Perks
Perks are small, mostly passive choices that shape your character’s identity outside of their profession and path. They represent background training, personal quirks, practical skills, and the small advantages that make one adventurer different from another — a knack for cooking, familiarity with a type of armor, a contact in a distant city, or a talent for reading people.
Perks are not new combat abilities or active buttons. They are flavor-forward identity choices that occasionally have mechanical weight. A well-chosen perk should make a player say “that’s who my character is,” not “that’s my optimal damage rotation.”
Perk Mastery
Like skills and other character options, perks may have a Mastery rank. Mastery of a perk follows the same principle as all Mastery in Untold Epoch: it adds a new use, a twist, or a refinement — not a bigger number. Perk Mastery should be deliberately simple. Good examples include: once per Rest treat something as true, gain training in a related area, do something faster or with fewer requirements. Perk Mastery should never add new action economy, stacking combat riders, reaction triggers, or resource loops.
Perk Mastery is normally acquired at a real opportunity cost through the perk system, but Extra Mastery (level 7, see /professions/overview.md) grants one Mastery of this kind for free.
Attribute Apex Perks
When a character reaches 18 in an attribute, they unlock access to that attribute’s Apex Perk. This is a perk option, not an automatic reward — a character must choose it as one of their perk selections. A character may only have one Apex Perk. The Apex Perks will be detailed in a future update alongside the full perk catalog.
Design Note: The specific Apex Perk effects (extra inventory slots for Brawn, bonus movement for Agility, extra AP for Vitality, etc.) are being moved into the perk system from the previous attribute 18 riders. This keeps all character customization in one system and prevents reaching 18 from being an automatic power spike.
The catalog of specific perks — including the Attribute Apex Perks and Skill Mastery perks referenced above — is not yet built. See /design/open-questions.md for what exists as seed material.