In AnK, skills do not exist to fill a sheet with technical names nor to turn every action into a list of buttons. Their function is much more concrete: to translate experience, training, and practice into a clear framework for resolving complex actions. When a situation demands more than general will, skills define the specific way in which a character knows how to act and what kind of real advantage they can bring.
Skill descriptions
Acrobatics
Skill
Untrained
Trained
Expert
Master
Balance
X
X
X
X
Controlled fall
X
X
X
Evasive maneuver
X
X
X
Complex technical movement
X
X
Balance
This skill can be used without prior training.
However, increasing your Athletics training rank lets you face challenges more effectively, reducing the roll difficulty and improving your chances of beating the Difficulty Class (DC).
This action represents your ability to maintain stability on narrow, slippery, or unstable surfaces.
When untrained, it allows cautious movement across wide ledges, solid beams, or slightly uneven ground, as long as the pace is slow and the risk is moderate.
Once trained, it allows you to move more safely across narrow or shifting surfaces, keep your pace without stopping constantly, and react better to small losses of balance.
At expert rank in this area, it allows you to keep your stability under pressure, move quickly across reduced footholds, and maintain control even while performing other actions.
At master level, balance becomes instinctive, allowing you to move confidently across ropes, railings, or extremely precarious surfaces, treating unstable ground as if it were solid.
Controlled fall
This skill cannot be used without prior training.
Increasing your Acrobatics training rank lets you face challenges more effectively, reducing the roll difficulty and improving your chances of beating the Difficulty Class (DC).
It reflects your ability to absorb impacts, roll, or redistribute your body weight while falling in order to reduce the damage taken.
When untrained, you do not possess the technique needed to mitigate a fall, so you take the impact directly.
Once trained, it allows you to roll or flex your body to absorb part of the blow, reducing damage and recovering your posture more quickly.
At expert rank in this area, it allows you to fall from greater heights with control, choose points of support during the descent, and get back up almost immediately.
At master level, your reflexes and technique turn the fall into a fluid movement, allowing you to absorb extreme impacts and turn dangerous descents into controlled landings.
Evasive maneuver
This skill cannot be used without prior training.
Increasing your Acrobatics training rank lets you face challenges more effectively, reducing the roll difficulty and improving your chances of beating the Difficulty Class (DC).
It measures your ability to avoid obstacles or opponents through turns, slides, and quick changes of position in confined spaces.
When untrained, your attempts at evasion are clumsy and depend more on luck than on technique.
Once trained, it allows you to slip through narrow gaps, evade nearby threats, and reposition yourself without losing the rhythm of movement.
At expert rank in this area, it allows evasions under pressure, crossing crowded or dangerous zones, and maintaining mobility even while surrounded by enemies.
At master level, your movements become almost impossible to anticipate, allowing you to cross hostile spaces with fluidity, evade attacks by inches, and turn agility into a decisive tactical advantage.
Complex technical movement
This skill cannot be used without being an expert in Acrobatics.
Increasing your Acrobatics training rank lets you face challenges more effectively, reducing the roll difficulty and improving your chances of beating the Difficulty Class (DC).
It represents mastery over flips, rolls, chained jumps, and advanced bodily maneuvers that combine precision, coordination, and total control of the body.
When untrained, you cannot perform this kind of technique reliably.
Once trained, you can only attempt simple, prepared maneuvers, with a risk of failure if the situation is demanding.
At expert rank in this area, it allows advanced acrobatic maneuvers, chaining movements together, overcoming complex obstacles, and maintaining fluidity even in difficult environments.
At master level, you reach outstanding bodily control, capable of performing extreme acrobatic sequences naturally, using any part of the environment to launch yourself, and moving with an almost supernatural grace.
Stealth
Manipulation
Survival
Perception
Diplomacy
Deception
Intimidation
Performance
Athletics
Primary path
Impact
Secondary path
None
Application
Athletics represents the ability to impose the body against the physical resistance of the environment through direct force and the application of bodily power. It does not measure fine coordination or elegant mobility; it measures the capacity to overcome physical opposition through pushing, dragging, jumping, traction, or sustained pressure.
Every use of Athletics follows the same logic: apply force until something yields. This table crosses each Athletics action with the level of mastery required and makes clear what can be done at each rank.
Mechanical logic
Athletics is used when:
- The action depends primarily on raw physical force.
- The environment offers direct material resistance.
- The goal is to move, break, or hold something through bodily power.
It is not used when:
- The action requires balance or bodily precision (Acrobatics).
- The action depends on stealth or fine control (Stealth / Manipulation).
- The action is based on prolonged endurance without direct opposition (Resilience).
Relation to the Path
Athletics always uses Impact, because it represents the direct transformation of the environment through physical power. It does not allow a secondary Path, since the concept of this skill is precisely the use of force as the primary way to resolve the action.
Skill
Untrained
Trained
Expert
Master
Jump / long jump
X
X
X
X
Climb / Scale
X
X
X
X
Swim / Float
X
X
X
X
Load / Transport
X
X
X
X
Drag / Push
X
X
X
X
Force open
X
X
X
X
Throw
X
X
X
X
Jump / long jump
This skill can be used without prior training.
However, increasing your Athletics training rank lets you face challenges more effectively, reducing the roll difficulty and improving your chances of beating the Difficulty Class (DC).
When untrained, this skill allows short or long jumps, judging viable distances, and handling physical maneuvers where momentum matters.
Once trained, it allows more demanding jumps, reaching greater height or distance, and maintaining stability on landing or when chaining movement.
