New feat: Worldly -- +1 to 3 skills (or 4)

[haiiro]

In thinking about revising the half-elf and half-orc, I've been comparing bonuses like "+1 to Listen, Search and Spot checks" to the bonus feat humans receive, and it crossed my mind that this might not make a bad feat unto itself.

Worldly [General]

You learn quickly, and have a knack for mastering diverse skills.
Benefit: You receive a +1 bonus to skill checks on three skills of your choice. These skills need not be related.
Special: You can gain this feat multiple times. Its effects do not stack. Each time you take this feat, it applies to three different skills.

To my mind, this fits in well with the progression established by the "fixed" skill focus (+3 to one skill), the general +2/+2 feats, and the feats that provide +2 to one skill and +1 to one feat.

I debated making Worldly a +1 to four skills, not three, but I'm not sure whether that makes it too strong overall. Any thoughts on the feat, or on this aspect of it?

(It might also be worth mentioning that I have replaced all of the +2/+2 skill feats with a single feat, Talented, that allows you to choose the two skills the bonus is applied to. The same principle is applied to Worldly.)

Edits: for some reason, I wrote Versatile (the feat from Rokugan) instead of Talented. I've also tweaked the title a couple of times to reflect the 3 skills/4 skills question.

 

[Technik4]

Weak

I think if you play with:

Skill Focus: +3, one skill

Talented: +2, two skills

Then you should give at least +4, but I think giving +5 and letting it only be taken once would be balanced. After all, its difficult for many classes to put a skill point in 5 different skills every level.

Worldly: +5, five skills

This also preserves the progression of total bonuses, the less specific the skills, the more points you get (ie skill focus +3, to 1 skill, talented +2, to 2 skills (net gain on taking talented is +1), worldly +5, to 5 skills (net gain on taking worldly is +1).

Neat feat idea.

Technik

Then a 1st level human rogue who took Talented and Worldly could have some serious skill-fun, which if youve read other posts, becomes pretty useless at higher levels due to magic, unfortunately.

 

[haiiro]

Then you should give at least +4, but I think giving +5 and letting it only be taken once would be balanced. After all, its difficult for many classes to put a skill point in 5 different skills every level.

I guess I was scaling them more by the number of skills than the total number of bonuses -- so Skill Focus hits one skill, Talented hits two and Worldly hits three. I definitely see your point though, and I think it's a tough call. I do think +5 is too much, though.

Assuming I go with +1 to three skills, I think that would leave Talented standing slightly above Skill Focus or Worldly -- and Skill Focus would remain slightly better than the "+4 to a specific use of one skill" feats (like Combat Casting).

With Worldly as a +1 to four skills, it seems like things even out a bit more -- the choice of which to take would be more dependent on context and character goals, and not so much a situation of "larger bonus = better choice." That does look to be the better option.

 

[haiiro]

Looking at Worldly with +1 to four skills in the context of a few other skill-related feats, I think that's definitely the way to go. It seems to fit in well with things like the "+2 to one skill, +1 to one save" feats, or Cosmopolitan (makes a skill a class skill, grants +2 to checks in that skill), or Versatile (make two skills class skills).

Any other opinions on this feat?

 

[Stalker0]

Well if you think about it in terms of having talented and worldly- then you could have +3 to two skills, and +1 to two others. Much better than 2 skill focus +3.

I say stick with +1 to three skills.

 

[haiiro]

Well if you think about it in terms of having talented and worldly- then you could have +3 to two skills, and +1 to two others. Much better than 2 skill focus +3.

I hadn't considered the stacking aspect, and that's a good point.

I also just noticed that Savage Species equates 3 racial skill check bonuses (of any amount, I guess) with a +1 level adjustment, and two bonus feats with a +1 level adjustment. Granted, that has to take into account elves with their +2 to three skills and half-elves with their +1 to three skills -- as well as bonus feat: Endurance (kind of crappy) vs. bonus feat: Luck of Heroes (excellent) -- but it still suggests that +1 to three skills is the right amount for Worldly.

Thanks for the feedback, Stalker0 and Technik4. Any other opinions?

 

[the Jester]

I also say +1 to three skills- but only after reading what Stalker0 pointed out above. I would've missed that until it came up.

 

[handforged]

Or you could make it say that the feat only applies to skills that are unaffected by other skill-enhancing feats.

 

[Merlion]

ooo...thats a really good idea. I love the skill system and feats relating to it are always interesting. the +1 to 3 skills sounds best to me.

 

[SamuraiY]

I've always thought that skill focus, etc. feats were kind of under-powered. I'd make it +1 to 4 skills.