[Abe Sargent]

Kai Disciplines

You are just an initiate in the Kai Order. As such, you have only mastered five of the ten Kai Disciplines. Now I have to choose which of these ten I have. Each has different advantages. Let’s take a look.


Camouflage - This skill represents your ability to blend into various surroundings and hide from prying eyes. Rocks and trees and other cover is necessary in order to hide effectively. You can also pass close to enemies within being detected, and can adopt an accent of the local people with ease.

Hunting - This gives you basic hunting skills like stalking. In addition, when I am instructed to eat a meal, I can hunt for one instead of using one from my backpack. I cannot find game in the wastelands and deserts, but elsewhere is fine.

Sixth Sense - This skill gives you a chance to feel danger or extra perceptions of information. It is the basic divinatory skill to gather information about your surroundings, items, and people.

Tracking - This allows you to follow another. It also helps in determining the correct path to take when in the wild.

Healing - This skill gives you some basic information of first aid and healing techniques. Additionally, for each numbered section I go to without combat, I can heal one EP lost due to combat or similar means. It will not heal EP lost to missed meals, mental attacks, physical strain, exposure to the elements, and such.

Weaponskill - If I take this skill, I roll a 10 sided die and I am assigned a weapon. I have skill in that weapon. Whenever I use it in combat, I get +2 to my CS. Since you begin with the axe in your hand, that’s a useful roll, but you really want the 40% chance of rolling a sword, short sword, or broadsword for the long term.

Mindblast - This is a psychic attack that can really knock foes for a loop. It adds +2 CS to fights unless your foe has Mindshield, or they have no mind.

Mindshield - Many of the most powerful minions can use psychic attacks, and this will protect you from their use of Mindblast.

Animal Kinship - This skill gives you some knowledge of basic animals, and allows you to communicate with them.

Mind Over Matter - This allows you to move small objects with your will alone. It requires concentration, so it has no use in combat.


Let’s talk about these. If I get a low CS, I would almost always take Weaponskill and Mindblast in my first five, to help alleviate it. However, note that Mindblast never works on the big fights, so it seems like you never want it when you need it, only have it for the smaller and mid-range stuff.

Mindshield only gets used a few times in each adventure, but it is useful on the big fights, when you want it. Mindshield helps when Mindblast often does not, and vice versa. Mindshield, if I recall correctly, can also be used to keep you from being found by psychic scrying.

If you want to make a flavorful Kai, you could focus on the Psychic, or on the Warrior. For example:

Mindblast
Mindshield
Sixth Sense
Mind Over Matter
Animal Kinship

vs.

Weaponskill
Camouflage
Healing
Tracking
Hunting

However, I find a more cuisinart approach to be the best.


If you look at the skills, you will notice that Sixth Sense is really the only divinatory skill out there. Sure, others will tell you thins like Tracking and Animal Kinship, but its Sixth Sense that gives you info. It’s my #1 skill.

What the other four are vary from what I want to do to what I want to do.

In order to stave off death, I want Healing. It can enable you to win the otherwise unwinnable.

The rest is really a matter of choice. Hunting is a good skill initially, but the 3rd and 5th books take place in the arctic and the desert respectively, so not much hunting there. Book 2 has a lot in the Wildlands, no Hunting there either. It’s great for Book 1 though. Similarly, Tracking is money in the first book, since you are outside for most of it. That quickly is reduced by caves, caverns, and more in other books. Weaponskill has a 40% chance of being a money skill or a wasted skill during Book 2. It’s really only good in Book 1 and most of Book 2 if you don’t get sword of some sort.

Camouflage, Animal Kinship, Mind Over Matter have their uses, but none are massively powerful. I’ve talked of the others.

So, let’s do Tracking, the 40% chance on Weaponskill and Mindblast.

Let’s roll for Weaponskill. Here we go….Quarterstaff. Yuck. A waste in a couple of books.