It is on knowledge that wisdom increases one’s mana pool. For most se races, each point spent on wisdom grows maximum mana capacity by ten, increasing both the mana avaible for spells and the absolute amount of mana regeed over time.

  However, to effitly allocate one’s precious few attribute points among the many and diverse needs of every Css, one should be better educated as to the lesser-known bes provided by the attribute.

  Wisdom is sometimes referred to as willpower – or spirit – and it provides powerful bes to mental fortitude, resilience, aance against magic. It is often stated that wisdom is to intelligence what endurance is tth or dexterity – the bulwark of the mind, proteg your will and mana. Wisdom is the primary tool – other than artifacts, potions, and ented items – to defend against mind-altering effects such as Fear, Charm, or Taunt.

  A primary attribute for Shamans and Druids, wisdom is often associated with instinctive or intuitive knowledge, such as how a Druid might uand the natural order. Wisdom is sidered important for any Css that depends on having a rge amount of mana, such as mages and healers.

  - Excerpt from The Adventurer’s Guide, Third Edition

  Mato Mato shapeshifted back to his Beastkin form, puzzled by the odd look Malika was giving him. “What?”

  “You were growling and baring your teeth.”

  “I’m just happy,” he said. Just thinking about the adrenaline-fueled chaos ihe ruione house with the huge angry bug monster put a broad grin on his face. “This is what adventuring is all about!”

  “A grinning bear is a terrifying sight to behold,” Malika said, plopping herself down beside him. “It is going well, right?”

  “Yup.” Mato reflected otle they had just won. They all sat on the ruioreets rec their mana and stamina by the light of ’s floating orb. Beside him, the house they had used to tain the Spitter Drones for the st three secutive fights was gone, reduced to rubble and pulverized stone. had been luring the gigantisters oer another, but every few fights they o find a new building because even the vauonecrafting of the a Dwarves could not stand long against the repeated detonations of the bone elementals’ corpse explosions oh.

  “It’s still moderately scary,” Ali groused, emerging from the wreckage after destrug everything useful.

  “We’re definitely gettier, though,” Malika said.

  “Yes, did you see how quickly we killed that st one?” Mato said.

  “It is faster,” Malika said, her brow furrowing for a moment. “But it’s still utter chaos in there.”

  “Thanks for having my back,” Mato said. He was extremely grateful for Malika’s impressive speed, sharp eye, and instantaneous healing. The Spitter Drones didn’t hit him particurly hard through his dense hide, but the vile spit they sprayed everywhere was devastating. The feeling of having his muscles and flesh turo bone, crack, and slough off, would probably haunt his dreams for quite a while. Rest big ks of his body quickly was not something his skills were particurly suited to – his aura helped regeion, preventing him from dying to injury, but it took mio heal even small injuries. It didn’t cost any mana, so in a long close-quarters fight, like the house, when he was surrounded by allies that were all taking damage, his aura was exceptional. Brutal Restoration required him to be capable of hitting hard, and even then, his healing magic was delivered over thirty seds – whi a fast-paced chaotic battle was ay. It was Malika’s instant healing that had put him ba the fight every time he took the bone spit to the face or had a leg snap off to the horrifying magic.

  “No problem,” Malika said with a half-smile.

  “You all are nearly recovered, right?” asked, getting to his feet. “ I go get the group?”

  “Yup,” Mato answered for the iven that he and were the two that didn’t have mana recovery skills, he was always the st to be ready.

  “What’s up ?” Ali asked.

  “Kobolds,” said before he darted off into the darkness.

  Beside Mato, Ali snarled and grunted a few times, awo Goblins stood, setting themselves up in the ter of the street, preparing for whatever might bring. Shamans. Their lightning magid totems were terrifying in the enclosed space shared with a huge hostile, angry monster. However, Mato had quickly e to aowledge they got results. Their lightning ripped through the bone armor like it wasn’t even there, creating cracks and weakhat allowed his Swipe to even do any damage at all. What did it matter if he occasionally got clipped by a stray lightning bolt when it meant he could actually fight?

  Mato had never fancied himself as some grand strategist. It wasn’t that he was incapable – he uood the cepts – it was simply that was so much better at it. He was well aware his friend would ep forward and share his ideas on his own, so Mato had simply cooked while the others hashed out the details. He had to admit the pn they had e up with for these Spitter Drones was simple aremely effective. Exg fights, every time! He ehe tactics of pt and trolling the enemy, redireg damage to save his allies, and the freic pace of trading blows. But he also liked winning, and their pn was a rge part of how retively easy the fights had bee. He certainly wasn’t oo begrudge credit where it was due.

