Knacks: A New Intelligence-based Sub-system

[FireLance]

The knacks sub-system addresses an issue that some players have with 4e attributes: the lack of a unique advantage for having a high Intelligence.

Under the knacks sub-system, a character gains one knack for every point of Intelligence bonus. A knack is effectively a "mini-feat", and balance-wise, a knack should be worth approximately a third of a Heroic-tier feat.

Some initial ideas for knacks are as follows:

Background
Select a background, such as farmer, blacksmith or sailor. You gain a +2 knack bonus to skill checks related to your background. Your DM may disallow backgrounds that he considers inappropriate for his campaign.

Language Knack
Choose one language. You can speak, read, and write that language fluently.
Special: You can take this knack more than once. Each time you select this knack, choose a new language to learn.

Skill Knack
Choose one untrained skill. You gain a +2 knack bonus to untrained skill checks with that skill.
Special: You can take this knack more than once. Each time you select this knack, choose a different untrained skill.

Weapon Knack
Choose two weapons of the same handedness (one-handed or two-handed) and group (mace, light blade, heavy blade, etc.) that you are proficient with. When you wield one of your chosen weapons, you may adjust your grip (or make some other change to the way in which you wield it) as a minor action and use it as if it was the other weapon instead. For example, a rogue with Weapon Knack (dagger, short sword) may choose to use his dagger as a short sword and gain a damage die of 1d6 instead of 1d4, but would not be able to make ranged attacks with it or gain the bonus to attack rolls from his rogue weapon talent while doing so. Reverting to a weapon's original usage requires another minor action. When you draw one of your chosen weapons or otherwise ready it for usage, you may choose to use it as either weapon as a free action.
Special: You can take this knack more than once. Each time you select this knack, choose two different weapons.

Knack Bonuses and Feat Bonuses
Certain knacks provide a bonus to skill checks. I am not keen on allowing thse bonuses to stack with feat bonuses, as the combination of Jack of All Trades and Skill Knack would result in a net +4 bonus to skill checks for that skill, which is almost as good as Skill Training. On the other hand, (as pointed out by Stalker0 below) if knacks simply provide feat bonuses, Jack of All Trades would make Skill Knack irrelevant. My compromise solution is for knacks to always provide a +2 knack bonus to the relevant skill checks, and when a knack bonus and a feat bonus both apply to a single skill check, the knack bonus is halved to +1. While this is more complicated, it has the effect that Skill Knack by itself provides a +2 bonus to a skill check, and Skill Knack and Jack of All Trades together provide a +3 bonus to a skill check. This seems about right to me, balance-wise.
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Thoughts?

 

[Stalker0]

The skill knack is already represented by the jack of all trades feat, so I wouldn't go there. The others are fine, but its a large increase in complexity for just a subsystem of one stat.

Here's another idea just to rerelate skills to int bonus, at least in part.

Intelligence
A character chooses a number of skills equal to his int modifier. He gains a +1 to those skills.
If a character has a negative int modifier, he loses one trained skill for each negative.

 

[FireLance]

The skill knack is already represented by the jack of all trades feat, so I wouldn't go there.

It's there for characters who want a small bonus to checks with a particular untrained skill, but don't want to spend a feat on Jack of All Trades. But the point about Jack of All Trades overlapping with it is a good one. Perhaps it could also work with Jack of All Trades by increasing the feat bonus from Jack of All Trades to +3 for the selected skill.

The others are fine, but its a large increase in complexity for just a subsystem of one stat.

For most characters, it will just mean choosing a number of small advantages equal to their Intelligence bonus. To avoid complicating things too much, a DM could just restrict the players' choices to Language Knacks and Skill Knacks, which provide constant bonuses.

 

[FireLance]

A knack could also grant a bonus to a specific type of skill check, or make a slight change the way in which an action works. Lunge, in particular, fixes a pet peeve of mine.

Easy Escape
Prerequisite: Trained in Acrobatics or Athletics
Benefit: You gain a +2 knack bonus to Acrobatics and Athletics checks to escape from a grab.

Lunge
Benefit: When you charge, you may attack after moving only one square from your starting position. However, you do not gain the +1 bonus to attack rolls that you would normally get for a charge.

Forager
Prerequisite: Trained in Dungeoneering or Nature
Benefit: You gain a +2 knack bonus to Dungeoneering or Nature checks to forage.

Monster Lore
Prerequisite: Trained in Arcana, Dungeoneering, Nature, or Religion
Benefit: Select a specific monster origin or keyword covered by a skill you are trained in, e.g. elemental, fey or shadow for Arcana, immortal or undead for Religion, etc. You gain a +2 knack bonus to monster knowledge checks related to monsters with that origin or keyword.
Special: You can take this knack more than once. Each time you select this knack, choose a different monster origin or keyword.

Knack Bonuses and Feat Bonuses II
Some of the above knacks provide a +2 knack bonus on certain skill checks. This essentially means that they provide a +2 bonus on the skill checks unless a feat bonus (say, from Skill Focus) also applies to the same skill check, in which case the knack bonus is reduced to +1 (for a net bonus of +4 if the character has Skill Focus in the relevant skill).​