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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Crazy Jerome" data-source="post: 5643441" data-attributes="member: 54877">Ideally, you don't silo everything.  You silo the powerful stuff that obviously fits in a silo, and those silos aren't always explicitly broken down between combat and other stuff. For example, 3E and 4E both mostly silo increases to ability scores (4E more than 3E because of magic items not providing a lot of ability bonuses).  The abilities are used across the board, and are very powerful and useful when increased, but the silo is the ability scores themselves.  You can't trade a bunch of skill increases to get more Str or vice versa.  If it was a strictly combat vs non-combat silo, then either ability scores would only affect one or the other, or some other such split. A system design that got around your objection above could use several silos.  The trick is putting the things that work for something in an appropriately conceived silo.  Maybe if Bluff and Intimidate only have very niche uses in combat, you don't worry about that and slap them in a strictly "social" silo.  Anything you get in there is social skills, and only so far you can advance it.  Or if they do have considerable combat uses, then you make a "combat/social" silo--and you only put things in it that work reasonably well for both. Then that has to be considered in balance.  Maybe I've got these silos:  Social, Exploration, Combat, Social/Exploration, Social/Combat, Exploration/Combat.  And then there is the stuff that crosses all those boundaries and thus doesn't belong in a silo at all--except maybe multiple silos to distinguish some boundary crossing things from other boundary crossing things -- e.g. ability scores versus +1/2 level modifier. So if that is your design, your range of combat ability is everything from the base stuff that you can't help but get all the way up to maxing out silos for Combat, Social/Combat, and Exploration/Combat.  Balance accordingly.   Note that an "all combat, all the time" character in such a system picked up a minimum social and exploration component via the base silos plus going after those last combat bonuses in the mixed silos.  But his social and exploration bonuses will probably reflect this--e.g. lots of intimidate, not so much diplomacy, stealth over knowledge.</blockquote>

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