Combat and Skills Integration

Purpose

This document defines how skills and crafted gear feed into the combat quality band used by the expedition resolver.

See combat-resolution-and-party-logic.md for the full resolver steps, matchup table, and success probability tables. See combat-encounter-templates.md for encounter examples built on this model. See loadouts-and-safety-rules.md for the loadout preset list.

Core Rule

Role comes from the loadout. Quality band comes from skills and gear. Neither comes from a class or archetype. Archetypes from character creation bias early skill gains toward certain loadout types but place no restriction on what the character learns and equips later.

Skills That Feed Each Role

Role	Primary skills	Secondary skills
Tank	Shielding, Heavy Armor, Endurance	Combat Judgment, Leadership
Support	Restoration, Field Medicine, Herbalism	Campcraft, Endurance
Ranged damage	Archery, Tracking, Hunting and Trapping	Routefinding, Light Armor
Melee damage	Blades, Evasion, Light Armor	Endurance, Combat Judgment
Arcane damage	Elementalism, Arcane Theory, Warding	Ritualism, Restoration
Utility / flex	Tinkering, Salvage Recovery, Pack Handling	Campcraft, Field Medicine

The resolver pulls the primary skills for the equipped role and reads the character's current band in each.

Gear Quality Tiers

Gear quality feeds directly into the quality band alongside skills:

Gear quality	Effect
Starter or worn	Pulls toward Weak
Standard crafted or purchased	Neutral baseline
Fine (skilled craftwork)	Pulls toward Strong
Masterwork (expert craftwork)	Pulls toward Elite

A character with Skilled Shielding and Fine-quality plate is a Strong tank. Full Elite requires high skill AND high gear quality together — neither alone reaches the ceiling.

How Crafting Connects

Every craft profession that produces weapons, armor, or field supplies feeds directly into combat outcomes:

• Smithing: weapons and armor quality → damage or tank quality band
• Leatherworking: leather armor → ranged and melee damage quality band
• Alchemy: healing salves, antidotes → support quality band
• Tinkering: traps, repair kits → utility quality band and expedition sustainability
• Cooking: quality rations → reduces supply burn across all roles on long runs
• Clothworking, Carpentry: padded armor, shields → tank and support gear inputs

Gatherers who supply the raw materials are part of the same chain. The combat quality band is the downstream output of the entire gathering and crafting economy.

Skill Gain From Combat

Combat advances the primary skills for the role the character played:

• Tank fight → Shielding, Heavy Armor, Endurance
• Support run → Restoration, Field Medicine
• Ranged hunt → Archery, Tracking
• Melee skirmish → Blades, Evasion
• Arcane fight → Elementalism, Arcane Theory

Varied targets, higher difficulty, and non-trivial conditions give better gains than repeating the same easy content.

Logging Rule

The resolver stores the full computation internally for debugging, but the player-facing expedition summary exposes only the top two or three reasons:

• “Damage output limited — bow loadout poor matchup vs. undead”
• “Tank held the line — Strong coverage with Fine-quality plate”
• “Support stretched — only Decent medicine supplies on a long run”

The player should always be able to read why the fight went the way it did.

Non-Combat Skills as Expedition Modifiers

These skills do not feed the combat quality band but shape how expensive and clean the overall expedition is:

• Routefinding, Tracking: reduce ambush chance and improve approach position
• Campcraft, Waterfinding: reduce supply burn and fatigue on long expeditions
• Weather Sense: reduce route risk on weather-affected segments
• Animal Handling, Mount Riding: affect travel time and retreat quality
• Pack Handling, Caravan Handling: protect cargo during escort and extraction

How Quality Band Is Computed

The resolver derives role quality from the primary skills for the character's equipped role and the gear quality tier of the weapons and armor they are bringing. It does not use a multi-channel formula. The output is a single quality band (Weak / Decent / Strong / Elite) fed into the success probability step in combat-resolution-and-party-logic.md.

Monster Knowledge Integration

Monster knowledge adds a flat bonus to success probability (up to +10% at Mastered). It also unlocks pre-departure tag visibility — knowing the family you are fighting lets the player confirm their loadout matchup before committing.

Knowledge builds through fighting, scouting, codex reading, and buying reports.

Related Systems

• combat resolution and party logic
• combat encounter templates
• loadouts and safety rules
• skill catalog
• gathering and resource ecology
• economy, crafting, and survival