Mammalian Behaviour I (sage ability)

Mammalian Behavior I is an amateur-status sage ability in the study of Mammals that enables characters to make limited predictions about the actions of mammals with semi-intelligence or lower cognitive abilities. This skill is honed through extensive observation of thousands of mammalian behaviors throughout one's lifetime.

Characters with the skill should feel more encouraged when confronting or handling these animals, encouraging the character to pursue activies such as the ownership of dogs, horses and other working animals, with an eye towards the management of livestock also.

Used in Combat

When engaged in melee, the character is given knowledge ahead of time, during the character's turn, what a given mammal intends to do.

When in , a character will have the benefit of knowing, prior to declaring an action in that round, what the animal means to do next — attack the character with horn, claw or hoof (etcetera), take flight, turn and attack an opponent to the right and left of the character, give ground and so on. This prescience — one round in advance — will provide the character with some knowledge should the character decide to break off the combat first, cast a spell (knowing the animal will not attack) or take another appropriately timed action.

Upon becoming an amateur, prediction is limited to only one action from one animal per round. For example, if a animal were to attack with both left and right claws, then the character would only be able to know, by choice, either the left or the right. However, for each additional 10 points of knowledge a character gains, an additional action in a given round can also be known (a bear or lion with three attacks could be fully predicted if the character possessed 30 points of knowledge about these creatures).