At expert rank in this area, it allows jumps under pressure, clearing dangerous gaps, reacting on unstable surfaces, and sustaining risky maneuvers with greater control.
At master level, it allows extreme jumping maneuvers, using terrain tactically, and turning physical power into a decisive positioning advantage.
Climb / Scale
This skill can be used without prior training.
However, increasing your Athletics training rank lets you face challenges more effectively, reducing the roll difficulty and improving your chances of beating the Difficulty Class (DC).
When untrained, this skill allows ascent on simple surfaces such as gentle slopes, improvised ladders, or broad footholds, maintaining balance and basic progress without major difficulty.
Once trained, it allows climbing walls, ropes, rubble, or more demanding surfaces while keeping pace and control even when footholds are reduced or irregular.
At expert rank in this area, it allows climbing under pressure, maintaining stability while acting vertically, reacting to falling debris or failed grips, and progressing safely through dangerous terrain.
At master level, it represents full command of climbing, allowing ascent on nearly any surface, use of minimal holds, fast vertical movement, and turning elevated terrain into a clear tactical advantage.
Swim / Float
This skill can be used without prior training.
However, increasing your Athletics training rank lets you face challenges more effectively, reducing the roll difficulty and improving your chances of beating the Difficulty Class (DC).
This skill covers movement, endurance, and maneuvering in water, from crossing a canal to staying afloat in rough water or shifting currents. Without training, the character lacks the technique and endurance needed to swim safely, so any attempt carries an immediate risk of sinking or fatigue; however, trying to stay afloat against all odds would still be feasible.
Once trained, it allows effective swimming in calm waters, maintaining control of movement, covering moderate distances, and staying afloat without difficulty.
At expert rank in this area, it allows functioning in strong currents, heavy surf, or turbulent waters, keeping orientation, maneuvering precisely, and sustaining effort over long periods.
At master level, it represents complete command of the aquatic environment, allowing long-distance swimming without exhaustion, confident diving, crossing dangerous currents or extreme conditions, and turning water into terrain as natural and advantageous as solid ground.
Load / Transport
This skill can be used without prior training.
However, increasing your Athletics training rank lets you face challenges more effectively, reducing the roll difficulty and improving your chances of beating the Difficulty Class (DC).
When untrained, this skill allows you to lift or drag light objects and handle small loads for brief periods, as long as the weight does not compromise balance or basic mobility.
Once trained, it allows carrying heavy bundles, transporting bulky gear, or dragging bodies and goods without losing marching pace, maintaining control of effort and posture even across moderate distances.
At expert rank in this area, it allows moving very heavy loads under pressure, redistributing weight while in motion, working efficiently in group lifts, and maintaining stability in difficult terrain or tight spaces.
At master level, it represents exceptional mastery of applied strength, allowing you to lift, hold, or transport extreme weights for long periods, manipulate massive objects with precision, and turn physical power into a decisive logistical advantage even in adverse conditions.
Drag / Push
This skill can be used without prior training.
However, increasing your Athletics training rank lets you face challenges more effectively, reducing the roll difficulty and improving your chances of beating the Difficulty Class (DC).
When untrained, this skill allows moving light or unstable objects over short distances by pushing or dragging them with effort, as long as the weight does not exceed what can be moved without losing balance or stopping frequently.
Once trained, it allows dragging heavy loads, pushing furniture, rubble, light carts, or other bulky objects while maintaining steady progress and keeping control even on uneven surfaces.
At expert rank in this area, it allows moving considerable weight under pressure, forcing a path by clearing obstacles, shifting improvised structures, or working efficiently in group pushes without compromising stability or endurance.
At master level, it represents outstanding command of force applied to movement, allowing you to drag or push massive loads, reposition large objects with precision, and turn the physical environment into a tactical or logistical advantage even in extreme conditions.
Force open
This skill can be used without prior training.
However, increasing your Athletics training rank lets you face challenges more effectively, reducing the roll difficulty and improving your chances of beating the Difficulty Class (DC).
This skill measures your ability to apply brute force against objects or structures, whether by breaking down doors, bending bars, snapping chains, or shifting heavy obstacles that block the way.
When untrained, it allows attempts to open or move aside light barriers such as jammed doors, planks, fragile locks, or weak obstacles, relying more on momentary effort than on technique or sustained power.
Once trained, it allows forcing sturdy doors, breaking simple locks, or moving bulky loads through pushing or leverage.
At expert rank in this area, it allows breaking solid reinforcements, deforming light metal, wrenching open firm gates, or forcing a way through under pressure or with speed.
At master level, it represents exceptional physical power, capable of smashing reinforced barriers, tearing out anchor points, bringing down weakened structures, or turning seemingly impassable obstacles into minor inconveniences.
Throw
This skill can be used without prior training.
However, increasing your Athletics training rank lets you face challenges more effectively, reducing the roll difficulty and improving your chances of beating the Difficulty Class (DC).
This skill measures your ability to project objects through physical force, whether by hurling tools, stones, improvised weapons, or any compact load with the intent to reach distance, height, or impact.
When untrained, it allows throwing light objects over short distances in a basic way, relying more on natural impulse than technique, with low accuracy and limited range.
Once trained, it allows throwing moderately heavy objects with greater control, reaching medium distances consistently, and directing the throw toward specific targets without losing stability or coordination.
At expert rank in this area, it allows making throws under pressure, projecting considerable weight, adjusting trajectories quickly, and maintaining accuracy even while moving or in adverse conditions.
At master level, it represents exceptional command of strength and technique, allowing heavy loads to be thrown over great distances, striking with notable precision, and turning any throwable object into an effective tactical tool within the environment.