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

[A'koss]

I just wanted to chime in and say that this is a pretty neat idea. Consider it stolen hiiaro.

I do think +1 towards 3 skills is juuuust right. I think magical bonuses need to be curbed in a big way so that these smaller bonuses have more value. As it is it almost seems like a waste of a feat to spend it on skill focus when stat-boosting items are so cheap...


A'koss!

 

[haiiro]

That makes 5 votes for leaving it at +1 to three skills, and 2 votes for making it +1 to four skills. Anyone else want to chime in on this one?

SamuraiY: you mentioned that you feel Skill Focus and other skill-related feats are underpowered -- have you house ruled them in any way? If so, I'd love to see the results.

 

[SamuraiY]

It really wouldn't be possible to house rule it beyond making the bonus into a +3 instead 0f +2. The problem is, although it is good at low level, it is near worthless at higher levels. If it were to be changed to much, then it would become too powerful at low levels.

 

[Technik4]

Im still in favor of +1 to 4 skills. While Stalker brings up a good point about Talented+Worldly more powerful than Skill Focus x2 (which I hadnt considered), its important to point out a few things:

1) Skill Focus is in the phb, and it is often used as a "filler" or "balacing" aspect to a prc. Naturally if you dont play with prcs, this is irrelvent.

2) Skill Focus seems like the kind you use on a skill youre very good with, say a wizard with concentration or spellcraft. Talented and worldly seem like you take to boost a variety of skills, some that may even be cross-class. Maybe restrict Worldly to non-class skills, or skills you dont have a point in. In that case, I would advocate as much as +5 for 1 feat.

3) Unfortunately any feat spent on skill bonuses is usually a weaker choice for a pc. At high levels, magic emulates most skills(and some feats) such that PCs wonder why they worried about skills so much at lower levels. This is not true of all skills, but it is for quite a few of them (Hide, Move Silently, Climb, Jump, Swim, etc).

Technik

Edited to Add: Certain Prerequisites would also help balance a feat. For instance, adding that you must have so many ranks in a skill to be "talented" at it, or that you must have at least so little ranks for worldly, or that worldly can only be taken at 1st level.

 

[Mike Sullivan]

It really wouldn't be possible to house rule it beyond making the bonus into a +3 instead 0f +2. The problem is, although it is good at low level, it is near worthless at higher levels. If it were to be changed to much, then it would become too powerful at low levels.

You could do like people suggest with Toughness, and have it scale with the levels:

Skill Focus: +1 to one skill, +1 per three character levels.

Or something.

 

[haiiro]

Edited to Add: Certain Prerequisites would also help balance a feat. For instance, adding that you must have so many ranks in a skill to be "talented" at it, or that you must have at least so little ranks for worldly, or that worldly can only be taken at 1st level.

I could certainly see giving Worldly some prereqs and a boost (to four or even five skills, as you mention), but it seems too ironic to have it be a nascence feat. If I added preqreqs, I'd probably just go with a level minimum -- in the "typical" D&D game, low level = little world experience, so you couldn't be worldly until you'd been around the block a bit.