Longer lifespan = higher skill limits?

[MarauderX]

I am thinking of raising the skill limits (the max number of ranks a player can put into a skill) for races that live longer than humans. For example, humans have the limit of 4 at 1st level, while dwarves would have a limit of 6 and elves have no limit. The number of skill points wouldn't change, so if an elf PC wanted to pump all of his skill points into one catagory, it would mean she doesn't have them for anything else. To me this method makes sense, but not sure if it would be a good application to a game.
Thanks in advance for any input -
~ MX

 

[Plane Sailing]

It is certainly an interesting concept. I guess the two big problems you would face are:

1) they could get access to prestige classes much more quickly (where it is skill dependent rather than BAB or spell casting dependent)

2) A character could easily get stupid skill levels if he so chose. e.g. Mr seeing-eye elf, the rogue with 14 Int (10 skill points) is 2nd level and has 20 ranks in spot.

So as currently stated I don't think it would work.

Another interesting riff on the basic idea though - how about keeping the skill caps the same but allow longer lived races greater diversity?

thus dwarfs have 5x starting skill points, elfs have 6x starting skill points. (races with lesser lifespans - lizardfolk? could have 3x).

How about that idea?

Cheers

 

[Enkhidu]

It is certainly an interesting concept. I guess the two big problems you would face are:

1) they could get access to prestige classes much more quickly (where it is skill dependent rather than BAB or spell casting dependent)

2) A character could easily get stupid skill levels if he so chose. e.g. Mr seeing-eye elf, the rogue with 14 Int (10 skill points) is 2nd level and has 20 ranks in spot.

So as currently stated I don't think it would work.

Another interesting riff on the basic idea though - how about keeping the skill caps the same but allow longer lived races greater diversity?

thus dwarfs have 5x starting skill points, elfs have 6x starting skill points. (races with lesser lifespans - lizardfolk? could have 3x).

How about that idea?

Cheers

d20 already has a method to increase the # of skill points a character has - level. Admittedly, increase in level brings with it problems of increasing hitpoints, but that can be easily countered with a houserule that give NPC classes standard HD at 1st level and 1 additional hp per level beyond that (or perhaps just does that for all NPC classes save the Warrior).

 

[MarauderX]

It is certainly an interesting concept. I guess the two big problems you would face are:

1) they could get access to prestige classes much more quickly (where it is skill dependent rather than BAB or spell casting dependent)

2) A character could easily get stupid skill levels if he so chose. e.g. Mr seeing-eye elf, the rogue with 14 Int (10 skill points) is 2nd level and has 20 ranks in spot.

So as currently stated I don't think it would work.

Another interesting riff on the basic idea though - how about keeping the skill caps the same but allow longer lived races greater diversity?

thus dwarfs have 5x starting skill points, elfs have 6x starting skill points. (races with lesser lifespans - lizardfolk? could have 3x).

How about that idea?

Cheers

I was thinking of that as well, since humans typically get 4 extra skill points when starting out, but I don't want to unbalance it down the road. It would mean that a PC has more skills of the same level available, and as such would be just as good at 8 things instead of 5 or 6. With more skill points they can fill more slots, whereas giving the same skill points with higher limits increases the number of slots they can fill with the proportionally less number of points.

What I think would be good about having elves with a higher limit (say 8 instead of no limit) is they would be masters of fewer skills. They may be great on spot, but terrible on Listen, Hide, etc as they have the same number of skill points to be spread around. Typically PCs load up in certain areas in order to be great at a few things, but classes like Rogue miss out when only their Hide, Tumble and Move Silent skills are high while their Escape Artist, Sleight of Hand and other class skills are weak for the level. I'm still thinking it over, but I want to avoid adding more skill points to the PCs.

 

[mroberon1972]

Heck, I had a system for that nearly a year ago.

Try this for figuring the level of NPCs based on age, lifespan, and education:

http://www.ancient-awakenings.com/singlepages/NPC.html

Mr. Oberon
"In my day, we didn't have dragons to slay. We just had dinosaurs to hack on. And we LIKED it!"

 

[FrankTrollman]

In general, the longer lived races currently rock, while the shorter lived races suck. Example: Eld, Dwarf = Rock. Example 2: Halforc = Suck.

While it would certainly be possible to design a game in which the longer-lived races had abilities that had the "feel" of having a lot of life experience, and the short-lived races had abilities that had the "feel" of being on a may-fly like rampage to kill, eat, and breed before death - that's not really how things are set up right now.

Or maybe they already are. Dwarves get a bunch of weird skill bonuses and attack bonuses and dodge bonuses and so on just for walking in the game. Humans, OTOH, learn faster.

Of course, that comparison completely falls apart when you factor in the half orc - who just has to line up every morning so that the game designers can hit him in the balls. But still, the human/dwarf anaology seems pretty dead-on in the experience/learning thing.

-Frank

 

[ciaran00]

I am thinking of raising the skill limits (the max number of ranks a player can put into a skill) for races that live longer than humans.

Why not be consistent and insist on racial levels? Since elves live a long time, the ones with more racial levels (ie: the ones that continue to learn) get more skills. Put skill points at a level appropriate to creature type (humanoid/repitiloid, etc.)

ciaran

 

[Dogbrain]

Longer-lived races get higher levels. That is how they get more skills. Of course, this means that 1st-level Elf PCs are either juvenile delinquents, mental deficients, or the all-time champion Elf slackers and layabouts. Then again, that could explain why they are likely to be hanging out with humans, dwarves, etc. as friends.

 

[MarauderX]

I agree with the additional levels giving higher skill points, but I don't think that has to be the case. Say an equivalent pre-teen elf trains with her guitar 8 hours a day, carrying it everywhere with her. She would naturally start to become quite skilled with the instrument without having gone on one adventure, nor performing for major audiences because of her age. Would she max out at 4 ranks until she started adventuring eventhough she has been playing for nearly a human lifetime? Could she play better than another human bard who has only been playing for a year? How about dwarves that have been chipping at rock for twice as long as a human before adventuring?
I don't want any demi-human characters to receive more skill points, I just want them to be able to be better at what they have spent time with. None of the races are disadvantaged when it comes to intellegence, the primary modifier to skill points, so why wouldn't they learn at least marginally as well as a human?

edit: spellink und grammaar

 

[Dogbrain]

I agree with the additional levels giving higher skill points, but I don't think that has to be the case. Say an equivalent pre-teen elf trains with her guitar 8 hours a day, carrying it everywhere with her. She would naturally start to become quite skilled with the instrument without having gone on one adventure, nor performing for major audiences because of her age.

She has levels in the Expert class, in that case.

Don't blame me if D&D/D20 has a stupid "experience" system.