Minor Change to the Skill System

[Sadrik]

Each skill point is worth 2 skill ranks in a class skill and 1 skill ranks in a cross class skill.

The only change in the number of skill points characters get is at 1st level. Characters only get 1x their skill points not 4x their skill points. Example: a 1st level fighter gets 2+INT skill points at 1st level and a rogue gets 8+INT at 1st level.

There is a maximum number of skill points a character can have based on their level.

[B]Level	Max skill points[/B]
1	2
2	2
3	3
4	3
5	4
6	4
7	5
8	5
9	6
10	6
11	7
12	7
13	8
14	8
15	9
16	9
17	10
18	10
19	11
20	11

Or each skill point is worth 4 skill ranks in a class skill and 2 skill ranks in a cross class skill.

The number of skill points characters get per level is as above but halved. Example: a fighter gets 1+INT per level and a rogue gets 4+INT per level. Remember character will always get at least 1 skill point.

[B]Level	Max skill points[/B]
1	1
2	1
3	2
4	2
5	2
6	2
7	3
8	3
9	3
10	3
11	4
12	4
13	4
14	4
15	5
16	5
17	5
18	5
19	6
20	6

 

[XCorvis]

Or, in other words, you doubled the number of skill points every gets, except not at 1st lever (where it is halved from normal) and you've reduced the number of max ranks by one. Do I have that right?

My question is "why?" It seems like it's an overly-complex way to do it. What's the pay-off, exactly?

 

[Sadrik]

Three reasons:
No dealing with fractional scores, it simplifies skill point placement, and you get more skill points.

When I first though of the system I thought of the 4 ranks per skill point. So I like that one the best.

A character with skill focus: diplomacy and a 14 cha:

Here is exactly how I would denote the skill:

[B]Skill		Class	Stat	Mod	SP	Total[/B]
Diplomacy	Y	+2	+3	3	+17

When you go up a level you get 1/2/3/4+INT seems very simple and straight forward.