  “Ining,” Ali said, a few moments before the dark street up ahead lit up as an orb of floating magic appeared, h in the air, and silhouetting the sprinting form below. entered from the pza and sped dowreet toward them. A few moments ter a group of smaller reptiliaures barreled around the er, yipping and screeg, murder written pinly in their gleaming eyes and raised ons. The distinctive calls of the hunting Kobolds echoed across the stark stony street, reag his ears as he rose to his feet a himself on all fs. He grinned again, happy to see how naturally his shy friend had taken point for their little team, and how well he executed the roles of scout and monster hunter. Holy, he was also just happy for anht.

  “Two warriors, three archers, levels eighteen to twenty,” said, sprinting past Mato as he annouhe enemies like a waiter announg the catch of the day.

  Warrior – Kobold – level 19-20 x2Archer – Kobold – level 18-20 x3

  Mato easily picked out the archers by the short bone bows they carried, and shifted his attention, ign them. His role would be to take care of the warriors. As the monsters charged toward him, his mind shifted into battle mode, quickly evaluating gear, movement, and threats. The two warriors were up front, sprinting fast with their talons making harsh scratg sounds as they scraped the hard stone underfoot. The first one, a scarred veteran with only one eye, wielded a gleaming shortsword and a dark mid-sized shield that was held petently to guard his fad upper torso. The sed warrior held twi the ready, one in each taloned hand.

  That dual wielder looks dangerous.

  As soon as the Kobolds came inte, the defensive warrior’s shield flickered with a red glow as he powered a skill, and his form blurred into a charge. Mato responded with his own Charge, meeting the warrior with a head-on collision ing steel and the thump of his Swipe attack. Much to his surprise, it was his heavy body that was thrown back several feet on impact with the much smaller Kobold’s shield.

  The Kobold warrior drew a breath and shouted. The skill-powered sound hit Mato in the face with the force of a punch, and he felt a strauggiion in the back of his mind.

  You have been afflicted with Demoralizing Shout.-19 Strength.Physical – Duration: 30 seds.

  Shit. All his offensive abilities scaled with strength, and even his healing was depe on doing more damage. This is really going to cramp my style.

  He roared his challenge and reengaged with a powerful sideways Swipe that khe Kobold’s shield out of the way for a quick follow-up attack. The sed warrior danced around her panion, twin swords blurring as they sliced into his fnk, sending trickles of warm blood dripping down through his fur. In the back of his mind, he wondered how he was able to tell the Kobolds’ genders apart. Not that it mattered, it was their swords he o worry about.

  You have been afflicted with Bleeding.+3 Physical damage per sed.Physical – Duration: 30 seds. t: 1.

  Seriously? That’s just insulting. He attacked again with Swipe, powered with his Brutal Restoration, finally nding a hit on both of his adversaries, establishing his first thirty-sed restoration heal. The wounds inflicted on his fnk still bled profusely, but his magic began to reverse the tinual damage. The cracks his cws had inflicted on the Kobolds’ armor rapidly faded away as the bes protruding through their scaled hides grew back.

  He risked a gnce across the battlefield, but it seemed the others had the archers pinned down, and ’s magic h above the dark street would cut down on any stealth shenanigans. It seemed he would be able to focus entirely on the warriors.

  The bright sparking light of Ali’s shaman enting her shield and mace beside Mato drew his attention back to his immediate surroundings. She gestured obscurely with the green arm that had her shield strapped to it, and the simultaneous thunderd fsh as she discharged a Lightning Bolt burned his retinas and assaulted his ears. Bone splinters burst off both warriors, and Mato reacted, taking advantage of the damage to nd another empowered Swipe attack before the armor had a ce tee.

  The scarred Kobold warrior’s shield fshed again and smmed into the side of his head with brutal force. Again, he was the one forced to give up ground from the monstrous impact of the shield sm which left him momentarily seeing stars. The dual wielder made her dark swlow with the power of a martial skill, and the speed of her twirikes began to accelerate, growing faster and faster every time she struck.

  The dang bdes shimmered and flickered erratically, like each strike against him was echoed by an afterimage that struck at the shaman. The blood running down the shaman’s shoulder, mirr the fresh wounds on his own fnk, and the flickerialiatory sparks from her shield told him they were not mere afterimages. Off in the distance he could hear Malika shouting, interrupted by a deafening explosion and a wave of heat.

  Area attack? The dual bdes were clearly striking both of them simultaneously with every hasted ssh.

