CB's Grim Frequencies AP OOC -- COMPLETE

[MENTION=95059]Forged Fury[/MENTION], everything looks good with Cyril, but I need some tweaks on his skill list. A) I would like you to separate the following skills to reflect Cyril's Talent bonus to charm men: Bluff, Diplomacy, Disguise, Gather Information, and Intimidate. Specifically, I need the aforementioned skills to list separate skill checks when dealing with men and with women. B) The White Collar occupation does not include Bluff, so by my count that skill check should go at +8, not +9. C) Happily, White Collar *does* include Knowledge (civics), so Cyril's skill check for Know (civics) should go at +7, not +6. D) Did you intend to add any two of the skills listed in White Collar to Cyril's permanent skill list, or are you going to roll with the +1 bonus to Diplomacy and Know (civics)? I assume the latter, but if the former let me know.

After you've reconciled the requested updates, please post Cyril in RG.

CanadienneBacon said:

A) I would like you to separate the following skills to reflect Cyril's Talent bonus to charm men: Bluff, Diplomacy, Disguise, Gather Information, and Intimidate. Specifically, I need the aforementioned skills to list separate skill checks when dealing with men and with women.

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I went with a slash like this, does that work?
Bluff +8/+9 (4 ranks, +4 Cha)/+1 Charm vs. Males

CanadienneBacon said:

B) The White Collar occupation does not include Bluff, so by my count that skill check should go at +8, not +9.

C) Happily, White Collar *does* include Knowledge (civics), so Cyril's skill check for Know (civics) should go at +7, not +6.

D) Did you intend to add any two of the skills listed in White Collar to Cyril's permanent skill list, or are you going to roll with the +1 bonus to Diplomacy and Know (civics)? I assume the latter, but if the former let me know.

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My bad. At first I was going to pick up Research, but then thought Cyril would rely on others (probably inappropriately dressed female clerks and paralegals) to do a lot of that work for him. So I went with Bluff instead, but failed to notice it wasn't allowed. I went with the +1 to Knowledge: Civics.

I do have a follow-up question that I can't find in the D20 SRD document that may affect my character. I remember from my time playing 3.5 D&D that certain bonuses stacked and certain ones didn't. Is that the case with Modern? For example, the Occupation bonus is listed as a Competence Bonus. But so is the bonus from my Charm class feature. Do they stack? I checked the 3.5 D&D SRD and Competence Bonuses do not stack under their rules. If they don't, I will change up the Diplomacy +1 to pick up Research as a class skill and move my points from Intimidate to Research. Intimidate didn't always sit all that well with me for his skill set, although I guess a case could be made that threatening to have someone else do something could be intimidating in any event.

[MENTION=12430]gribble[/MENTION], I checked out Street Warrior from the EN World wiki. By my reckoning, it's slightly too uber and unbalanced compared to the base d20 Modern classes. Street Warrior grants a total of +5 in BAB, saves, Defense, and Reputation bonuses at first level, and awards 5 + INT skill points, which is more combined than the other core classes. I'll willing to allow Street Warrior, but I need some tweaks so as not to unbalance the game. First, the action points for everyone are set initially at 3 (rather than 5 from the core rulebook or 6 from the wiki). Second, the save progression is fine, but I think the BAB progression should look like the BAB from Tough. Third, do you need 5 + INT skill points per level to make Street Warrior work, or will 3 skill points per level suffice? Finally, what tie-in to a particular neighborhood or organization suitable for an urban-oriented character did you have in mind (prison counts as an "org," if that helps). Let me know your thoughts.

Street Warrior aside, yes, T-dawg has a Koran. I'm not sure what size unarmed strike is...nothing in the d20 Modern srd lists a size. Brass knuckles are tiny, but a generic weapon that deals 1d3 damage are supposed to be size small. I don't know that it matters, to be honest. I can't think of a time during gameplay when the size of an unarmed strike was a factor in an outcome. If you want to roll with small, that's fine with me. By my reckoning, T-dawg should have a Wealth bonus of +1. Please include that on the character sheet you post in the RG...it'll come into play later in the game. All else was fine. Let me know about Street Warrior.

