Do Star Wars Saga skill rules make d20 better?

[Bagpuss]

Under SAGA, cross-class skills as well as Trained skills advance automatically (at different rate) when you level up.

No they advance at the same rate (1/2 level), just trained skill are always 5 ranks higher and Skill Focus(ed) skill are 10 ranks higher.

 

[Arkhandus]

We got too many bonuses for skills, some due to feats offering such.

Have you tried making a high-level multiclassed PC/NPC? You have to go level-by-level allocating points, and using RAW, it can be a tedious accounting task.

And how often many of you actually waste points on expensive hobby cross-cross skills? I would rather avoid spending points on cross-class skills when it comes to making high-level multiclassed PC/NPC.

It's not so bad. And yeah, I nearly always have some cross-class skills on PCs and NPCs that fit their background/hobbies/personality.

 

[kaomera]

I don't know about better, but certainly it's more to my taste. :shrug:

QFT.

 

[Aus_Snow]

It's not so bad. And yeah, I nearly always have some cross-class skills on PCs and NPCs that fit their background/hobbies/personality.

What he said.

 

[Ranger REG]

It's not so bad. And yeah, I nearly always have some cross-class skills on PCs and NPCs that fit their background/hobbies/personality.

Still, do you honestly think it should be expensive to have a hobby skill or two (i.e., pay 2 points for 1 rank)?

 

[Bagpuss]

It's not so bad. And yeah, I nearly always have some cross-class skills on PCs and NPCs that fit their background/hobbies/personality.

Really? I find my dwarven Cleric can barely afford to keep pace with useful skills like Concentration, Spellcraft, Knowledge (Religion) and Diplomacy I certainly don't have the points for cross class hobbies. Heck I can barely afford to invest in other class skills.

 

[Aus_Snow]

Really? I find my dwarven Cleric can barely afford to keep pace with useful skills like Concentration, Spellcraft, Knowledge (Religion) and Diplomacy I certainly don't have the points for cross class hobbies. Heck I can barely afford to invest in other class skills.

Keep pace in what way? According to what or who? If you mean "maxed out", then the next bit follows anyway. . .

What is their Int? If low, or even average, then too bad, IMO.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Hey, I didn't say level-based BAB and HP (and, for that matter, save bonus) progression didn't bother me, just that level-based skill-progression did.

Touche!

 

[Plane Sailing]

Having read it, I must now say that it makes the game worse:

If you want quick and easy skills for characters, all you have to do is just max out skills.

The formula

Level+3 (x1/2 if untrained) + ability score +3 (if focus)

isn't much harder than

Level/2 + ability score + 5 (if trained) +5 (if focus)

but the first one allows you to fine-tune it. That some people don't realise that you can just max out skills isn't really the game's fault.

You've missed the main point though.

Using your above formula the 10th level fighter has two skills at 13 ranks, and has no ranks in anything else. He is no better at spotting stuff, knowing about monsters or riding (say) than he was at 1st level.

In the Saga system, although his top two skills might not be as high, he would be slightly better at everything else than he was at 1st level (e.g. +10 at two trained skills, +5 at everything else).

Thus while one of the big benefits of the system is that you don't have to do skill-point-accounting, another bigger (in-game) benefit is that the chance to do anything improves a little, giving opportunities for the skill point limited fighter to have some fun with swimming, diplomacy, bluffing, sensing motive, gathering information, spotting, listening and so on.

Cheers

 

[Baby Samurai]

I find it helps d20 and more easily captures the feel of most fantasy novels out there.

I mean, in how many stories, someone who is not an expert, once in a while gets to pull something off under duress.

I have found skill points/ranks to be the clunkiest part of 3rd edition since it first hit the scene…almost as bad as the turning undead rules….