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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Matthias" data-source="post: 2080568" data-attributes="member: 3625">AD HOC SKILL CHECK MODIFIERS FOR NPCs(older version orig. posted in r.g.f.d)I have encountered a few situations as DM where the player characters havedecided to check out the local shops. By necessity they invoke several opposedrolls from these NPCs which did not exist moments before. I have been hoping tobe able to guesstimate the skill check modifiers for these NPCs, however, ratherthan come up with abstract DC's from the general table of DC's listed in the PHBor DMG.I have been working on skill check modifier tables that would take into accountthe NPC's probable character level, their class, whether they are using a classor cross-class skill, and chances of how specialized they have become in thatparticular skill.For purposes of this system, I have limited NPCs to being either 1st, 5th, 9th,13th, or 17th level. These particular levels give you a max.-ranks-value whichis evenly divisible by 4. So a character that gains 2 SP/level (ignoring Int-mod& racial bonus SP) will get (character level + 3) x 2 SP (referred to thecharacter's base SP total).Let's say that a character's skills can be classified by priority, where thepriority determins the number of SP a given skill has. Let us also say thatgiven 3 priority levels (low, medium, and high), they are proportional asfollows: 1<img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/2.gif"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":2:" title="Two    :2:" data-shortname=":2:" />4. Thus low-priority skills will have N SP, med-priority skills 2xNSP, and high-priority skills 4xN SP. (I talk about SP only, not actual ranks,because some characters of a given class such as Fighter may considercross-class skills to be important enough to gain SP in, such as Tumble. In suchcases the actual no. of ranks would be 1/2 the SP put into them, but theproportion of assigned SP to the max ranks of the skill will usually remain thesame as for class skills, excluding multiclass characters.)Now limiting NPCs to the specific levels given above, lets us deal with base SPthat exist in multiples of 8. This lets us divide the base SP for a givencharacter into 8 packets of SP to assign to different skills regardless ofcharacter level, where each packet has 1/4th the character's max ranks in SP (or1/8th of their base SP). So a Ftr13 will have 32 base SP, and will have 8packets of 4 SP to distribute among any skills that would be important to him. A high priority skill would get 4 packets, making that particular skill maxedout. A medium priority skill would get 2 packets, and a low priority skill wouldget 1 packet. After this point, any skill points gained from a positive Intmodifier ((CL+3) x Int mod) or from being human (CL+3) would be assigned wheredesired, presumably with the NPC's profession or specialty in mind.NPC getting 2 SP/level will have anywhere from 2 to 8 skills with SP assignedthem (not counting the extra skills getting SP gained from high Int or racialSP). Classes giving 4, 6, or 8 SP/level will of course have 4 to 16, 6 to 24, or8 to 24 skills with SP.Now there are different permutations for low, medium, and high-priority skillsbased on this system.L: low-priority skills (MR/4 SP each)M: medium-priority skills (MR/2 SP each)H: high priority skills (MR SP each)With classes getting 2 SP/level, there are 9 permutations of priority:L/M/H (number in each priority)8/-/- (8 total)6/1/- (7 total)4/2/- (6 total)4/-/1 (5 total)2/3/- (5 total)2/1/1 (4 total)-/4/- (4 total)-/2/1 (3 total)-/-/2 (2 total)With classes getting 4 SP/level, there are 25 permutations:L/M/H16/-/- (16 total)14/1/- (15 total)12/2/- (14 total)12/-/1 (13 total)10/3/- (13 total)10/1/1 (12 total)8/4/- (12 total)8/2/1 (11 total)8/-/2 (10 total)6/5/- (11 total)6/3/1 (10 total)6/1/2 (9 total)4/6/- (10 total)4/4/1 (9 total)4/2/2 (8 total)4/-/3 (7 total)2/7/- (9 total)2/5/1 (8 total)2/3/2 (7 total)2/1/3 (6 total)-/8/- (8 total)-/6/1 (7 total)-/4/2 (6 total)-/2/3 (5 total)-/-/4 (4 total)With classes receiving 6 and 8 SP/level, there are many more permutations (I'mguessing 49 and 81, respectively). One might consider having an even number ofskills of each priority level, which would pare down the number of permutationsfor 2-SP/level classes to 5 and the number of permutations for 4-SP/levelclasses to (apparently) 11.At this point, you have a system that could be used to generate skill sets forNPCs a little more quickly than it would take to generate a player characterwith totally customized skill ranks. Assuming you fleshed out a set of tableswith the calculated number of SP per packet a given class would receive at agiven level, and you would have all the info you'd need to assign SP on the flyfor a new NPC.IMO the above system is a bit more flexible than what the MM suggests aboutassigning SP to new monsters, which is what this system is partially based on.(That is, assign (HD+3) SP to a number of skills for the monster according tohow many skill points per level they receive by creature type.)However, what I am really looking for is a set of tables that could abstract theprocess still further. By limiting the SP assignment process, we might be ableto increase the level of abstraction more easily.So far I have had some success, but these tables basically depend on a few keyquestions I am having trouble determining:What are the odds that a character of a given class & level would have put atleast one SP into a given skill if it is a class skill?What are the odds that a character of a given class & level would have put atleast one SP into a given skill if it is a cross-class skill?Once we know whether a character has put SP into a skill, what are the odds thecharacter made it a low-priority, medium-priority, or high priority skill?After that, once we know the class, level, whether the skill gained any SP, andwhat priority the skill was given, we can determine exactly how many SP (andranks) the NPC would have, and therefore present the player character with asomewhat realistic opposed roll.Opinions? Suggestions? Advice?</blockquote>

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