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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Imagicka" data-source="post: 1745374" data-attributes="member: 4621">Greetings...   I did toy with the idea of upping the base skill points per level. x2 becomes x4, x4 -> x6, x6 -> x8, and x8 -> x10. Of course, this still makes the Rogues and Bards and now Rangers high on the skills and Fighters and Wizards still on the short end of the stick. Albeit, they have a little more stick now. Not to mention, I always felt that Rangers should have more skill points, so I don't really worry too much about them.    Then, I just gave the bonus up to x6, and left the x8's alone. Well, that didn't seem rather fair to me, and I started thinking about WHY I wanted to give bonus skill points in the first place.    Now, some people argue, "Well, the reason why Wizards and Fighters get so few skill points is because they are concentrating on their innate skills, magic and fighting, respectively. Also, this is why the sorcerer who doesn't have to study to learn magic gets more skill points." -- Well, if this is the case, why didn't they make the whole D&D character building system based on points?    Yes..yes..so it wouldn't become a point-based system like other RPGs out there. That the base classes are still there. That the low skill points mean that characters have to concentrate on certain skills so that the party of characters are forced to rely on each other in different circumstances. But what do I have to say to this? Bollocks! (Why can I say bollocks? Because to most people it isn't a swear-word. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />)   You know what? Give me a point-based character generating system for d20. So, that I can determine how much effort my character wants to put into spellcasting, into fighting, into skills. Then tell me what the mechanics/numbers are for the regular basic classes. I think it would have been a lot easier and a lot more balanced to create Prestige Classes if they had to all conform to a base mechanic.   Later, when 3.5 came out, I went back to the old way of doing skill points. But also, this time, I gave classes like fighter a little bit of a help. When they give you ideas on how to build your own class in the DMG, they say give them 10 class skills. So, that's what I did for the fighter. Fighters now get Observe (A combination of Listen and Spot into one skill) - After all, what guard isn't put on...well...guard duty? Also, they get Search and Use Rope. If you want to keep both Listen and Spot in your game, well...just drop Use Rope.   But I also give skill points as rewards. If the characters use a particular skill often in the game, or I feel that they used a skill to the benefit of the party in a way that has helped them overcome some problem inventively. I will give them a bonus skill rank in that skill when they go up a level. I also give skill points to languages, if the characters are exposed or emmersed in the language/culture. Two elves in the party who talk occationally in elven means your exposed to it. I'll give the character who actively says 'I pay attention to what they are saying whenever they speak elvish' a skill point in that language every month. Emmersion in another country/culture where people speak the language all the time. Well, this sort of exposure, I give the players two skill points per in-game month. Of course, they doesn't exclude players from also putting skill points into languages. But, hey, how often does that happen?    As for Knowledge (local), we usually start players off with 4 ranks in that skill. Also, if I use Central Casting Fantasy, I will give characters skills from that too. Or if the player comes to me with a background/history for their character, I will reward them by giving them bonus skills and skill points that relate to their background.   I've also toyed with the idea of giving a certain number of bonus skill points that have to be put into Craft, Profession and Knowledge. But never worked out the details or implemented it in a game.     Now, I like the idea of dropping the cost for cross-classed skills.  I think that's something I'll try next time.</blockquote>

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