D&D General Levels of Mastery

[doctorbadwolf]

So, I really like having several tiers of mastery in skills. I don’t like huge static modifiers, however.

What if base proficiency gets you the proficiency bonus, but after that you have mastery ranks that get you a larger bonus die? Not a stack of dice, but like d4 through d12 as you gain mastery.

Maybe every X levels you can gain a new proficiency or increase two masteries by one step?

I was thinking maybe making +1s and mastery levels class features like current ASI, and moving feats to every 3 character levels, but tbh I’m not sure it’s worth the change.

Any thoughts?

 

[Faolyn]

That's pretty much what Level Up does, with the Expertise dice.

 

[Stormonu]

So, I really like having several tiers of mastery in skills. I don’t like huge static modifiers, however.

What if base proficiency gets you the proficiency bonus, but after that you have mastery ranks that get you a larger bonus die? Not a stack of dice, but like d4 through d12 as you gain mastery.

Well, this sounds a lot like the Proficiency dice variant in the DMG. Using dice instead of a die sounds fine for they players who are gambling on getting better than an average roll, but tends to fall apart in practice after a couple of subpar rolls. I think a better route would be small static base with a small die roll; maybe +1 + 1d4 at 1st-4th, 2 + 1d4 at 5th-8th, 2 + 1d6 at 9th-10th, 3 + 1d6 at 11th-12th and so on. Character will at least get a base value that improves with level, but the average and high end grows with the character.

I personally like the idea that you get X points every so many levels and you choose to improve or gain new skills. This allows you to go for width (Jack of All Trades) or depth (Specialist), and you can attune the base level to fit the character rather than have it lock-step advance like the current PB system does (which greatly annoys me - I miss skill points from 3E, just cut down on the number of points being spread around and I'd be happy).

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Well, this sounds a lot like the Proficiency dice variant in the DMG. Using dice instead of a die sounds fine for they players who are gambling on getting better than an average roll, but tends to fall apart in practice after a couple of subpar rolls. I think a better route would be small static base with a small die roll; maybe +1 + 1d4 at 1st-4th, 2 + 1d4 at 5th-8th, 2 + 1d6 at 9th-10th, 3 + 1d6 at 11th-12th and so on. Character will at least get a base value that improves with level, but the average and high end grows with the character.

I personally like the idea that you get X points every so many levels and you choose to improve or gain new skills. This allows you to go for width (Jack of All Trades) or depth (Specialist), and you can attune the base level to fit the character rather than have it lock-step advance like the current PB system does (which greatly annoys me - I miss skill points from 3E, just cut down on the number of points being spread around and I'd be happy).

One of the things I’d want to preserve is bounded accuracy, and it’s IMO easier to do that with a scaling single die, or a dice pool and no numerical mods, than numerical mods and a dice pool.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

That's pretty much what Level Up does, with the Expertise dice.

Tbh I don’t recall how LevelUp does things anymore, having given up on liking the system a while ago.

Fair enough.

 

[Quickleaf]

Are you interested in gating certain abilities/special uses of a skill according to mastery level (e.g. Arcana mastery allowing detecting magic or sensing spellcasters)? Or are you looking for numerical alternatives to a flat modifier?

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Are you interested in gating certain abilities/special uses of a skill according to mastery level (e.g. Arcana mastery allowing detecting magic or sensing spellcasters)? Or are you looking for numerical alternatives to a flat modifier?

Definitely both.

As well as stuff like social status.

 

[AnotherGuy]

I think the idea is a terrible one within a system that has bounded accuracy. We already have Expertise which breaks it and there is now a Feat allowing every class to take it.

Proficiency is your levels of Mastery. Having an additional Mastery system above that is nonsensical IMO.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

So, I really like having several tiers of mastery in skills. I don’t like huge static modifiers, however.

What if base proficiency gets you the proficiency bonus, but after that you have mastery ranks that get you a larger bonus die? Not a stack of dice, but like d4 through d12 as you gain mastery.

Maybe every X levels you can gain a new proficiency or increase two masteries by one step?

I was thinking maybe making +1s and mastery levels class features like current ASI, and moving feats to every 3 character levels, but tbh I’m not sure it’s worth the change.

Any thoughts?

If you do do this, just keep in mind that a single die step, that is, increasing the maximum roll by 2, only adds +1 to the average.

Hence, your tiers of mastery should be priced at the same amount as +1 to a single skill....which is a pretty small bonus.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

If you do do this, just keep in mind that a single die step, that is, increasing the maximum roll by 2, only adds +1 to the average.

Hence, your tiers of mastery should be priced at the same amount as +1 to a single skill....which is a pretty small bonus.

Yep. That’s the idea.