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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 6234259" data-attributes="member: 4937">I would first argue that you are getting this result because you aren't listening to the system.  What the system is trying to tell you is that the best weaver in the land doesn't have a +25 in the relevant skills.  That isn't the best weaver in the land; that's a figure of myth and legend, an Arachne if you will.  Your 12th level Weaver is an epic figure, and epic figures in the system are meant to have that package and everything that goes along with it.   Secondly, I would note that there is not nearly enough 'terrible Strength and Constitution' in most games.  If 10 or 11 is meant to be average, why does almost nothing and no one has less than a 10 in anything?   There is a huge amount of ability score inflation in most campaigns, where in practice 14 is average and anything less than 10 is consider 'terrible'.   If you haven't given NPC's 4 or 5 Con or Str rather often you aren't doing it right, because there has to be some of those to balance out all the burly guards you are blithely decorating with 14's in Strength and Constitution (or in my experience, much higher).  Otherwise you are guilty of saying the PC's are 'above average, just like everyone else', and you get into runaway expectations about what is 'good'.  There is nothing wrong with having a 9th level commoner with 6 STR and 6 CON, a net attack bonus of +0 (no weapon proficiency!) and 9 hit points.  Such a commoner could easily have a +20 bonus on a Craft check just using RAW and not even getting that obscure about it. There is your 'best weaver in the land' for you, and frankly, most of my countries would not have so capable of a weaver (unless they had a large elven population, where 9th level commoner's aren't so uncommon, seeing as they live such long lives).Thirdly, to the extent that you are right, this isn't a hard problem to fix.  I do it with a very simple advantage/disadvantage system.  It would be a trivial matter to have a 20th level commoner with a +0 attack bonus just by taking the 'noncombatant' disadvantage.  I do similar sorts of things when I want clerics that have spent more time studying and less time fighting than your typical PC crusading type.   But, for that matter, nothing in the rules stops you from slapping "Fairy God Mother's Gift (ex): This character was granted at birth supernatural insight into weaving by a powerful supernatural figure, and get a +5 luck bonus and a +5 insight bonus on all Craft (Weaving) checks." on your low level NPC and calling it a day.  Are you the DM or aren't you?It's not at first.  The problem comes with trying to be fair about all those fiat decisions.  I hate winging it.   Often as not, I may only write only something like Exp3 in a stat block and slap a skill modifier on the NPC if it ever comes up.   Attack bonus often gets a similar treatment, and justify it retroactively if I need to.</blockquote>

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