Engineering: This is the skill of planning, designing, and building large constructions such as houses, bridges, dams, and so forth. Unless built under the eye of a trained engineer, a large structure—whether built by manpower and materials or pure magic—will inevitably collapse or suffer some other calamity. Engineering skill can also be used to evaluate constructions the party is passing through or over: what shape they’re in, when and by whom they were built, and so on.
🏗️ Racial Variants #
| Variant | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Dwarven | Lithic Integrity | Dwarves design for eternity. Their structures are immune to natural erosion. When evaluating a stone structure, they can detect “stress fractures” before they happen, giving the party a +4 bonus to avoid structural traps. |
| Elven | Organic Architecture | Elves “grow” their buildings using guided saplings and magic. These structures are flexible; they can survive earthquakes or high winds that would shatter stone. An Elven engineer can tell if a forest has been “tamed” or “wild” based on the tree-weaving. |
| Gnomish | Dynamic Load-Bearing | Gnomes love moving parts—elevators, drawbridges, and rotating rooms. Their structures are complex and compact. They can identify the “Master Lever” or “Kill Switch” of any mechanical construction with a successful roll. |
| Halfling | Thermal Comfort | Halflings are masters of the “Earth-Shelter.” They focus on insulation, drainage, and ventilation. They can evaluate a structure’s “livability,” identifying hidden vents or drainage pipes that can be used as makeshift crawlspaces. |
🗺️ Regional Variants #
- The High-Imperial Architect (Metropolitan/Urban)
In the capital, engineering is about Status and Scale.
- Specialty: Aesthetic Fortification. They can design buildings that look like fragile palaces but are actually reinforced against siege. They gain a +2 bonus to identify “Secret Passages” because they know where a designer would logically hide a service corridor for the help.
- The Great-Dam Warden (Wilderness/Riverlands)
Trained in the brutal science of Hydro-Dynamics.
- Specialty: Hydraulic Pressure. They understand how water moves. They can evaluate dams, bridges, and sewers with a +4 bonus. They can also “weaponize” a structure—for example, knowing exactly which stone to remove from a cellar wall to cause a controlled flood.
- The Desert Wind-Breaker (Arid/Waste)
In the desert, the enemy is the shifting sand and the relentless heat.
- Specialty: Aeolian Physics. They design structures that use the wind to cool the interior or “self-clear” sand from the entrances. They can evaluate a ruin to see if it was buried naturally by the desert or intentionally hidden by builders.
- The Sky-Dock Rigger (Flying Cities/High Altitudes)
In campaigns with floating islands or aerial towers, engineering is about Weight and Wind-Shear.
- Specialty: Ballast & Buoyancy. They are experts at “Lightweight Framing.” They can evaluate how much weight a floor can take before it collapses—a vital skill when the party is carrying a dragon’s hoard across a thousand-year-old floating bridge.
🛡️ The “Structure Survival” Clause #
As noted, without an Engineer, structures will fail.
- The Check: For every month of construction, the Engineer makes a check.
- Failure: A failure doesn’t mean the building falls immediately; it means a “Calamity” is scheduled. The DM rolls 1d100 days; on that day, a bridge might snap or a roof might cave in during a storm.
Design Tip: A character with both Engineering and Artillery can designate “Structural Weak Points” on an enemy fortress, allowing the artillery crew to bypass the fortress’s damage reduction or “Hardness.”
