Inteligente Modifier as bonus to Skills trained

[balam_br]

Ok, i dont like the idea that inteligence is one of the less appealing ability scores to take a high number.
The Physical attributes are fine to me: Dex and Con will affect Initiative and HP, Str affect your load (not THAT important, bus still can affect you sometimes)

Mental attributes are trickier but still... everyone rolls perception skills sooner or later, and I can make NPCs be less friendly to low Charisma characters... But what can i do to Low Inteligence? What reason do i have to put a 10 or 12 in my int score?

Looking to 3 ed, i thought about giving bonus trained skills (Maybe feats), based on your Int modifier... Dont know if this would help or be unbalanced (Wizards would run out of skills to train...)

Somebody tried something like this? maybe i can use the lower Modifier in Wis OR Int... Looking for sugestions.

 

[ravenheart]

I'd say you would have to reduce the initial number of skills trained for this to work, maybe with a baseline of 4 (in addition to fixed skills, for example Arcana for Wizards, Stealth and Thievery for Rogues).

I'm assuming you would gain more trained skills as your INT modifier increased? Not sure what all the ramifications would be, but I guess it could turn out more or less balanced.

 

[balam_br]

Bump

 

[hipnotode]

i think this would make wizards/artificers etc. overshadow bards in the skills department, skills and multiclassing is a large part of what makes bards and i think it would be a shame to upstage them like that.

 

[OSEZNO]

Ok, i dont like the idea that inteligence is one of the less appealing ability scores to take a high number.
The Physical attributes are fine to me: Dex and Con will affect Initiative and HP, Str affect your load (not THAT important, bus still can affect you sometimes)

I think for the most part, it's not really any different from strength. Intelligence is appealing to arcane classes or educated characters. Strength is appealing to melee and load bearing classes. I cannot imagine strength really being a worthwhile score for casters and it makes sense then that intelligence would not really be an attractive score for melee.

Not including attacks, what's special about each score:

Strength: Carrying weight (made obsolete by magic items, or one person in the party carrying your heavy stuff that has this stat high), athletics checks. (2)

Con: 1 HP per point, 1 surge per modifier. Endurance checks. (3)

Dex: Initiative, light armor AC, stealth, acrobatics, thievery (5)

Int: Light armor AC, arcana, history, religion. (4)

Wisdom: Dungeoneering, Heal, Insight, Nature, Perception (5)

Charisma: Likeability via Bluff, Streetwise, Intimidate, Diplomacy (4)

I would say there should be some way to make strength more attractive, if anything. I think the scores are pretty fair for the most part, though. If you're trying to 'punish' a character for having a low score, or promote them to have a higher INT, the same way you can make NPCs meaner or less likely to help a low CHA character, you can make NPCs treat that character like an idiot. Likely that character would speak like an idiot, and comprehend like an idiot.

edit: I don't think what you're proposing would be wildly unfair, as long as, ironically, int based classes were excluded from it, because at high levels they would be incredibly skillful at... everything? Just because they're intelligent?

 

[jbear]

you forgot basic melee attacks for Strength and basic ranged attacks for DEX.

Maybe you could give a bonus to languages known for INT rather than skills. Less chance of unbalancing anything.

As for unfair ... shrug.

Arcana and Religion are pretty important skills in my game. I let my players do all sorts with them.

 

[hipnotode]

Maybe you could give a bonus to languages known for INT rather than skills. Less chance of unbalancing anything.

theres a feat like this (kind of), "Traveler's Insight" (Dragon Magazine #385) "You gain a feat bonus to insight checks equal to the number of languages you know." this can give insightful characters intensive to have 13 int (for linguist feat)

Arcana and Religion are pretty important skills in my game. I let my players do all sorts with them.

i agree that knowledge checks can be very useful, they are a great way for DM's to give information to players, especially if the players get to use the take 10 rule.

 

[balam_br]

Yeah, skills are great, but usually, the guy who puts 8 in Int wont take training in Knowledge anyway...

Bonus languages are a good, old school alternative, thanks for the suggestion.

 

[eriktheguy]

I don't mind the language idea so much. Int definitely has the fewest riders of all scores. Wis, if anything, has the most skills associated with it.

I wouldn't apply a languages penalty for 8 int.

Also keep in mind that there are few languages at all in 4e.

But yeah, bonus languages = Int score is very workable, and helps replace that one ugly linguist feat. Kudos.

 

[KahnyaGnorc]

Two modifications could make this work:

1. Change the base number of discretionary skill trainings.
2. Cap the number of skills trained in this manner.

This doesn't have to be made equally. I don't think a member of a class, no matter how intelligent, should be trained in every skill available for their class without the use of feats, while non-Int-based classes that are balanced in part around a larger skill selection should still have a pretty broad selection even if Int is the dump stat.