Argh, I can't copy/paste on my tablet! I am away from my computer this week, but I will still be posting. I just can't easily move my sheet to thr RG. I will try to figure this out.

Don't sweat it, Shayuri. Just do what you can this week. If you can edit in the changes into your sheet here in the OOC, that would be great. If you can't, then just wait until you're home and deal with it later. While I expect to kick off game play within the next 48 hours, I very much doubt we'll get into combat before Sunday/Monday.

Forged Fury said:

I remember from my time playing 3.5 D&D that certain bonuses stacked and certain ones didn't. Is that the case with Modern? For example, the Occupation bonus is listed as a Competence Bonus. But so is the bonus from my Charm class feature. Do they stack?

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From the d20 Modern srd, under the section marked "Skills Overview," competence bonuses do not stack:

Skills Overview said:

Modifier Types and Stacking
A modifier provides a bonus (a positive modifier) or a penalty (a negative modifier) to a die roll.
Bonuses with specific descriptors, such as “equipment bonus,” generally don’t stack (combine for cumulative effect) with others of the same type. In those cases, only the best bonus of that type applies.
The only specific bonuses that stack are dodge bonuses, synergy bonuses, and sometimes circumstance bonuses. Circumstance bonuses stack only if they’re provided by differing circumstances; if two circumstance bonuses caused by similar circumstances apply, they don’t stack.
Specific bonuses that don’t stack include competence, cover, equipment, morale, natural armor, and size.
If the game setting includes magic or other supernatural effects, there can also be deflection, enhancement, enlargement, haste, inherent, insight, luck, profane, resistance, and sacred bonus descriptors. None of these bonuses stack.
Any bonus without a descriptor (such as simply a “+1 bonus”) stacks with other bonuses.
All penalties stack, regardless of their descriptors.

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A (very) cursory double-check of everyone's character sheets revealed that Cyril's stats are the only ones affected by the rule. Everyone should have a look at their sheets to verify, though.

Forged Fury said:

I went with a slash like this, does that work?
Bluff +8/+9 (4 ranks, +4 Cha)/+1 Charm vs. Males

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Yup. Just needed something to prompt myself that Cyril gets a bonus to CHA-based skills when dealing with men. Any format is fine, so long as I (and you?) can look at it and be, like, "Oh, yeah! Right! He gets a bonus."

Thanks for finding that about the Competence Non-Stacking. The SRD I was checking didn't have that rule listed. I've thought about it a bit more. I think I am going to take Research as a Class Skill, but not put any ranks into it at the moment. I'm going to keep points in Intimidate, flavored as threatening actions from someone other than Cyril.

I imagine I'll be pretty good about remembering to apply the bonus to influence men. It's his main thing, after all. I might make it easy on us (assuming Cyril makes it to the next chance to grab another Talent) and just pick it up for women as well.

CanadienneBacon said:

Third, do you need 5 + INT skill points per level to make Street Warrior work, or will 3 skill points per level suffice? Finally, what tie-in to a particular neighborhood or organization suitable for an urban-oriented character did you have in mind (prison counts as an "org," if that helps). Let me know your thoughts.

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All good with the tweaks - picked the class more for it's fit than it's abilities. Only having 3 skill points is fine as well.

Not sure about the org... was thinking his old gang, or likely prison, though it will be a few levels until I can pick it up anyway, so I'd hoped a suitable one might come up in play.

[MENTION=12430]gribble[/MENTION], I am under the (mistaken?) impression that one could take Street Warrior at first level. Is that not the case? Did I miss something? Did you want Street Warrior at first level, or did you want it for future levels?

If you intend to stick with Tough for first level and ease into Street Warrior for later levels, then that's a bird of a different color. My main concern at first level character generation is making sure players have a level field from which to choose. If you think you want Street Warrior later on rather than now, then maybe we'll just open up some/all/more of the advanced classes and not have to tweak anything on Street Warrior.