LEgends and Lore: Skills

[UngeheuerLich]

I don´t want to go back to 6 skill points per level...

I understood it that way:

chose three skills at character creation gaining you a +2 bonus on that skill. Maybe certain classes get an extra class bonus on some skills as races give bonus to skills now. (maybe another +2). Every 3rd level you get another skill training point, which you can either spend on a new skill gaining you another skill with a bonus of +2 and making you basic proficient or you can spend it on a skill you already have to increase your competence level by one and gaining you another +1 bonus...

(Lets call them skill proficiencies...)

Oh, this approach reminds me so much on ADnD 2nd edition... I guess my perfect edition would be a melting of 4th and 2nd edition... and actually looking at essentials I sometimes think, i may not be the only one thinking that...

 

[Hadrian the Builder]

I used a system with rarget numbers not unlike this in 3.5:

10: easy
15: moderate
20: hard
25 very hard

and encouraged everyone to take 10 or 20.

No rolling needed, just time and maybe no disturbances.

The result was fantastic:

Suddenly you had:

- enough skillpoints
- stopped the arms race
- competent characters from level 1 on
- useful cross class skills
- a difference between chars with an 8 in an attribute (incompetent in that particular skill, even for easy tasks) and 10: basically adept for easy tasks, as long as there are no unfavourable condition raising your DC by 2)

Precisely this. I'm not clear on why mike & monte need to go through all that revamping when something like this can hit the same mark. I'd add two more options: Take 1 and take 5.

if you look at this idea you get DCs in the existing skill system, and look how nicely they pair up with Mike's proposal:
5 So easy a caveman can do it.
10 Novice
15 Journeyman
20 Expert
30 Master
40 Grandmaster
Impossible

To me it seems better to tweak the existing rule set than come up with something new.

And when would you roll the dice? Well, for example, if conditions don;t allow me to take 20, and I don;t have enough ranks to automatically succeed when taking 10....then it's worth the risk of rolling the dice

and if you eliminate the per level adjustments, and stil let players assign skill points each level, then level 20 characters focused on a skill should be able to take 20 and hit those DC 40 checks no problem.

 

[LostSoul]

Auto-failing quite simply sucks.

Auto-failure is part of the system only when you can't think up a plan that will work. It is a big challenge to the player. Think up a plan that will give you a shot, or fail. If that greased rope is a problem, grab some dirt and cover it.

Or perhaps the system will work like Mutants & Masterminds. If you spend Action Points, you can raise your level of skill. You get Action Points for acting like a Hero (or according to your class, or your alignment, or hitting plot points, or completing quests, etc.).

Or perhaps the system will ask you what your character cares about, give you Action Points based on that ("Love for the Princess"), so when it matters to your PC you can turn auto-failure into auto-success.

The reason why this is different from making a skill check in the normal fashion is that it forces the player to make some important decisions. What those decisions are and the economics of them are not part of this system, but you can see how it'd be easy to put a focus on whatever kind of play the game is about.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Taking one for rushing instead of making the task harder? A possibility...