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Message: <blockquote data-quote="willpax" data-source="post: 773509" data-attributes="member: 1602">Since I was one of the people bringing up +10 bonus as a baseline, I suppose I should be one to back off of it. . . One factor to consider is the dynamic that cooperation brings. If several people working together can grant a +2 circumstance bonus to your most skilled person, then you could make an argument that your leading types in rural areas could make do with +8, with several +4 to +6 helpers. The community would be able to deal with most normal skill-based challenges within their everyday expertise. Four ranks plus skill focus plus raw talent (+2) and you could have a first level individual playing a key role in a smaller community. Given our assumptions that +2 bonuses in just the right place are not something you could always count on in a village of 200, it seems more likely that your leading figures will be second or third level at the least. I think you need a way to get  a reliable +10 bonus in the skills that are central to social function (profession: farmer, craft: farm tools, animal handling) in order to create a dynamic where failure is not a common occurence under regular conditions, but can occur if there is any amount of difficulty. By fifth level, you have 8 ranks, skill focus, and a possible +1 stat bonus= +11 to a maxed-out skill (+12 if using a +3 skill focus). With cooperation, your normal village would still be able to succeed at any "Take ten" situation DC 20 with a -2 circumstance bonus. For these reasons, I think we would want third and fourth level to be the thick part of the distribution, tailing off drastically above that point except in certain special situations (such as a frontier). Even in those situations, I could see more multiclassing going on (getting to a +10 bonus in farming, then gaining a level or two of warrior to deal with the nasties).</blockquote>

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