Creating an Active Skill Focus

[Li Shenron]

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

Probably not at all too strong, but for some reason it makes me sad to change it. It feels too metagamey to me, to change a rule that actually has an in-game explanation. It's like allowing Take10 to Knowlege checks, or for example it's like you had a feat that allows you NOT to treat Natural 1s on attack rolls as automatic misses. Unbalancing? Not at all, and actually a very weak feat... But it feels to me like treating the game as having a cake and whirl it up it in the mixer: you still have the same balance of ingredients, but is it still a cake? Just because the balance is untouched, it doesn't mean it still tastes good

 

[Notmousse]

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

It seemed to be going that way anyway so...

But for your feat, it sounds ok to me. Then again you've seen how I'd do it.

 

[Stalker0]

But it feels to me like treating the game as having a cake and whirl it up it in the mixer: you still have the same balance of ingredients, but is it still a cake? Just because the balance is untouched, it doesn't mean it still tastes good

To keep with the cake analogy, its like having a special kind of frosting (the feat). But very very few people like the frosting. Then someone comes along and adds a little more sugar (house rule) to the frosting. Suddenly, the frosting tastes better to more people and so they are willing to use it on their cake.