B.1 Ability Tags
Attune: Attune abilities require an attunement point to maintain. For details, see Attunement.
Auditory: Auditory abilities use sound to cause their effects. Covering or plugging your ears makes you impervious (+4 defenses) to Auditory attacks. Objects and deafened (20% verbal spell failure) creatures are immune to Auditory abilities.
Barrier: Barrier abilities create obstacles that block or punish passage through them. They create a powerful magical resonance around themselves that inhibits other barriers from being formed. Any part of a Barrier ability that would extend within 5 feet of an already active Barrier ability is not created, unless the new barrier simply extends an already existing wall along its length.
Brawling: Brawling abililities rely on brute force in hand to hand combat. Your accuracy with Brawling abilities is equal to half the sum of your level and Strength. Most Brawling abilities are described in Special Combat Abilities.
Compulsion: Compulsion abilities forcibly alter a creature’s actions, but do not necessarily affect its opinions or personality. They have no effect on objects or creatures without minds.
Creation: Creation abilities create permanent physical objects. Objects created with Creation abilities are identical to objects created through more mundane means.
Curse: Curse abilities lay supernatural curses on their targets. They cannot be dismissed, but can be removed with the dispel curse spell.
Detection: Detection abilities reveal magical auras or information within an area. They can penetrate up to 1 foot of stone, 1 inch of common metal, a thin sheet of lead, or 3 feet of wood or dirt. For its ability to penetrate other materials, use the most similar substance from the list above.
Emotion: Emotion abilities alter a creature’s opinons or personality, but do not necessarily affect their actions. They have no effect on objects or creatures without minds.
Manifestation: Manifestation abilities create temporary constructs formed from raw magical energy. Objects and creatures created with manifestation abilities seem real on the surface, but they have no internal structure. When an object or creature created by a Manifestation ability is destroyed or killed, or when the duration of the ability that created it ends, it disappears without a trace.
Ritual: Ritual abilities have a number of shared properties. For details, see ??.
Scrying: Scrying abilities create one or more invisible magical sensors that send you information. Unless otherwise noted, the sensor created has the same powers of sensory acuity that you possess. This includes the effect of any abilities which target you personally, such as spells to increase your visual acuity, but not abilities which affect an area around you. However, the sensor is treated as a separate, independent sensory organ, and it functions normally even if you have been blinded, deafened, or otherwise suffered sensory impairment.
The sensor can be dismissed as if it were an active spell. You cannot create a sensor in a location with lead sheeting between you and the location, and you sense that the effect is blocked in this way.
Size-Based: Size-Based abilities are limited based on your own size. They have no effect on creatures or objects that are two or more size categories larger than you. You can mitigate this limitation with the creature climb ability (see Creature Climb), or simply by flying close (see Flight).
Speech: Speech abilities use words to achieve their ends. You must specify a language when using a Speech effect, and the language must be one you know (or have memorized the correct words to say). They have no effect on objects or creatures that do not understand the chosen language.
Spell: Spell abilities have a number of shared properties. For details, see ??.
Subtle: Subtle abilities have no visual or otherwise perceivable manifestation. Creatures successfully affected by Subtle abilities do not generally know that they are being influenced. However, a creature that successfully resists a Subtle ability can generally notice that it resisted a special effect of some kind, just like a non-Subtle ability. You can notice the effects of a Subtle ability on yourself with the Awareness skill (see ?? ).
Sustain: Sustain abilities require an action to maintain. The tag includes an action type, such as (minor), which indicates the type of action required to sustain the ability. If it also includes “attuneable”, you can choose to attune to the effect instead of sustaining it every round. For details, see Sustained Abilities.
Swift: Swift abilities take effect before non-Swift abilities used during the same phase. For details, see Swift Abilities.
Trap: Trap abilities create triggered effects that punish trespassing. They create a powerful magical resonance around themselves that inhibits other barriers from being formed. Any part of a Trap ability that would extend within 15 feet of an already active Trap ability is not created.
Visual: Visual abilities use visible objects or forces to cause their effects. Creatures and objects that cannot see the effect are immune to it. Simply closing your eyes only makes you impervious (+4 defenses) to Visual effects. Completely covering your eyes, such as with your hands or with a blindfold, makes you immune. Special vision abilities that replace normal vision entirely, such as blindsight and tremorsense, are unable to perceive Visual effects.