  He pulled the damage of the strike to himself using Arboreal Sanctuary. While the shaman was very robust, it would be better to take most of the damage himself and heal it with his Brutal Restoration, leaving the remaio his regeion aura.

  The whistling dark bde left a line of pain down his left forepaw, triggering the sound of a notification chime.

  Your Bleeding has increased to 2.

  Another bleed? The damage was beginning to stack up, and if he wao end this fight quickly, he would o take care of the dangerous dual wielder, fast. He sed from the defensive shield warrior to his quicker and nimbler panion and attacked with Swipe.

  In that instant, the shield warrior shouted again, refreshing the Demoralizing Shout duration, plete with the straug on his mind. His Swipe bounced off the shield with a sharp but iual screech of cws against metal and he found himself disoriented and fag the shield warriain.

  What? There owerful desire to crush the grinning Kobold hiding behind his annoying shield boiling within him. He struck again before he realized the dual wielder had free rein to fnk him.

  Your Bleeding has increased to 3.

  With the sheer force of will, he shifted to face the dangerous flickering attacks, pulling even more damage away from the shaman, shaking his head to clear his fusion.

  A movement in the shadows caught his attention, but it was Ali’s rogue appearing to sink a dark bde into the back of the dual-wielding warrior. The dang swords flickered faster, creating more echoes, and Mato suddenly found himself having to redirect damage from both the rogue and the shaman.

  The bleeds were quickly stag up and, bined with the extra damage he took upon himself to keep Ali’s minions alive, his Brutal Restoration was falling behind.

  We o kill this warrior now! He ground his fangs and shifted his position, drawing the Kobold warriors a little to one side. It would have been far more effit if he could just tell Ali’s minions what he wanted with his beast nguage like he could her wolves. A soft chime sounded in his mind, and he gnced inward briefly, just long enough to verify a Kobold Archer had died and it wasn’t another bleed. At least the others are making quick progress.

  He nded a Swipe attack, adding a fresh set of Restoration healing, when the shield warrior shouted again. Matled against the disorienting attack, finding himself yet again turning to face the defensive warrior with a powerful urge to crush his grinning, one-eyed face. Behind the warrior, Ali’s rogue had switched targets too, leaving just the shaman attag the dangerous dual wielder.

  What the hell? The dual wielder clearly had a haste skill, a bleed, and an area damage skill that duplicated her attacks hitting all her foes simultaneously. Why oh was he still trying to sm his way through this immobile shield?

  He forced himself to switch back as the shaman unleashed anhtning Bolt through the female warrior’s torso, stunning her momentarily. Mato swiped across her exposed belly with his cws, taking advantage of the opening to hit the dangerous monster and stack just a little more restoration. He was already bleeding from three different wounds and taking nine damage per sed. Not much more of this and he would be irouble.

  Another loud bang was followed by a pair of chimes, and then an indest arrow zipped past his left ear and buried itself in the left shoulder of the female warrior, making her hiss angrily, followed closely by a volley of Firebolts and Ali’s golden magic. He attacked with his Swipe one more time, and the bined assault finally staggered the warrior. She teetered bad forth momentarily before falling sideways, swords cttering to the ground. Now that he wasn’t taking the bulk of the damage for three people, his Brutal Restoration began to gain ground against the stacked bleeds.

  And now you, he thought, unleashing a powerful attack at the annoying Kobold hiding behind his annoying shield with his annoying grin. Time to die!

  By the time they killed the Kobold warrior, Mato’s bleeds had already stopped, and his magic had mostly restored his health to normal. What remained would regee easily over time.

  Yroup has defeated Shield Warrior – Kobold – level 2roup has defeated Bloodletter – Kobold – level 19Yroup has defeated Archer – Kobold – level 18-20 x3

  He shifted back to his Beastkin Form and poked the annoying Kobold with his foot.

  “Ugh, this guy was so annoying,” he pined, sitting down to watch Ali destruct the corpse.

  “Why?” Ali asked.

  “Every time he shouted, I would get disoriented and then find myself attag him instead of the other one.”

  “Must have been a Taunt skill, right?” Malika suggested, ing over to look at the Kobold.

  “I think so,” Mato answered. Now that he had a sed to actually think through what had happened – well, he had not imagined a Taunt skill would be so … fusing. Every time that grinning one-eyed warrior had shouted at him, his body had seemed to just do stuff on its own without telling him and he would only realize it ter. So annoying!

  “What’s a Taunt skill?” Ali asked, looking first at the dead Kobold and then at him.

