Extreme Skill check

[Crothian]

I've got a monk that jumps 40 feet from a standing posistion. I think I can stretch the game a little more to allow other extreme uses of skills. But it's obviously not for everyone. I'm curious how they will do it in the Epic Level book.

 

[Cabral]

I personally think the Leap of the Clouds ability should be a supernatural ability

 

[Crothian]

Probably, but still the point is made. Plus with high level characters you can have magicaitems that give +10 to a skill rather easily. These DCs can be easily met by a Pc who wants to do it. Plus having things with really high DCs makes the higher levels more enjoyible as there is still something your shooting for.

 

[-Eä-]

The pseudoscience explanation makes no sense: there may be a lot of space in a stone wall, but what matters for vision is that light (photons) can't penetrate it from the far side. Therefore you can't see through it without magic.

By saying this, you also say that the spot skill is a skill that only photons and the ability to see affect spot. I do not think so... If you say spot is a skill, then it would need some technique, some rigorous method of deducing what you see. Certainly, every human, by D&D standard see equally well? But what I mean by allowing a person to see through walls, is that the photons do affect the atoms on the other side of the wall, and those atoms again affect the nearer atoms, and so on in a chain reaction. Therefore, from deducing som unknown patterns in those alternating forces, the person with such high ranks in spot, would (in my opinion) be able to get a glimpse of what is happening on the other side...

This was only using photons as explanation. However, there are more delicate things that pass through walls, and you may say from deducing the magnetic (and hence electric) fields that is created in the wall, the thickness may be decided, and even a microscopic difference is needed to change those fields, and may therefore also get a glimpse of what is happening on the other side. This is not pseudoscience (as far as I know) and I think a character that is level 150 may have such attuned senses that such changes are permitted. That being said, I would certainly adjust the difficulty according to the thickness of the wall.

Also, light need not be the source of light in a fantasy world. What led you to think so in the first place? We don't use elements (that being fire, water, air and earth) in our everyday explanation of the nature either, but D&D does. Another thing is that I don't think that we as persons living in a non-fantasy world can comprehend the abilities of a level 150 fantasy character.

 

[Crothian]

Use it if you want to, don't if you don't. I don't need the science of seeing and spotting explained to me. It's interesting though. Just another way to make your level 150th character different from your 1st. d20 is supposed to support every level, this help that along.

 

[Ruvion]

The only problem with x-ray vision is that (unless it's magical of course) you'd see an x-ray image (walking skeletons instead of living flesh).

 

[hong]

By saying this, you also say that the spot skill is a skill that only photons and the ability to see affect spot. I do not think so... If you say spot is a skill, then it would need some technique, some rigorous method of deducing what you see. Certainly, every human, by D&D standard see equally well? But what I mean by allowing a person to see through walls, is that the photons do affect the atoms on the other side of the wall, and those atoms again affect the nearer atoms, and so on in a chain reaction. Therefore, from deducing som unknown patterns in those alternating forces, the person with such high ranks in spot, would (in my opinion) be able to get a glimpse of what is happening on the other side...

This was only using photons as explanation. However, there are more delicate things that pass through walls, and you may say from deducing the magnetic (and hence electric) fields that is created in the wall, the thickness may be decided, and even a microscopic difference is needed to change those fields, and may therefore also get a glimpse of what is happening on the other side. This is not pseudoscience (as far as I know) and I think a character that is level 150 may have such attuned senses that such changes are permitted. That being said, I would certainly adjust the difficulty according to the thickness of the wall.

Also, light need not be the source of light in a fantasy world. What led you to think so in the first place? We don't use elements (that being fire, water, air and earth) in our everyday explanation of the nature either, but D&D does. Another thing is that I don't think that we as persons living in a non-fantasy world can comprehend the abilities of a level 150 fantasy character.

That's the most tortured way of saying "yes, extreme skill bonuses let you suspend reality" that I've ever seen.

 

[hong]

I personally think the Leap of the Clouds ability should be a supernatural ability

The main benefit of Leap of the Clouds is to allow the monk to exploit the full potential of her increased speed, since jumping distances are proportional to movement rate. And beyond 8th level, the monk's fast movement is indeed supernatural.

 

[green slime]

Extreme skills can suspend reality. Otherwise there is no point in the extreme skill.

If you can make the most amazing, complicated clockwork item on the planes with a Craft (clockwork) skill DC 50, what is the point of a skill level at +100? Can make the device while blinded, with numbed feet (arms got chopped off fighting the Astral Dreadnaught), in a draft, with only a piece of string and a rusty nail?

The whole idea is that Epic Levels is "beyond" the capabilities of even Heroes (note the capital letter).

 

[Maddenus2]

hee daft da lota ya

Ok guys calm down. Its a fantasy game.

howabout this as an explaination of the spot skill.

You have developed your skill to a point that it has become more of a 6th sense than actually spotting things so you kinda sense the items behind the walls

just a suggestion.

rope use, howabout indian rope trick dc 45