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<blockquote data-quote="Li Shenron" data-source="post: 6082827" data-attributes="member: 1465"><p>We've been told many times that feats & skills were optional, but given the current rules if the game doesn't use feats than <em>everyone</em> should not use feats, otherwise clearly those who use feats have something more than the others. Still, feats are indeed technically optional, and the easiest thing of the game to leave out without having to change anything else. Unfortunately this is one reason why a human bonus feat may not work for that 10-20% of groups not using feats at all.</p><p></p><p>Skills are not so optional... You don't have to use Backgrounds, you don't have to give 4 skills per characters, and you don't even have to use skill dice at all, <em>but</em> the Rogue at least cannot be played without skills, it just wouldn't make any sense. Thus you can play a game without skills only if you don't have a Rogue, or you can play a game where only the Rogue uses the skills mechanics. Without skills, non-Rogues characters may be <em>slightly</em> downgraded (other classes have max 1 bonus skill, some races have 1 bonus skill) but still playable, but not so much the Rogue... However, technically this means skills are <em>not</em> truly optional.</p><p></p><p>IMHO the best way to handle this, would be that instead of giving humans a fixed set of bonuses e.g. one feat + one skill (even tho they are already flexible because they can choose which), humans could be given a flexible set of bonuses e.g.:</p><p></p><p>- one bonus feat</p><p>- one bonus skill</p><p>- one bonus proficiency</p><p>- a +1 to one ability score</p><p>- one known cantrip (any class)</p><p>- 1-2 extra known spells (only if they can already cast spells)</p><p>- one extra maneuver (if applicable to the class)</p><p>- one extra skill trick (if applicable to the class)</p><p>- ...</p><p></p><p>And then just say "<em><u>pick any 2 from the list</u></em>". Maybe even allow to pick the same thing twice, i.e. +2 to scores or 2 bonus feats!</p><p></p><p>This way, it would be <em>impossible</em> for a group not to be able to use such version of Human, because in the worst case at least ability scores will be used in their game. It would also make for a truly <em>versatile</em> human race!</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>For a fixed feat, I would go with <strong>Toughness</strong> (tho I am not necessarily a fan of the current version of it). It makes a lot of sense to give extra HP to a Basic PC, since Basic is more often than not going to be the choice of a newbie, and HP are certainly used in every game.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Li Shenron, post: 6082827, member: 1465"] We've been told many times that feats & skills were optional, but given the current rules if the game doesn't use feats than [I]everyone[/I] should not use feats, otherwise clearly those who use feats have something more than the others. Still, feats are indeed technically optional, and the easiest thing of the game to leave out without having to change anything else. Unfortunately this is one reason why a human bonus feat may not work for that 10-20% of groups not using feats at all. Skills are not so optional... You don't have to use Backgrounds, you don't have to give 4 skills per characters, and you don't even have to use skill dice at all, [I]but[/I] the Rogue at least cannot be played without skills, it just wouldn't make any sense. Thus you can play a game without skills only if you don't have a Rogue, or you can play a game where only the Rogue uses the skills mechanics. Without skills, non-Rogues characters may be [I]slightly[/I] downgraded (other classes have max 1 bonus skill, some races have 1 bonus skill) but still playable, but not so much the Rogue... However, technically this means skills are [I]not[/I] truly optional. IMHO the best way to handle this, would be that instead of giving humans a fixed set of bonuses e.g. one feat + one skill (even tho they are already flexible because they can choose which), humans could be given a flexible set of bonuses e.g.: - one bonus feat - one bonus skill - one bonus proficiency - a +1 to one ability score - one known cantrip (any class) - 1-2 extra known spells (only if they can already cast spells) - one extra maneuver (if applicable to the class) - one extra skill trick (if applicable to the class) - ... And then just say "[I][U]pick any 2 from the list[/U][/I]". Maybe even allow to pick the same thing twice, i.e. +2 to scores or 2 bonus feats! This way, it would be [I]impossible[/I] for a group not to be able to use such version of Human, because in the worst case at least ability scores will be used in their game. It would also make for a truly [I]versatile[/I] human race! For a fixed feat, I would go with [B]Toughness[/B] (tho I am not necessarily a fan of the current version of it). It makes a lot of sense to give extra HP to a Basic PC, since Basic is more often than not going to be the choice of a newbie, and HP are certainly used in every game. [/QUOTE]
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