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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Kerrick" data-source="post: 4855867" data-attributes="member: 4722">Yeah. It's like gaining classes in general - you can either be really good at one or two, or have fewer levels in several classes, but you can't gain lots of levels in lots of classes.Ohhh... I forgot to put in a penalty for attempting to read something that's above your proficiency level. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f631.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":eek:" title="Eek!    :eek:"  data-smilie="9"data-shortname=":eek:" /> That would help a lot, I think. It IS possible to translate something above your level, given time; like I said, I can read some Spanish, and can sometimes get the gist of something I read (or even understand it entirely), and sometimes I just say "Duh... what?" <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />If you're going to have levels, there has to be things levels can do, things they can't. You listed what levels can do, but not what they can't. If someone has only proficient level in a language, how exactly are they going to be able to translate, muchless understand, something written at a more erudite level? Meaning, if someone has a Jeff Foxworthy-level of understanding of a language, how is just taking a little more time (a few extra minutes per page) going to allow them to understand Sartre or Confucious level writings? I just read an article about a friend of Thomas Jefferson's who wrote a code into a letter he sent to Tom; an expert recently cracked it, 200 years later, with the aid of a computer. I should split off the code rules into a separate section, or at least rule that you can't attempt to crack a code unless you're fluent in the language (that's why it takes them so long - no one speaks the language anymore).It's a workable system. I'm pretty burned out on design right now, but I might look at it more seriously later. More like over-quoted. That article inevitably gets trotted out during discussions like this. Here's my rebuttal (one that's been used on me a few times): You can't compare the real world to D&D. By the RAW, a person can't run a marathon at all, let alone in 4 hours (which is the average time for a marathon runner). It might be reasonable to assume that Olympic athletes are 6th-7th level, since they focus solely on one or two things (Michael Phelps, for example, has max ranks in Swim, Skill Focus (swim), Endurance, and maybe Rapid Swimmer, which gives him greater swim speed), but this would make any D&D PC over 10th level a near-demigod. I consider that concept absurd, but then, I've been searching for a way to scale back power so that a PC can't achieve superhuman feats before 20th level.</blockquote>

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