Skill points as a reward...

[Kaledor]

Has anybody here given out Skill Points as a reward system?

How about permanent bonuses to certain skills?


I'm considering it for my new game. I'm not talking about a ton of skill points or really huge bonuses... maybe just a few over the course of a couple of levels.

The reason is I'm thinking of slowing the level advancement for the first half dozen levels or so, but I'd still like the players to feel like their characters can "get some cool stuff". So a free skill point or two, or a +2 bonus to a skill when the character does something particularly warranting seems like a way to reward the players without giving their characters XP, gp, or magic items.

I don't know.
Has anyone tried it or heard of it?

Does anyone have any other ways of handling slower level advancement while still giving the players kudos??

 

[Baron Opal]

Yes. It was a great way of handling downtime in my campaign. Each player told med what their characters did in the 6 months of down time and I handed out a +2 to an appropriate skill.

 

[Storyteller01]

Sort of. We use schools and books. It costs a bit of money and exp, as some investigating, but it grants bonuses to skills or extra feats.

Tends to kill two birds with one stone: they get a reward for roleplaying, and the spent exp slows leveling down a bit.

 

[Megatron]

yeps

 

[Sammael]

I just gave the PCs 5 ranks in any one Knowledge skill of their choosing and 5 ranks in any one Perform skill of their choosing (can only be applied to skills that they do not have any previous ranks in). They got the reward for visiting Oghma's House of Knowledge in the Outlands, and drinking from the three sacred springs. They're ECL19, so the reward is symbollic more than anything...

 

[blargney the second]

I've seen both the free ranks and the skill bonusses done. One other I've seen is allowing a character to treat a given skill as a class skill.

 

[Goblyns Hoard]

Sort of - not so much as a reward so much as a 'reality' thing - and pretty much as Baron Opal said. 3 months downtime - what are you all doing? Fair enough have these skill points. I handed out 5 each not just 2, but most of them were in Knowledge-Local and Profession-Farming/Mining - not the things that come up daily in the adventuring career but that round out the character.

 

[Acid_crash]

I kind of did this once... for each natural critical failure or success the character got in a skill roll, that skill got a tick. Once they got so many ticks, they got a permanent +2 circumstance bonus to that skill.

The number of ticks I dictated depended on how often the skills were used in the game (something I measured from a previous couple of campaigns). To me, this is like the character learning from his biggest mistakes and his greatest triumphs and adapting that knowledge to using that skill in the future.

I like the downtime suggestions also.

 

[jinx crossbow]

Has anybody here given out Skill Points as a reward system?

I usually give "Knowledge local" Skill Points as a reward if the chars stay a longer time
int the same region. Sometimes a Char also gets some special Bonuses if he uses so
Skills he is not familiar with. E.g. Perform Singing if the Player allways sings.

I try not to give then SkillPoint for skills they would buy.

This gives the Chars a bit more Colour.

JinX

 

[Kaledor]

Thanks for all the info!

I like the idea of using it for rounding out background and roleplaying ideas (perform, crafts, knowledges...).
I also like the idea of putting "tick" marks next to critical successes and evenutally cashing them in for a bonus.