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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Runestar" data-source="post: 4495911" data-attributes="member: 72317">Personally, I find that the 1/2 lv bonus does not seem to make any difference at all. If we assume that every PC is going to want to keep their core skills maxed out at every turn (similar to the skill point system in 3e), then it makes no difference whether the game auto-assigns those ranks for you or if you have to manually assign them yourselves.And if the skill DCs are to be high enough to sufficiently challenge a PC who has put effort into optimizing said skill, this means that the PC who has relied on the boost every 1/2 lv alone still cannot consistently succeed at said check. What matters is not the PC's absolute skill check, but his skill check relative to the rest of the party, because the latter is what will determine the final DC in the end.For example, an elven cleric with maxed out wis, skill focus, +2 racial skill bonus and a misc magic item granting a skill bonus is going to have a perception score +20 higher than a typical fighter PC at epic lvs, with or without the 1/2 class lv bonus. So in the end, the cleric is still going to be the one to make all the necessary perception checks.So the lv30 wizard can easily open a door with a DC of 30 (since his check is +25). But the bigger question is - what DM would, in his right mind, throw such a door in the face of the party? It cannot challenge the wizard, because the party fighter will have a str check of +34 (including his str of 28). To challenge the party, you will want the final DC to be somwhere around +45 - +50 (to account for aid another). So the wizard still has no chance of opening the door in the first place.As such, the point about a high lv wizard being able to open a door that would stymie a lower lv fighter is moot, because he would never ever encounter such a door to begin with! <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />In the end, I find that the only purpose said rule seems to achieve is to save you the hassle of having to manually distribute your skill points (sort of 4e's way of idiot-proofing the game). Dnd is a system that clearly rewards overwhelming specialization in a single role, rather than trying to be a jack of many trades, so the new skill system "auto-maxes" out your skill ranks for you, so that you do not make the error of trying to spread yourself out too thinly by putting a few ranks here and there in a variety of skills, and making yourself too weak to be of any use to the party as a result.<img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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