Stability (sage ability)
Stability is an amateur-status sage ability in the study of Sure-footedness, improving the ability to maintain balance in precarious situations, such as potentially being knocked from a ledge, pressed onto hazardous ground or thrown off balance due to an enemy's forceful attack. These dangers most often arise from sudden impacts that cause stunning or from environmental factors such as strong winds, slippery surfaces or unstable footing.
Occasionally, a character is placed into a position of significant risk due to a dangerous height or the possibility of falling into a hazardous predicament, such as a trap, a pool or a nest of monsters. The issue is usually associated with stunning, as the character is knocked back by the force of an enemy's attack. Sometimes, risk also occurs if the character is in a high place and is startled or affected by environmental conditions such as high winds, a greasy or wet surface or shifting terrain.
In these situations, the character is typically given an ability check against their dexterity, with success indicating that they have avoided being thrown into a wall or pushed out of their hex into a hazard. While thieves and assassins are naturally more adept at maintaining their footing due to high dexterity, the ability of heightened balance allows the character to be treated as having a dexterity of 19 for such checks. As a result, failure can only occur on a natural roll of 20.
If the character already possesses a natural 19 dexterity — whether due to racial adjustments or other factors — they may roll a 1 in 2 chance that even a natural 20 does not result in failure, ensuring that they remain exceptionally steady in all but the most extreme circumstances.
This ability does not apply to movement-based attacks such as overbearing, where balance checks are not made. In such cases, heightened balance does not prevent the character from being physically forced back by sheer momentum or weight.
See also,
Assassin Sage Abilities
Skulduggery (sage field)
Thief Sage Abilities