Skill Gems

Skill Gems are fragments of the souls of warriors that contain the greatest skill or spell they knew in life. Players can absorb these gems to know them as the warriors did. This ability represents a lifetime of training and practice, learned by the player instantly. The character performs the use of the Skill Gem as if they were a true master of the ability, allowing them to achieve mind-blowing feats with no prior learning or practice time.

You always add the base damage of a weapon, such as the 1 from a one-handed axe or the 3  from a 2-handed staff, as long as that weapon can add to the stat of that Skill Gem.

For instance, Axes can only add to STR Skill Gems and DEX Skill Gems. Staves add their damage to all INT Skill Gems and STR Skill Gems. Weapons always add their damage to non-Skill Gem attacks.


 * Angry’s design note:
 * You could instead use the gem system from the computer game, from a practical RP perspective most of my players found this system to make little sense to them. The idea of directly absorbing the essence of the gem ability was more appealing. However, very little changes if you change it to a gem socketing system, just let them socket the gems wherever in the armour and impose the same limits as the absorption limits. Either way, I strongly feel like Support Gems are smoother than support gems from an immersion perspective. One of the challenges of converting PoE into a pen and paper game is not only making sure everything seems believable, but also mechanically not overwhelming. I think keeping the entire socket + support gem system would become overwhelming for players unless they have a digital character sheet that does it all for them. Base item + magical modifiers + sockets and links would be too much housekeeping. 

Some Skill Gems have an elemental tag such as '''. If they do, they convert all damage to that element.''' For example, if a player with a sword uses, they roll and calculate their damage normally, but all physical damage is converted into lightning damage. If you have multiple effects that convert damage, you may choose between them what type of damage you want to convert into. For example, if you have Herald of Ash active, which converts damage into fire, and use Lightning Strike, which converts damage into lightning you may choose between lightning or fire as your damage type.

Skill Gem absorption Limit You may only know one Skill Gem per 5 base points you have in a stat. If you have 30 base, you may absorb 6 STR Skill Gems. If you wish to change which Skill Gems are bound to you, you’ll need to find someone skilled in with the appropriate equipment to extract the unwanted bound Skill Gems.

Skill Gem absorption limit can be exceeded by using the to directly implant a skill gem into the body of a character. However there is a very high likelihood of failure… the consequences which could prove fatal… or worse seriously don’t try this!.

Skill Gem costs increase by their cost or reservation amount per tier. The number in brackets is the  cost of the Skill Gem per tier. When you get to a new tier, you may choose to cast the more expensive version of any Skill Gem or Support Gems you know, this gives tier bonus but also requires a higher cost. You may cast the cheaper, lower tier versions instead at any time as you wish.


 * For example: Rodriguez is a level 12 tier 2 character, and knows . adds 12 damage of an element of his choice. 's  cost is 1, so if Rodriguez decides to attack with tier 2, he must spend 2 , but gains the tier bonus of +12  for a total of +24 damage on the attack due to using the higher level of the skill. If he wishes to conserve his , he can use the tier 1 version of the skill, only gaining +12 damage but spending only 1 .

Skill Gems with the r tag reserve a portion of your to function. Until you end the effect of this skill, you cannot use the it reserves. When you unreserve a reservation skill, you also lose the until you regenerate it. If you fall unconscious, all Skill Gems automatically stop being maintained.

Auras have special rules, Auras that increase  or  increase  values, but only if the aura is run for at least one hour to prevent s fluctuating moment to moment. This helps keep the system simple, keeps players from having headaches from constant recalculating and makes auras easier to balance.

Skill Gems do not damage people who you designate in your mind as allies. Skill Gems are highly intelligent, and even a fireballs explosion will bend around and avoid an ally, even while frying all enemies that surround them.


 * Optional rule: GMs who want combat to be more gritty and nasty may want to allow friendly fire from Skill Gems. Keep in mind that your encounter design will need to be very different, and that the game contains a high volume of area of effect powers. If you do enable friendly fire, I recommend increasing the area of effect Skill Gem damage by 4 per tier, because players will often not be able to safely use them. This will likely also make melee characters a hindrance in the party and make ranged the dominant option.

Skill Gems that do damage over a duration, always do that damage at the start of the casters turn unless otherwise stated. If you enter the zone of an active firestorm for example, you only take damage at the start of the caster's next turn.

Using a Skill Gem uses up your Major action unless stated otherwise.


 * This skill is an attack.
 * This skill is a spell.
 * denotes the cost of a skill per tier.
 * denotes a reservation amount of a skill per tier.
 * denotes a skill as a projectile skill.
 * denotes a skill that is a Curse.
 * denotes a skill that is an Aura.
 * denotes a skill that is a Totem.
 * denotes a skill is a Minion.
 * denotes a skill that is a Trap.
 * denotes this skill has a duration component
 * denotes a skill that reduces the or  of a target by 50%.
 * denotes a skill that converts all damage into Cold damage.
 * denotes a skill that converts all damage into Lightning damage.
 * denotes a skill that converts all damage into Fire damage.
 * denotes a skill that chains, attacking additional targets in consecutive rounds.
 * denotes a channeling skill. Channeling skills are interrupted if the channeler takes damage equal to their . The caster cannot move while channeling.
 * denotes a skill that is typically a minor action which has an effect on you or those in your zone.
 * denotes ?
 * denotes ?
 * denotes ?
 * denotes ?
 * denotes ?
 * denotes ?
 * denotes ?
 * denotes ?
 * denotes ?
 * denotes ? (same as ?)
 * (Phys) denotes ? (same as ?)
 * (Lightning) denotes ? (same as ?)
 * (2r) denotes ? (same as ?)
 * (Chaining) denotes ? (same as ?)