Steal Skill (VH)

Regular; Resisted by Will 
Transfers one skill from the subject to the caster. The caster must touch the subject and hold on to him for the entire casting time; neither character can do anything for that duration. The outcome of the struggle (i.e., the resistance roll) remains unknown until the casting is complete. The caster may abort his casting at any time; the energy is still spent. 
The caster gains the skill as if he had himself spent the character points stolen from the subject. This spell can be used to steal spells. 
If the victim had other skills based on the stolen one, he retains them fully, but the loss of a prerequisite causes a -2 penalty to skill use.

Example: Severin wishes to sell some ill-gotten gains, but lacks much in the way of business sense. To remedy this, he casts Steal Skill on the first bazaar merchant he passes, taking his Merchant skill. The merchant has IQ 10, Business Acumen 2, and Merchant-15, having spent 12 points on Merchant. Severin gains Merchant as if he had spent 12 points on the skill – with Severin’s IQ of 14, his Merchant skill is now 17. He does not gain the benefit of the merchant’s Business Acumen Talent.

Duration: 24 hours. 
Cost: 1 per character point stolen (minimum cost of 10). 
Time to cast: 1 minute. 
Prerequisites: Magery 3, Borrow Skill, and Daze.