Creating an Active Skill Focus

[Spatzimaus]

IMC, we long ago changed Skill Focus to:

SKILL FOCUS (General)
Prerequisite: 5 ranks in the selected skill
You may Take 10 on this skill even under duress. Additionally, on any check with this skill you may re-roll the die on a 5 or less; the new roll stands, even if it is 5 or less as well.

(Mathematically speaking, the "5 or less" gains you 1.875 on average. More importantly, it REALLY reduces failures on easy checks.)

Then, there's:
ADVANCED SKILL FOCUS (General)
Prerequisites: 10 ranks in the selected skill, Skill Focus in the selected skill.
You may Take 10 on this skill even under duress. On any check with this skill you may re-roll the die on a 10 or less; the new roll stands, even if it is also 10 or less. You may always Take 20 on this skill, even if there is a consequence for failure.

(The Take 20 change is that instead of trying 20 times, you study the situation and plan carefully, and then do one perfect attempt. The "10 or less" raises the average roll by 2.5.)

For most of the Alertness-style 2-skill Feats, we take one of the two Skill Focus benefits and apply it to both skills. For instance, our Alertness lets you re-roll 5 or less for both skills, but no Take 10 change.

 

[BRP2]

What would be more potentially fun/interesting could be that each skill has their own ability to gain from skill focus or something that branches off skill focus. Like once per day, or something based off ranks as said above, some with this feat could do some extraordinary... like for 20 minutes a player gains a high, monster-like Climb speed for having Skill Focus: Climb.

 

[Kmart Kommando]

Instead of +3, how about +1d6, then scale it up with skill ranks, maybe additional +1d6 for every 10 ranks or so. Variable rolls are fun, if not always helpful.

 

[Stalker0]

Instead of +3, how about +1d6, then scale it up with skill ranks, maybe additional +1d6 for every 10 ranks or so. Variable rolls are fun, if not always helpful.

Rolling tends to slow down the game, and any added math makes it worse. Now, if you roll an extra dice once in a while, no big deal. But if its a skill you use a lot, that's a lot of extra rolling. I think extra dice for X/day abilities are fun, but not all the time.

 

[szilard]

Skill Focus [General]

Choose a skill.

Benefit
You gain 2 ranks to that skill. This may exceed your normal maximum for a class skill or cross-class skill.

Special
You can gain this feat multiple times. Its effects do not stack. Each time you take the feat, it applies to a new skill.



Thoughts?

-Stuart

 

[erf_beto]

Skill Focus [General]

Choose a skill.

Benefit
You gain 2 ranks to that skill. This may exceed your normal maximum for a class skill or cross-class skill.

Special
You can gain this feat multiple times. Its effects do not stack. Each time you take the feat, it applies to a new skill.



Thoughts?

-Stuart

Adding ranks instead of bonuses is nice when you´re building for a prestige class. But when it comes down to using the skill, 2 ranks are not as sexy as a +3 bonus (unless 2 ranks are what you need to get those synergies bonuses, but let's assume this is not the case), so players will (most probably) only get Skill Focus if they have a prestige class or another feature with a pre-requisit in mind already.
Since my players are novices, I'd stick with the bonus (I even thought about increasing it to +4).
On a personal note, I've discovered that new players like to 'decide', to 'use', to declare things like 'I use Power Attack' or 'I Dodge'. Many a times I had to tell them that 'Skill/Spell/Weapon Focus is already applied to your d20 modifier - you don't choose to use it, it's already there!'. This is why I considered using a '+1d6 once per day bonus'. Stalker0 is right about rolling slowing the game, but they add an element of tension and excitement - wich is great for newbies. As the thrill fades over experience, dice rolling should probably be kept at a minimum, so time can be used for roleplaying instead. Fixed and/or increasing bonuses and Take10 or 20 takes care of that.

 

[Li Shenron]

I think so too that Skill Focus needed a fix, so I'm using this house rule:

Skill Focus: You get a +2 bonus on one skill of your shoice.

The Take 10 idea is quite good, but I'd reword it "you can choose to take 10 in the skill even under stress or distraction". It's a slight rewording but the feat would be much better if it would NOT allow to Take 10 on a skill that NEVER allows to Take 10 by the rules.

 

[Stalker0]

I think so too that Skill Focus needed a fix, so I'm using this house rule:

Skill Focus: You get a +2 bonus on one skill of your shoice.

The Take 10 idea is quite good, but I'd reword it "you can choose to take 10 in the skill even under stress or distraction". It's a slight rewording but the feat would be much better if it would NOT allow to Take 10 on a skill that NEVER allows to Take 10 by the rules.

I agree, the power is strong, but is it too strong?

Take for example, UMD, which is probably the skill you are refering to about the worries of taking 10. Remember my rule only allows taking 10 an X number of times per day. Is it really that bad to allow a rogue to reliably use a magic device X times per day by spending a feat?

 

[Notmousse]

Since we're talking about our versions of skill focus mine went like this:

Skill Focus
Benefit: Gain a +2 bonus to any two skills.

Improved Skill Focus
Benefit: Gain a +3 bonus to any skill. Additionally the selected skill is always a Class skill for you. This stacks with Skill Focus.

Greater Skill Focus
Prerequisite: Improved Skill Focus
Benefit: Gain a +3 bonus to any skill. Additionally the selected skill is always a Devoted skill for you. This stacks with Skill Focus and Improved Skill Focus.

Perfect Skill Focus
Prerequisite: Greater Skill Focus
Benefit: Gain a +4 bonus to any skill. Additionally you may take 20 on a skill check in only 5 times the time a normal skill check takes. This stacks with Skill Focus, Improved Skill Focus, and Greater Skill Focus.

This naturally requires use of my Devoted Skill options. If not using that system then the Perfect Skill Focus feat look like this:

Perfect Skill Focus
Prerequisite: Skill Focus, Improved Skill Focus
Benefit: Gain a +5 bonus to any skill. Additionally you may always take 10 on a skill check with the selected skill. This stacks with Skill Focus and Improved Skill Focus.

 

[Stalker0]

Since we're talking about our versions of skill focus mine went like this:

Hehe, actually this thread is SUPPOSED to be discussing my house rule, not everyone's