Pillars of Eternity abilities

Abilities in are always granted by gaining levels in a class. Unlike Talents, they are always class-specific and geared toward that class role.

List by class
There are a wide array of abilities in, and no character will be able to choose them all.

Progression
Every character begins with two abilities and every class starts with active abilities that regenerate after combat (spell sets are counted as "one" active ability for casters). Non caster classes start with a fixed passive ability and the player can choose an active ability. Traditional caster classes start with first level spells and an per encounter active ability. Ciphers begin with 1st level Powers and a passive ability, and chanters start with 1st level Phrases and Invocations.

As players advance their characters, they will choose additional abilities to customize their character capabilities at every odd level. New ability levels/tiers are unlocked at all odd levels. For casters, the character may select one ability at even levels, and two abilities at odd levels (when a new tier is unlocked). Non casters may select one ability at every odd level. Abilities of any currently or newly-unlocked tier may be selected.

None of the abilities or spells automatically scale by character level.

Spell mastery
Spell Mastery allows the spell caster to pick a single spell to switch to "per encounter" restoration. This occurs at level 9, 11, 13, and 15, for 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th level spells respectively.

Prior to the introduction of Spell Mastery, the restoration type of lower level spells was able to change from "per rest" to "per encounter" at higher levels. This was removed in favour of the new system, as it was deemed too powerful. Spells that were 4 ability levels lower than the current ability level were restored per encounter, while spells that were within 4 ability levels were restored per rest. In other words, spells switched to "per encounter" at 8 character levels above the level they were learned. Ability levels that switched to per encounter are marked with an asterisk in the table below. Currently, all non-Mastery spells are restored on rest regardless of level (unless they specify otherwise).