, or during setup before a fight, place a trap on a square within reach. The first enemy to enter that square triggers it; an enemy actively watching for traps may make a Wits Check against your placement to spot it first. Choose the trap's kind when you place it: Snare (the enemy is Slowed, Speed 0, until it frees itself with an Action; core-rules Part Nine), Spikes (a single Hit carrying Rend 2; core-rules Part Fourteen), or Scatter (a Radius 1 Area of Effect, core-rules Part Sixteen: roll one die at your Wits tier and apply the result to every enemy in the radius). You may keep a small number of traps set at once, a soft cap the GM sets by the fiction.
Design note. The one genuinely new tool the Sage brings, migrated from Trap Maker. Legends' four trap types collapse into three built from existing machinery (Snare and Sticky both become Slowed, Spikes a Rend hit, Explosive a small Area of Effect). Pairs naturally with the Alchemist Guild. The active-trap cap and Scatter's die read are [PLAYTEST].