As there were so many really good ideas for Ailments and Buffs/Blessings, I'd like to hear you guys have another brainstorming session, this time on "utility" abilities/effects. I often hear players comment on how nice some skillsets are because of their "utility" abilities, but (other than travel/movement abilities) this is another category that I think is difficult to come up with unique ideas.

Let your brains unleash their inner storms!

split comms. Take 1 comm and turn it into 2.

More skills that give you awareness of your area. Like prints in tracking, only for more mobs and items, seperatly.

widdling: turn comms into tiny pieces of art.(for mansese only)

Different flavours of forage skills... like, for a geomancer (eat rocks, this makes you take longer to get hungry(does not affect your level of hunger just the amount it takes to reduce your level)

Astral phase: Make yourself immune to mob attacks for X amount of seconds. (can't hit them can't be hit)

Allow herbalists to prepare a certain mixture that can be eaten to provide a defence against Astral Insanity, but if you should link to a node that defence is shattered due to channeling the raw energies of the Astral Plane, and that raw energy will prevent you from being able to gain that defence for the rest of the month, until it has "dissipated" from your system.

:influence estarra with begging:

"Tree Leap" - If you are in the trees, while the next location has none, while a room adjacent to that has trees, you are able to leap across the unforested room to land in the trees in the next.

"Groundwatch" - From any elevation above the ground, activating this skill allows you to see things on all elevations below you as if you were physically there. You can hear things on the elevation directly below you. If you have lipread, you can hear things said up to 3 elevations below you. (I dunno about you.. but when sitting in a tree, I can see when people approach the location, and can definitely hear people talking)

"TreeCarve" - Equivilent of a Mage's ability to write illusionary script on walls. This carves a message into a tree. It is removed when NATURE GROWTH is cast, as the bark of the tree regenerates.

In tracking:
Skinning- Skin animals and wear their hides as pieces of clothing.
Roast- Rip the meat off of the body of an animal and roast is over your camp fire. ( requires a campfire to be present in the room. Gives you three strips of meat to eat.)

Dreamweaving skill:

DREAMWEAVE SENTRY - leaves a sentry at the place you're dreambodied at. For the next 10 minutes, you see everything that happens at that location even if you aren't there. It dies after 10 minutes and is also killable with kether/violet/burst/psiblade/etc. You can only have one at a time.

A skill to restore willpower or endurance that costs either power, or can only be used every so often. This is taken from a skill in Imperian called Refresh that allows one to restore 1/3rd of their max endurance, but has a long timer before it can be used again.

A skill that gives you a defence that allows you to move past cows/sheep without being knocked off balance.

A skill that lets you stand offbalance (also taken from Imperian).

A skill that tells you what damage type you were struck with (suggested other places by other people).

A skill that heals you in ten seconds from when it was cast, so you can initiate combat and be healed just after the denizen strikes once.

A wiccan skill that sends your fae to the room someone else is in, local area range (perhaps make this the ability of the Willowisp fae, to guide fae to others? Perhaps forest to forest only?).

An illusions skill called improved changeself that allows the caster to assume the racial stats, advantages, and disadvantages of the race they have changedself into, but it takes power and only lasts a short time.

As suggested elsewhere, a druidry/mancy skill to teleport from your 20+ room demesne to someone else in their 20+ room demesne on the same continent, instantly for no power, like the Flow ability used to be.

A nature skill that makes a room pretend to be a "forest" for the purposes of Vines, Blend, Forage, Thornlash, and Sap. Skill does not effect the room's technical terrain nor interfere with or prevent melds. Does not create climbable trees, so Sap can only be used if there is a Dryad tree in the room as well. Effect vanishes on move.

I'll come up with more later.

Awesome ideas, especially groundwatch

I think an ability in discernment that allows you to see the exact health of mobs and exactly what sort of damage they do.

An illusions skill that lets you hold multiple descriptions. Alternatively, an illusions skill that lets you 'save' a wardrobe, and for a set amount of power, conjure an illusion of wearing those things upon yourself later; they dissipate if you do an aggressive action, including influencing. It can be cast on other people too (Ixion dress-up, anyone?)

An illusions skill to conjure a temporary statue from a sketch or live person.

A skill to LOOK through someone else (IE, see what he sees in the room).

A Geomancer alternative to Cleanse; maybe it takes more balance, but gives you a defense that protects against Sap/Stink once (Like Quicksilver does for Aeon?)

A Geomancer skill to make sand/stone sculptures magically.

The ability to fleshstone mobs.

Alertness please!

Some skills that married couples can share with each other.

a Marriage skillset would be cool.. where you earned abilities based on how long you've been married rather than by putting in lessons.

I keep getting told by Crow users that Perch should have that feature instead of what it does, since it's basically a buggy cling right now.

That would be a nice envoy for the skill, actually. And maybe let Birdseye do it while you're flying? Since its really no better than scan in its current form, and its original use of looking into connecting areas was taken away.

Ohhh that and make it so you can hear says below you!

Some way for Astrologers to check the position of the stars from anywhere. Maybe a telescope of sorts that takes a (somewhat) large amount of balance to set up, but can be done so anywhere outside?

The grove things mentioned in the skills thread.

In Druidry:

FOREST CAST GROVE (10 power): Bind with a forestroom. When you pray for salvation, or congulate, you travel to your grove instead. Also, you can TELEPORT GROVE for 2 power.

Commands that can be used in grove:

GROVE STORAGE-A storage area hidden in your grove. Only the Druid of the Grove can use this ability. Does not affect decay times. Can store up to 150 items.

GROVE PRIVATE-Causes the trees around the grove to seal off all exits. This ability can not be used if an enemy is in the grove. Can not summon, or teleport to anyone in a PRIVATE room, but one can be summoned out, or teleport out.

GROVE FEED-Once a month, the grove provides fruit for the Druid. Provides moderate saitation.

Syntax: CROWSNEST RETURN
Power: 2 (Master Ravenwood)
From anywhere on the same plane as your nest, you can return to the safety of your nest.

There's a similar one in Stag. Totemreturn.

Neither of them get used. :shrug:

note GROVE, not TOTEM