Help me think up new Str & Con based skills

[GreatLemur]

That was my polite version. On other boards I would have been considerably more rude for his totally unhelpful post.

Hey, I'm normally a Something Awful guy. Most of the web seems like it's had it's corners sanded down and covered with foam rubber, to me.

As for bending bars/lifting -- it's quite possible to train for that IRL, so why not in D&D?

But doesn't that training only entail an increase in raw physical strength?

I imagine carrying stuff could be affected by skill and training, though: endurance training, load distribution, that kind of thing. But this might be better territory for a feat than a skill.

 

[Terath Ninir]

Hey, I'm normally a Something Awful guy. Most of the web seems like it's had it's corners sanded down and covered with foam rubber, to me.

I've been on the board in my signature (Damnation Army/Nutkinland). Personal insults are considered the norm there. I go out of my way not to do such here, even when I'm annoyed and having a bad day.

But doesn't that training only entail an increase in raw physical strength?

I imagine carrying stuff could be affected by skill and training, though: endurance training, load distribution, that kind of thing. But this might be better territory for a feat than a skill.

Huh. We see things the opposite way. Personally, I'd be more inclined to allow the lifting and bend bars and such because it's less useful in-game. Being able to carry more is always useful. Lifting comes up less often, and bend bars very rarely, even in dungeons.

Might be better as a feat, though, as you say. I'll have to look over the mechanics and make sure a skill would really be appropriate.

 

[solkan_uk]

I saw something somewhere, that had a 'lifting' skill (think it was d20), basically it allowed you to carry more and you could make skill checks to y'know - lift things.

On the whole I think d20 has too many skills anyway, I'd like to see the skills condensed to more broad skills.

I mean how often is hide used without move silently? Why not just have stealth?

Jump, tumble, etc - why not just have Acrobatics and Athletics.

On the other hand, I think a skill to make you run faster (sprint) would be quite nice and you could then remove the fairly pointless Run feat.

 

[Terath Ninir]

I saw something somewhere, that had a 'lifting' skill (think it was d20), basically it allowed you to carry more and you could make skill checks to y'know - lift things.

On the whole I think d20 has too many skills anyway, I'd like to see the skills condensed to more broad skills.

I mean how often is hide used without move silently? Why not just have stealth?

Jump, tumble, etc - why not just have Acrobatics and Athletics.

On the other hand, I think a skill to make you run faster (sprint) would be quite nice and you could then remove the fairly pointless Run feat.

Well, I am consolidating skills. Which is why I want more Str skills -- currently, it's only got Athletics (climb, jump, and swim checks) for my campaign. So I *do* need more skills. I just didn't say why so as not to clutter up my first post too much.

 

[ender_wiggin]

What about Grapple for str?

I have "endure" for some of my campaigns, which is the same as your stamina. A cool thing I've been thinking about is making a very popular sport (or two) that is played throughout a world, and making it a skill.

 

[Terath Ninir]

I've got a Wrestling skill tentatively slated in.

I'd love to have some sports skills, but I really have no idea what ancient/medieval sports looked like, or whether skills would be appropriate for them.

 

[Tonguez]

I've got a Wrestling skill tentatively slated in.

I'd love to have some sports skills, but I really have no idea what ancient/medieval sports looked like, or whether skills would be appropriate for them.

Football (aka Soccer) is a medieval sport which pretty much looked like a major street brawl/riot with a pigs bladder being kicked around amongst the combatants (probably a Dex skill with everything else taken up using BAb and combat rules) PS I beleive Hockey was the same sport played with clubs (as was golf)

 

[Li Shenron]

Although I usually prefer to expand existing skills rather than adding new ones, let me say that this thread has really good ideas, and yes Constitution and Strength would be nice to have more skills.

Stabilize Self (Con): this could be the easiest to do, since the psionic skill already exists with its own DCs; I think it would be nice to give it more uses tho, beside remaining conscious. Would you consider this skill (with a more general name in that case) to be used for other efforts of resistance to pain? I'm not sure what, but there must be something... only the death from massive damage comes to mind (already has a Fort save).

Endurance (Con): great idea, I think this sort of thing CAN be trained. The problem is that those situations always give a Fort save: if you replace the ST with an Endurance check, that can seriously hurt anyone who doesn't have this skills; if you stack the ranks with the ST modifier, that would instead sky-rocket the existing check. I'm not sure if it's nice, but maybe you could consider allowing both checks (I mean, one check with the best of the 2 modifiers).

Grapple (Str): this was discussed before in this forum, to make Grapple a separate skill on its own. Personally I think it would be great, because I see no reason why a good swordsman should be a good wrestler in a world where typically combat is fought with weapons. It would also make grapple a less cheesy tactic vs spellcasters, if every fighter has to pay half his skill points for it.

About Str-based games. Well, Roman-Greek traditions had many (you know Olimpic games, right? ) but they almost all already fall into BAB (javelin etc.), Jump, Swim or Grapple. The only one left which could be made into a skill is Run. I have a hard time thinking of a good way to do it however, because it may mess up with movement rules.

One last note: in this forum someone was writing a Str/Dex skill to replace BAB, which eah character would buy for single weapons (or weapon groups) separately. It would be another interesting variant, but I really think it's way too far from your idea here.

 

[ender_wiggin]

IMW, Endurance is different from a fort save. Endurance (based on con) is about 80% mental and 20% physical, whereas fort saves are 100% physical. For example, if you were exposed to poison, you would make a fortitude save to see if you suffer effects. This is because you can't conciously control the poison -- it's spreading through your body and the only thing you can do is hope your natural body can handle it.

However, if the character is being tortured for information, he would have to make an endurance check to see if he can resist the temptation, because it's something he can conciously control.

Another example: drowning. A character makes fort saves to avoid taking damage; each round the DC increases. However, once the character begins to fail the fort saves, he begins to have to make endurance checks as well: to resist the temptation to take a big breath. FYI, some people, after their drowned bodies were recovered, were discovered to have dry lungs (they died by asphyxiating themselves). This represents failed fortitude saves, but success at all the endurance checks. This is rare, but it happens.

 

[GreatLemur]

On the other hand, I think a skill to make you run faster (sprint) would be quite nice and you could then remove the fairly pointless Run feat.

I like the sound of a CON-based Sprint skill a lot, myself, but how should the mechanics work? Skill checks each round to maintain a Run-feat speed?