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<blockquote data-quote="Wulf Ratbane" data-source="post: 5052697" data-attributes="member: 94">In some ways, this is already done: certainly Trailblazer doesn't place much of a premium on skill points, at least as far as CR goes. You're not going to break anything with skill ranks alone.Concurrent to this, the racial bonus (particularly in the case of animals) goes a long way in this regard. If you want your 2HD predator to have a crazy high Stealth score, give it 5 ranks (2HD+3), and another +8 racial bonus.Your last example is a little trickier, because with Reflex saves, we are talking about something that is directly tied to the Spine, which ensures that the creature presents the right kind of challenge for the PCs it is likely to be facing. This particular example (dino Reflex save) is about a 7 on the Simulationist (1) &lt;---&gt; Gamist (10) scale. I know that you personally lean towards the simulationist side; you may not ever be satisfied with the gamist necessities of the Spine.But if the dino-- say a Triceratops-- has 16 HD and is CR9, it doesn't do the game any good to deflate its Reflex save down a few points out of slavishness to simulationism. The trike has a +9 Reflex save because that's the right save for it to have against 9th level PCs.I'll mention in passing the highly abstract nature of hit points and saving throws-- it doesn't matter to the mongoose that the trike has a better Reflex save, it matters that the trike can eat a half-dozen fireballs. It's not a valid &quot;real world&quot; comparison to say that the trike must be &quot;quicker&quot; than the mongoose because it has a higher Reflex save; the abstract nature of hit points makes the comparison invalid.I think with regards to you and I-- and for the sake of other readers, I'll point out that BryonD had a lot of inside influence over the design of Trailblazer; you'll see his name on the credits page but he could just as easily have had 3rd billing-- we have very different simulationist/gamist expectations.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Wulf Ratbane, post: 5052697, member: 94"] In some ways, this is already done: certainly Trailblazer doesn't place much of a premium on skill points, at least as far as CR goes. You're not going to break anything with skill ranks alone. Concurrent to this, the racial bonus (particularly in the case of animals) goes a long way in this regard. If you want your 2HD predator to have a crazy high Stealth score, give it 5 ranks (2HD+3), and another +8 racial bonus. Your last example is a little trickier, because with Reflex saves, we are talking about something that is directly tied to the Spine, which ensures that the creature presents the right kind of challenge for the PCs it is likely to be facing. This particular example (dino Reflex save) is about a 7 on the Simulationist (1) <---> Gamist (10) scale. I know that you personally lean towards the simulationist side; you may not ever be satisfied with the gamist necessities of the Spine. But if the dino-- say a Triceratops-- has 16 HD and is CR9, it doesn't do the game any good to deflate its Reflex save down a few points out of slavishness to simulationism. The trike has a +9 Reflex save because [I]that's the right save for it to have[/I] against 9th level PCs. I'll mention in passing the highly abstract nature of hit points and saving throws-- it doesn't matter to the mongoose that the trike has a better Reflex save, it matters that the trike can eat a half-dozen fireballs. It's not a valid "real world" comparison to say that the trike must be "quicker" than the mongoose because it has a higher Reflex save; the abstract nature of hit points makes the comparison invalid. I think with regards to you and I-- and for the sake of other readers, I'll point out that BryonD had a lot of inside influence over the design of Trailblazer; you'll see his name on the credits page but he could just as easily have had 3rd billing-- we have very different simulationist/gamist expectations. [/QUOTE]

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