You have made it a career to know things. You learn skills well but you have a hard time with combat and violence. You approach everything academically.

The Scholar Profession is all about learning and education. It is not a profession that focuses on combat or making money. This profession is probably the best profession for you if your goal is simply to learn and master skills quickly and easily. This is not the profession for you if you wish to play the warrior or wish to excel at combat.

Starting Bonuses and Penalties

You already know that playing as a scholar causes you to lose 25% of your character's shillings per week towards your educational loans and that all of your currency must be converted to shillings by the end of the game week to prevent from cheating on this penalty. However these are not the only effects a scholar receives.

• A scholar starts with Study Habits at level 1 and a skill of your choice at level 1 from your school of study (the other profession you are studying). The skill must be obtainable without any other skill as its prerequisite.
• All skills cost 20% less to acquire no matter the profession, however any skill that is in your school of study is treated as in profession and thus cost 50% less to acquire.
• Scholars however always deal 15% less melee damage in battle.
• Scholars can elect to go later in combat. If a scholar has a greater initiative, they don't have to go if they aren't ready to do so. Most scholars will choose to go last in combat so they can better observe the flow of battle and better be prepared.  

Schools of Study

Scholars treat the skills in their school as study as if it is in their profession. A school of study must be chosen at the start and cannot be changed until all of the skills in that school of study are mastered. For most scholars, this will be their school of study for life.

The schools of study are the other professions. Simply choose another profession as your school of study. You do not gain any of the other benefits from that profession, you just get their skills at a 50% discount.

Effects on Weapon Usage

Scholars are not warriors. They are less effective at any kind of weapon usage, including unarmed combat, and therefore automatically deal 15% less damage in melee combat than other characters would. This penalty only applies to melee weapons, not projectile or thrown weapons. Therefore a scholar would be wise to wield a throwing weapon or projectile weapon. After all, the scholar wouldn't want to get too close to the action.

Effects on Armor Usage

Scholars are unable to wear heavy armor. They must stick with light armor. They can wear other armor types if they get the right skill, but will suffer double the initiative penalties.

Character Point Rate

Scholars are students. Their skill point learning rate depends upon their school of study.

The Scholar's character point rate is:

• Mental x 0.01; with an additional +0.2 for every level obtained of Study Habits past level 1 (total of +0.6 bonus possible). 
• Scholars also benefit from their school of study, getting their additional gain to character point rate as +0.1. For example, soldiers get an additional +0.2  for every level in one weapon proficiency skill. Scholars who have soldier as their school of study would get that same bonus, except it would be an addition +0.1 instead of +0.2.
• A scholar who gets all skills in the Study Habit skill chain at level 1 gets to roll a 1d% increased by Mental as a percentage for extra character points.
• A scholar who gets all skills in the Study Habit skill chain at level 4 gets to roll  2d% increased by Mental as a percentage for extra character points.
• A scholar's End of Session Bonus rate is your character point rate increased by 1/2 Mental. So if your skill point rate is 1.5 and your Mental is 60, you would take 1.5 x 30 to get 45 extra character points at the end of the session. The GM can of course reward extra character points based on role playing. 

Skills

Besides the skills learned based on the school of study, the scholar also has the below listed skills. Scholars get the following skills and the skills in their school of study at half off. 

Scholar Skills Progression 

Scholar Skills

Scholar Growth

As you develop and master skills within your scholar profession, you will become a more capable scholar. Each set of skills mastered will increase your tier level in your profession, which in turn will provide you with more benefits.

Tier 1: Basic Scholar

This is the tier level you start out as. The starting bonuses listed earlier apply here.

Tier 2: Novice Scholar

To reach this tier,  you must acquire all of the skills in the Study Habits skill chain at level 1. As a novice scholar you benefit from the following bonuses:

• +0.2 to Character Point Rate
• Add 20% of Mental to Mental as a modifier.

Tier 3: Skilled Scholar

To reach this tier, you must acquire all of the skills in the Study Habits skill chain at level 2. As a skilled scholar you benefit from the following bonuses:

• +0.2 to Character Point Rate
• Add 10% of Mental to two other stats of your choice except Mental as a modifier.

Tier 4: Master Scholar

To reach this tier, you must acquire all of the skills in the Study Habits skill chain at level 3. As a master scholar you benefit from the following bonuses:

• +0.2 to Character Point Rate
• Add 20% of your Mental to SA and Perceive as modifiers.

Combo Professions

With some professions, once you reach a certain point in character development, you can open up a combo profession. This combo profession would allow you to to learn new skills and gain new bonuses along with your main profession. Scholar can open into the following combo professions: Enhancer.

• Enhancer: Enhancer is a combo profession of Adventurer and Scholar

Combo Professions is a new profession that grants you new skills and abilities. When you are able to go into a combo profession you continue to follow your main profession and the combo profession in regards to what skills are in profession and profession growth. The other professions that are apart of the combo profession offer no benefit.