Skills

Almost every ability in the game can be acquired by buying skills. While this allows your to tweak you character's abilities, you can get many more abilities faster by spending months in a class instead - but at a price of weapons/armor limitations and limitations on your choice of abilities.

General Skills - Can be taken by anyone.
Weapon Skills - May be limited by classes/skills.
Spell Skills - Magical knowledge.

Skills Tools

Some of the skills require tools to use. There are 4 levels of tools: Apprentice (a), Journeyman (j), Master (m) and Grand Master (g). If tools are required for a level, the abilities given to that level can not be used without the tools being present. If a skill requires a level of tools, it also requires all lower levels of tools - so for example, if an ability requires master tools, it also requires journeyman and apprentice tools.

Any skill that requires tools may be done without those tools at 10 times the time it normally takes.

There are several ways to acquire these tools (see "Equipment"). The tools by skill category are:

Note that if a level lists more than one tool, you must buy all the tools. Tools cost a given amount per tool, not per level (see "Equipment").