Combat skills

These are the skills that determine what happens when you swing a weapon, intercept one with a shield, and squeeze extra damage out of a knowing strike. All run on vanilla T2A formulas 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 — vanilla T2A
Anatomy	Damage bonus + healing bonus + special move qualifier	Every melee build (100), healers (60+)	None — vanilla T2A
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	Bash-focused warriors	None
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 — vanilla T2A. See Combat → Parry
Lumberjacking	Damage bonus with axe-type weapons (in addition to the harvesting use)	Axe warriors who also chop wood	None
Arms Lore	Inspect weapon/armor durability + damage band	Crafters, mostly utility	None

Tactics

Damage multiplier on every weapon swing. Formula from BaseWeapon.GetDamageScale:

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

So 100 Tactics = full damage; 50 Tactics = ~70% damage; 0 Tactics = ~38% damage. There's no skill check on each swing — it's a flat multiplier. Tactics gains every time you successfully hit a target.

Useful at: 100 for every combat build. Below 100 you are leaving raw damage on the table.

Lyonspyre changes: None — pure T2A.

Anatomy

Damage bonus on melee/ranged hits + bonus to Healing throughput + qualifier for several special moves. Damage portion:

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

Stacks multiplicatively with Tactics. Also drives:

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

Useful at: 100 for combat builds. 60+ for hybrid healer/fighter. Has no effect on spell damage (Eval Int handles that).

Lyonspyre changes: None.

Wrestling

The "weapon skill" for fighting bare-handed, but in practice the most important Wrestling use is resisting being interrupted while casting. The defending mob's weapon skill (or Wrestling) is rolled against your weapon skill (or Wrestling) on every hit; high Wrestling on a mage means fewer disrupted spells. It also gates disarm and stun special moves at GM.

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

Lyonspyre changes: None — vanilla T2A.

Swordsmanship / Mace Fighting / Fencing

Three vanilla T2A melee weapon skills, identical mechanics — each wields its weapon family and contributes to hit chance the same way ((skill+50) / ((defenderSkill+50) * 2)). The differences are in the weapon stats themselves: swords trend balanced, maces hit harder + 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, etc.) work as vanilla T2A — most properly attached to the weapons in BaseWeapon. The Lyonspyre talent trees layer on top: e.g. the Macing tree adds Fortify (Iron Will defensive aspect) and Tier-1 ability "Sundering Crash" specifically for Mace Fighters.

Archery

Bow / crossbow ranged weapon skill. Same hit-chance math as melee. Special considerations:

• Cannot fire while moving (vanilla T2A constraint)
• 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 / dungeon-archer.

Lyonspyre changes: Archery gets 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 specifically extends Detect Hidden range by +1 tile per rank (5 ranks max), making archer-rangers the de-facto stealth-spotters.

Parrying

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

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

Two-handed weapons get a smaller bonus and the math involves Bushido (which is locked out on Lyonspyre); two-handers therefore 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.

Lumberjacking

Two unrelated uses bundled into one skill:

1. Harvesting — chopping trees for logs (axe in hand, target tree)
2. Combat damage bonus with axe-type weapons (BaseWeapon.GetLumberBonus):

lumberBonus = (Lumberjacking / 100) * 0.1 + 0.0     // 10% at 100, 0% at 0

So GM Lumberjacking + an axe-type weapon = +10% damage on top of everything else, additively with talents/resonance/anatomy/tactics. This is why axe-warriors run Lumberjacking even when they don't harvest wood.

Useful at: 100 for axe warriors who want the bonus. 80+ for crafters who want quick log gathering.

Lyonspyre changes: None to the skill. The bonus pathway is vanilla T2A and intact.

Arms Lore

Identify weapon/armor durability, damage range, AR/MR. Mostly utility — used by crafters to inspect newly-forged loot and by quest NPCs that need a "show this skill" gate.

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

Lyonspyre changes: None.