Skills vs Abilities vs Talents

[kronyth]

Skills vs Abilities vs Talents what the difference?

 

So far I gathered that Abilities are class specific things that we can do, gained with level. Talents are the same only not necessarily class specific and gained every three levels. While Skills are the same only can be gained by everyone and have levels?

[tajerio]

I think that's basically what we know.  I'd add only that every class starts with a bonus in a pair of skills.

[kronyth]

Its a very mechanical non intuitive distinction. For example in d&d terms:

Skills, how competent a character is in various areas of expertise

Feats, what special advantages a character has through natural aptitude or training

 

How this can be expanded to account to what we have? btw does feats has any prerequisites?

[Lephys]

I'm pretty sure they're almost the exact same thing as in D&D.

 

Skills are still skills. You can "use" them with checks and such, but they've got a rating that's increased by putting points into them when you level up.

 

Abilities are the things your class does: Attacks/maneuvers/modes/spells. That sort of thing.

 

Talents are almost exactly like feats, in terms of where they fit in and how they generally function.

[Tamerlane]

How this can be expanded to account to what we have? btw does feats has any prerequisites?

I think (and I totally can't source this, but I'm pretty sure I read it on SA?) talents don't have much in the way of prerequisites prerequisites, but they do have ways to access them early. So instead of, like, "must have this feat and that feat and 13 wisdom to take this feat", it's more along the lines of, "must be level eight to take this feat (or level five if you're an elf)".

 

I think.

[constantine]

From the official wiki(which is unfinished yet):

 

 

-Abilities http://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Ability

 

-Talents http://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Talent

 

-Skills    http://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Skills

[Prometheus]

btw does feats has any prerequisites?

The last time we heard about talents they weren't implemented, but They said that there are no long talent chains and likely no attribute prereqs.

 

...

Some Talents can be taken by any class (e.g. the weapon style Talents), but many of them are class-specific (e.g. Grimoire Slam).

...

For comparison, in PE you can buy light magic Talents for your fighter that give the character some neat flexibility, but you can't completely redefine what the fighter fundamentally is. And if you buy a set of Talents, we aren't setting up long Talent chains like the feat chains that exist in 3/3.5 -- e.g. taking Whirwind Attack requires Combat Mobility, Dodge, Spring Attack, Dex 13, Int 13, and a +4 BAB. Our Talents have a flat layout with simple prereqs and are designed to be valuable on their own for any class that is allowed to take them. In 3E/3.5, it's really easy to build a low-efficiency fighter who isn't good at, well, fighting. A PE fighter can diversify a bit, but at his or her heart, he or she will still be great at doing the job that all fighters' Abilities prepare them to do: absorbing damage, hitting reliably, and holding ground.

 

source

 

As a side note, we're extremely unlikely to have attribute prereqs for Talents.

[kronyth]

From the official wiki(which is unfinished yet):

 

 

-Abilities http://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Ability

 

-Talents http://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Talent

 

-Skills    http://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Skills

I seen it, but the wiki is composed from Devs updated by people like us, so it could benfit from any RPG/dnd veterans out here to help improve it, while the devs are likelly going to bother with the above distinctions only in the manual

 

 

Here what I came with to distinguish the three, I think it works, but maybe someone can come up with more natural or intuitive:

• A skill is a bit of practical knowledge possessed by a character, which can be improves with training. Skills can be used outside of combat for a variety of purposes or grant auxiliary combat bonuses, but not something that is intrinsic to the character's class role. Not to be confused with "Abilties" or "Feats".

  The number of ranks possessed by character in a given skill represents its proficiency in that skill. Characters are given a number of skill points when a new level is gained. Those skill points can be used to increase its proficiency in that skill.

• Abilties are feature that give a character a new comabt capabilities, geared toward improving its class role. Abilties are something characters attain as they progress in level, unlike Talents they are always class-specific and gained every level thus having a much more dominant influence on the character overall capabilities then Talent.
• A Talent is a special features that either give a character a new capability, or improve one that he or she already has. They are more like innate abilities than skills, and as such, have no ranks or progression. A character either has the feat or not. Some of these Talent have prerequisites that must be met before selecting them. Unlike Abilities some talents are gained more slowly and class-neutral allowing to diversify your character role.

  Gaining levels is the primary way to gain Talents, but sometimes sometimes simply speaking to the right NPC at the right time (usually to advance a quest) will as well. The first Talent is gained at character creation, and an additional one is gained every three character levels (levels 3, 6, 9, 12, etc.).