  “It’s like when you’re on the pyground and you insult the bully to provoke him into fighting you,” Mato answered.

  “Why would you want to do that?”

  “Well, you make him start the fight, and thes into trouble.”

  “No, I meant why would a monster want that?”

  “Oh, well this Kobold had a shield and solid defensive skills. Whe made me attack him, the other one had free rein to ssh me and cause bleeds on all your minions.”

  “Is that why my rogue kept attag it instead of the other one?” she asked.

  “Probably.” The rogue had switched to the shield warrior every siime it shouted. But what he hadn’t seen was the shaman ging targets. He g Ali’s Gobliively.

  “What I want to know is why it didn’t affect the shama affected me and the rogue,” Mato growled, more than a little a being pushed around by the Kobold’s skill.

  “Most likely the shaman has high wisdom,” Malika answered, sitting down beside them.

  “Wisdom? How does that help?”

  “I was always taught that wisdom is like endurance for the mind. It makes your mind more resilient to attacks. Taunts are mind-altering attacks, a suggestion, but powered by magic, so the shaman probably just resisted it.”

  “Ugh, so I o i in wisdom now?”

  “I think lots of warriors and rogues simply give up on avoiding Taunt attacks, wisdom doesn’t buy them much,” Malika answered.

  “But Mato is a Druid. He has spells, so it might be worth a little wisdom,” added. “If everyone has enough mana, I go get the group.”

  As set out, disappearing into the darkness of the ruins, Mato sidered their words. Having his mind messed with really didn’t sit well with him, and if it were just a matter of spending a few more attribute points on wisdom, he might sider it. He ghrough his skill list, cheg the trait tags.

  Arboreal Sanctuary, Natural Prowess, and Brutal Restoration, he thought, tallying the skills tagged with wisdom. Perhaps it’s not such a bad idea to i in more wisdom now and then? Otherwise, I’ll just be a liability at some point.

  Aliandra Ali stood at the feet of the kings’ statues, gazing out across the pza. As far as her eyes could pierce through the gloom, the broad pza was littered with piles of borash, rubble, abandoned Kobold campfires, and huge encrustations of bohat were the work of Spitter Drones. Beyond the pza loomed the dark t edifice that had once been the Grand Library Ara.

  Ali shivered.

  When she had st beheld the library, a horde of monsters had been encamped on the pza, and she had despaired of ever crossing it. Now, however, it was as deserted as the day the Blind Lich attacked.

  “Who are these guys?” Mato asked, breaking off a piece of the bone encrustations that hung from the statues of the kings reag as high as their waists.

  “The three kings of Dal’mohra,” Ali said, gng up at them. And then, deg that they deserved better, she tinued. “The Dwarf with the Hammer of Justice is Bragni Doomhammer. The big guy with the sword is Artur Dragonsworn – legends say he wielded Dragon Fire. The Elf in the robes is Thaldorien Stormshaper, one of the wisest sages in the nd, and the creator of the Grand Library Ara.”

  “You khem?” Malika asked, gazing up at the enormous stoions.

  “No, I was hardly important enough to hang out with kings and sages,” she said. She cocked her head and looked at Malika for a moment, and then back at the statues. “I did see Thaldorien once when he visited my mom. He was o me. I also remember the one day he just teleported into the ter of the library while I was studying, and hahe Head Librarian an indest magical tome and vanished, leaving the entire library gasping. He was so cool!”

  “That’s an awesome story,” said.

  The smile from that memory fell from her face as she remembered she had met them all one more time. “When I st saw them, they had been turned, raised as Death Knights by the evil neancy of the Blind Lich.”

  Mato hissed at the mention of the undead.

  Ali shook her head to dispel the disturbing memories, fog instead on the dark outline of the arched doorway into the library oher side of the ruined pza. At her back was the now cleared residential ring of houses where they had been systematically wiping out the horde of Kobolds, Skeletons, and Bone Spitters for the better part of the day now. She was weary but determio see what had bee of her beloved library. Still, just sauntering in there did not strike her as the wisest idea.

  Hundreds of tiny Bone Skitterers scrambled away as her feet ched on the bone-encrusted pza. The giant stoower loomed rger as they approached, looking foreboding in the darkness. When she had st been ihe entire building had been lit by runic magiow, it was dull and dark, with bone running up the walls, and what was left of the enormous stone doors hung shattered from a worn hinges.

  When she had st been inside, she had witnessed Maeria Runeweaver’s murder by a skeleton’s rusty bde.

  timewalk