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*Pathfinder & Starfinder
My Wife Has a List of Demands! Part One: Skills
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<blockquote data-quote="DEFCON 1" data-source="post: 5784024" data-attributes="member: 7006"><p>I would put 'non-combat skills' into the same place as 'non-combat feats'. If you can split them up within the game so that you earn points to get 'combat' skills and feats as well as points to get 'non-combat' skills and feats separately... then yes, I agree absolutely to have them both just for flavor if nothing else.</p><p></p><p>However, if you have to buy both combat and non-combat with the same pool of points... then no. Simply because the d20 mechanics do not lend themselves to making it worthwhile, nor actually "indicate" you are skilled in something from a game mechanics sense. Taking your 1 point in Swim for example... that's only a 5% better chance of success than not having it. If you really took swim lessons at the public pool... you aren't just 5% better than if you didn't. You'd actually be "trained" in Swim, or at the very least should have enough points in it to give a fair increase. And considering that many characters also have STR modifiers of +2 or better... that right there tell us from a game perspective that those "swim lessons" weren't any big deal, because your natural strength has more of an impact (5% to 15% more) than any of those lessons did. That skill point in Swim does not really indicate what you want it to indicate. It's purely an attempt to pay lip service with the mechanics to something that could easily just be a descriptive trait to the character. Craft skills fall into this same type of category.</p><p></p><p>What really bites you in the butt by doing that though... is that what is actually happening by putting a point in this skill and a point in that skill and a point over here in this skill... you are removing points from your main skills that <em>should</em> be higher than everything else, if not even maxed out. A 5% increase to four different skills "just to get a taste" does no appreciable difference. However, that 20% loss to that top skill that otherwise might've gotten those points is HUGE. Especially considering that the DC charts are deliberately set up with the understanding that characters max out many of their skills. So removing an extra 20% chance of succeeding on Hard DCs in a consistent basis is really shooting yourself in the foot in the long run.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="DEFCON 1, post: 5784024, member: 7006"] I would put 'non-combat skills' into the same place as 'non-combat feats'. If you can split them up within the game so that you earn points to get 'combat' skills and feats as well as points to get 'non-combat' skills and feats separately... then yes, I agree absolutely to have them both just for flavor if nothing else. However, if you have to buy both combat and non-combat with the same pool of points... then no. Simply because the d20 mechanics do not lend themselves to making it worthwhile, nor actually "indicate" you are skilled in something from a game mechanics sense. Taking your 1 point in Swim for example... that's only a 5% better chance of success than not having it. If you really took swim lessons at the public pool... you aren't just 5% better than if you didn't. You'd actually be "trained" in Swim, or at the very least should have enough points in it to give a fair increase. And considering that many characters also have STR modifiers of +2 or better... that right there tell us from a game perspective that those "swim lessons" weren't any big deal, because your natural strength has more of an impact (5% to 15% more) than any of those lessons did. That skill point in Swim does not really indicate what you want it to indicate. It's purely an attempt to pay lip service with the mechanics to something that could easily just be a descriptive trait to the character. Craft skills fall into this same type of category. What really bites you in the butt by doing that though... is that what is actually happening by putting a point in this skill and a point in that skill and a point over here in this skill... you are removing points from your main skills that [I]should[/I] be higher than everything else, if not even maxed out. A 5% increase to four different skills "just to get a taste" does no appreciable difference. However, that 20% loss to that top skill that otherwise might've gotten those points is HUGE. Especially considering that the DC charts are deliberately set up with the understanding that characters max out many of their skills. So removing an extra 20% chance of succeeding on Hard DCs in a consistent basis is really shooting yourself in the foot in the long run. [/QUOTE]
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My Wife Has a List of Demands! Part One: Skills
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