Hello. I have recently acquired a nearly complete collection of Planescape books. I'm currently reading through them and taking lots of notes, as well as starting to convert concepts to 3E.
One problem I have ran into is knowledge skills, especially the Knowledge (The Planes) skill. It seems way too broad for a Planescape game. So I started thinking of a variant and came up with the following. I'd be grateful if people commented on it, both its mechanical feasability (and balance) and its workability in a Planescape game.
Specifically, the situation I want to avoid is a situation where one PC in the party has a maxed out Knowledge (The Planes) skill and everytime the party is in a new environment, everybody turns to the wizard and he spouting off detailed data. I want everybody to feel like they contribute, and I want the archetype of the knowledgeable planewalker to be available to more than one class.
So here it is :
- First of all, I'm nixing the Knowledge (The Planes) skill altogether.
- Instead, there will be a bunch of different skills, one per plane (plus one for Sigil), all based on the Knowledge (Local). Thus, a character can have Knowledge (Local - The Beastlands) and/or Knowledge (Local - Paraelemental plane of Ice).
- Thus, if your party barbarian is from Ysgard and he's the only one in the party with that knowledge skill, even the wizard will be asking him for what he knows.
- For some types of knowledge checks, I will be asking for TWO rolls. For example, the barbarian from Ysgard would know of the inhabitants of that plane and its physical conditions, but not necessarily its effect on arcane spellcasting. For such rolls, I would ask for both a Knowledge (Local - Ysgard) AND a Knowledge (Arcana) checks before giving that knowledge. This aims at preserving the secrets of the planes, while still making knowledge worthwhile to possess.
- Because there are at least 37 planes, plus an infinity of prime material planes, this would be a lot of skills. The goal is that nobody knows everything. I would probably make ranks in Knowledge (local) cost half as much, though, because there are so many of them. Also, if a PC has spent any significant amount of time on a plane since he last gained a level, I'd make the knowledge skill for that plane a class-skill, temporarily.
- General planewalking knowledge, such as how portals work, what conduits are, and so on, would be covered by the Profession (Planewalker) skill.
- Lastly, I would let knowledge skills apply to adjacent planes, with a -5 penalty. For example, if someone had Knowledge (Plane of Air) +10, they could make knowledge rolls for the planes of Smoke, Ice, Vacuum and Lightning at +5. The Outlands, the ethereal and the astral planes would be exceptions, since they touch too many planes and the last two are supposed to be mysterious.
So, do you think it's workable ?
Are there any holes I forgot to think about ?
One effect of those rules is that players are liable to get a lot of skills with a couple of points each, but I'm fine with that.
One problem I have ran into is knowledge skills, especially the Knowledge (The Planes) skill. It seems way too broad for a Planescape game. So I started thinking of a variant and came up with the following. I'd be grateful if people commented on it, both its mechanical feasability (and balance) and its workability in a Planescape game.
Specifically, the situation I want to avoid is a situation where one PC in the party has a maxed out Knowledge (The Planes) skill and everytime the party is in a new environment, everybody turns to the wizard and he spouting off detailed data. I want everybody to feel like they contribute, and I want the archetype of the knowledgeable planewalker to be available to more than one class.
So here it is :
- First of all, I'm nixing the Knowledge (The Planes) skill altogether.
- Instead, there will be a bunch of different skills, one per plane (plus one for Sigil), all based on the Knowledge (Local). Thus, a character can have Knowledge (Local - The Beastlands) and/or Knowledge (Local - Paraelemental plane of Ice).
- Thus, if your party barbarian is from Ysgard and he's the only one in the party with that knowledge skill, even the wizard will be asking him for what he knows.
- For some types of knowledge checks, I will be asking for TWO rolls. For example, the barbarian from Ysgard would know of the inhabitants of that plane and its physical conditions, but not necessarily its effect on arcane spellcasting. For such rolls, I would ask for both a Knowledge (Local - Ysgard) AND a Knowledge (Arcana) checks before giving that knowledge. This aims at preserving the secrets of the planes, while still making knowledge worthwhile to possess.
- Because there are at least 37 planes, plus an infinity of prime material planes, this would be a lot of skills. The goal is that nobody knows everything. I would probably make ranks in Knowledge (local) cost half as much, though, because there are so many of them. Also, if a PC has spent any significant amount of time on a plane since he last gained a level, I'd make the knowledge skill for that plane a class-skill, temporarily.
- General planewalking knowledge, such as how portals work, what conduits are, and so on, would be covered by the Profession (Planewalker) skill.
- Lastly, I would let knowledge skills apply to adjacent planes, with a -5 penalty. For example, if someone had Knowledge (Plane of Air) +10, they could make knowledge rolls for the planes of Smoke, Ice, Vacuum and Lightning at +5. The Outlands, the ethereal and the astral planes would be exceptions, since they touch too many planes and the last two are supposed to be mysterious.
So, do you think it's workable ?
Are there any holes I forgot to think about ?
One effect of those rules is that players are liable to get a lot of skills with a couple of points each, but I'm fine with that.