Combat skills

These skills decide what happens when you swing a weapon, intercept one with a shield, and wring extra damage out of a knowing strike. They run on classic combat math - flat, readable damage with no stat inflation - with the Lyonspyre combat math layer bolted on top.

Summary

Skill	What it does	Useful at	Lyonspyre changes
Tactics	Multiplier on every weapon hit's damage	Every melee/ranged build, 80-100 essential	None
Anatomy	Damage bonus + healing bonus + special move qualifier	Every melee build (100), healers (60+)	None
Wrestling	Bare-hand weapon skill, also the "shield from disarm/spell-interrupt" skill for mages	Mages (80-100), monks	None
Swordsmanship	Wields all sword-type weapons (katana, broadsword, halberd, axe)	Sword warriors	None
Mace Fighting	Wields maces, mauls, war hammers, war axes, and the pickaxe	Bash-focused warriors	The pickaxe is a Mace Fighting weapon (governs / trains Macing, not Swords)
Fencing	Wields daggers, kryss, war forks, spears	Dex-poke warriors, fast off-hand	None
Archery	Wields bows and crossbows; ranged hit chance	Ranger / hunter builds, kiters	Eagle Eye archery talent stacks here (per-rank reveal range bonus on Detect Hidden) - see Talents → Archery
Parrying	Block chance with shield (or two-hander w/o shield)	Tanks, S+B warriors	None. See Combat → Parry
Arms Lore	Inspect weapon/armor durability + damage band	Crafters, mostly utility	None

Lumberjacking is no longer on this table. It is a gathering profession now, not a skill, and its old axe damage bonus is removed: no skill, profession, or trade adds weapon damage anymore. Axe damage comes from the weapon, Tactics, Anatomy, talents, and resonance, exactly like every other weapon family.

Tactics

Damage multiplier on every weapon swing. The formula:

tacticsModifier = (Tactics / 100) * 0.625 + 0.375    // 0.375x at 0, 1.0x at 100

100 Tactics gives full damage; 50 lands around 70%; 0 drops you to roughly 38%. There's no per-swing skill check - it's a flat multiplier. You gain Tactics every time you connect with a target.

Useful at: 100 for every combat build. Anything below that leaves raw damage on the table.

Lyonspyre changes: None.

Anatomy

Damage bonus on melee/ranged hits, a boost to Healing throughput, and a qualifier for several special moves. The damage portion:

anatomyBonus = (Anatomy / 5) * 0.01     // 1% per 5 points, 20% at 100

It stacks multiplicatively with Tactics, and it also drives:

• Heal-bonus - Anatomy adds to Healing skill checks (see Healing)
• Stat-check on humanoids - using Anatomy on a player or humanoid reveals their str/dex/int range (mostly flavour now)

Useful at: 100 for combat builds, 60+ for a hybrid healer/fighter. It does nothing for spell damage - Eval Int handles that.

Lyonspyre changes: None.

Wrestling

This is the weapon skill for fighting bare-handed, but in practice its most important job is resisting interruption while casting. On every hit, the attacker's weapon skill (or Wrestling) is rolled against the defender's; high Wrestling on a mage means fewer disrupted spells. It also gates the disarm and stun special moves at GM.

Useful at: 80-100 on any mage build - the gold standard. Monks and fist-fighters get full melee damage at 100 too.

Lyonspyre changes: None.

Swordsmanship / Mace Fighting / Fencing

Three melee weapon skills, identical under the hood - each wields its weapon family and feeds hit chance the same way ((skill+50) / ((defenderSkill+50) * 2)). The differences live in the weapon stats: swords trend balanced, maces hit harder and slower with mostly bludgeoning damage, fencing weapons are fast and stamina-cheap.

Useful at: 100 for the warrior who picked that family. Pick one - cross-training is wasted skill points.

Lyonspyre changes: None to the skill itself. Weapon special-move triggers (paralyzing blow, crushing blow, and the rest) fire from the weapons themselves. The Lyonspyre talent trees layer on top: the Macing tree, for instance, adds Fortify (the Iron Will defensive aspect) and the Tier-1 ability "Sundering Crash" built specifically for Mace Fighters.

One weapon-mapping change worth knowing: the pickaxe is a Mace Fighting weapon on Lyonspyre, not a sword. Swung in a fight, a pickaxe trains and is governed by Mace Fighting - so a miner's pick doubles as a serviceable basher, and a Mace Fighter can use the tool they already carry. (This is combat only; mining keys off the tool itself and is unaffected.)

Archery

Bow and crossbow ranged weapon skill, using the same hit-chance math as melee. A few quirks:

• You can't fire while moving
• Ammunition (arrows for bows, bolts for crossbows) is consumed per shot
• Stamina cost per shot is paid by the bow's Speed, like any weapon

Useful at: 100 for any hunter, kiter, or dungeon-archer.

Lyonspyre changes: Archery carries the largest dedicated Talent tree of any combat skill - multi-shot, head-shot, evasion / lay-low (Feign Death), eagle eye reveal, hunter pets. Eagle Eye extends Detect Hidden range by +1 tile per rank (5 ranks max), which makes archer-rangers the de-facto stealth-spotters.

Parrying

Block chance with a shield equipped. See Combat → Parry for the full formula; the short version:

blockChance = Parry / 4    // percent, so 100 Parry = 25% block with shield

Two-handed weapons get a smaller bonus, and that math hinges on Bushido - which is not available at launch - so two-handers parry at the reduced rate only.

Useful at: 80-100 for sword-and-board tanks. Skippable on dex builds that dodge instead.

Lyonspyre changes: None to the skill itself. The Iron Will defensive aspect (Macing talents) and several class-talents add flat parry boosts on top.

The axe damage bonus is gone

The old Lumberjacking skill used to add up to +10% damage with axe-type weapons, which made it a stealth combat skill for axe warriors. That bonus is removed. Axe damage now comes from the same sources as every other weapon family - the weapon itself, Tactics, Anatomy, talents, and resonance - with no harvesting trade in the formula. Chopping trees is the job of the Lumberjacking profession, which costs no skill points and adds no combat power.

Arms Lore

Identify weapon and armor durability, damage range, and AR/MR. Mostly utility - crafters use it to inspect newly-forged loot, and a handful of quest NPCs gate on "show this skill."

Useful at: ~50 for crafters who want detailed forge inspection. Skippable on combat builds.

Lyonspyre changes: None.