[Ro3 5/15] Traits? lol wut?

[Steely_Dan]

They mentioned getting languages instead of skills in your backgrounds before. This is just naming those. So you'll have some backgrounds with 4 skills, and other backgrounds with 3 skills and some traits. Don't go making up fictional systems guys.

So getting languages is a trait, not a skill?

And no one's making up anything, we haven't seen the product yet, just speculation as usual (for now).

 

[Incenjucar]

They've mentioned this stuff before in previous material.

Whoops! Browser Settings Incompatible

"Background tells you where you came from, who you were, and what you are trained to do. Your background gives you a set of skills, specific tasks, areas of knowledge, or assets a character of that background ought to have. The thief background gives you Pick Pockets, Stealth, Streetwise, and Thieves’ Cant. The soldier background gives you Endurance, Intimidate, Survival, and an extra language."

Speculation without research leads to endless threads of arguments over make-believe scenarios.

A language isn't a skill. You don't need to roll d20s to spell your name.

 

[Steely_Dan]

They've mentioned this stuff before in previous material.

"Background tells you where you came from, who you were, and what you are trained to do. Your background gives you a set of skills, specific tasks, areas of knowledge, or assets a character of that background ought to have. The thief background gives you Pick Pockets, Stealth, Streetwise, and Thieves’ Cant. The soldier background gives you Endurance, Intimidate, Survival, and an extra language."

I don't see Traits mentioned in there.

 

[Incenjucar]

I don't see Traits mentioned in there.

They didn't NAME them traits until this Rule of 3. They're pretty blatantly talked about in that link.

 

[Steely_Dan]

They didn't NAME them traits until this Rule of 3. They're pretty blatantly talked about in that link.

At this point I don't want to assume anything, next week it could be different.

I'm just saying how many categories and subcategories do we need, as it stands now, you choose a Background, and within that Skills and Traits, and this is before Themes/Feats, seems a bit clunky.

 

[GM Dave]

I's all starting to sound a bit messy, so now after choosing race and class, you have to choose a background/skills, a theme/feats, and a trait.

I really hope all of that is optional, and that they return to the option of being able to pick a race, pick a class, and off you go.

You have not really been able to do that since 2e came out (and for some classes earlier than that).

After picking a class there are often several other decisions to make (Rogues choosing skills, Wizards and Clerics choosing spells, Fighters choosing weapons and armour, Druids picking animal friends,...).

 

[mkill]

We'll know in 2 weeks anyway.

 

[Steely_Dan]

You have not really been able to do that since 2e came out (and for some classes earlier than that).

Much to my chagrin.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Their "traits" sound a little bit like what I dubbed perks in my own thinking-through of this.

Mine are just first-gloss ideas from maybe a month ago, so I imagine they're not well-balanced (especially the "companion" ones -- those would probably be themes), but something similar to some of the less potent effects might make sense.

The ability to craft something or have an NPC ally you can lean on or get a small amount of gold, or something like that.

Anyway, this Ro3 sounds pretty positive, overall. The last question gives me a little pause, because it's still key to me to be able to customize your class powers, but they certainly don't need to build that into the feat system.

 

[Ahnehnois]

we're trying to disassociate class and skills
...
Of course, there will always be some combinations that are more favorable than others—a high-Intelligence wizard is going to look more favorably upon a background that delivers a lot of knowledge and lore skills—but playing with or against type is going to be completely a player choice.

Good. Common sense.

For that reason, we're looking at making it so that all of the backgrounds deliver an equal number of skills and traits, making it so that (with the exception of bonus skills built into the classes) all characters are on par with one another.

As long as rogues get extra ones, as is implied, this is probably a good thing. The low-skill 3e classes are too low.

A simple expression of this would be a few extra languages, which opens up more roleplaying possibilities for the character. A more specialized trait would be one that allows a knight to always be able to get lodging and aid from a noble house that recognizes his or her own noble claim.

Non-combat abilities are good. These examples are a little heavy-handed (as opposed to the ability to speak languages slightly better or gain a bonus to Diplo when negotiating for accomodations).