Sammael's 3.75: Skills

[Sylrae]

1. All characters, regardless of class, now receive (effectively) 6+Int skill points at every odd level (but they may not increase any skill by more than 1 rank). This was done mainly to fix multiclassing issues, but also to address the fact that some classes, like the Fighter, had too little stuff to do outside of combat. If the fighter purchases all 3 combat skills (Brawl, Marksmanship, Melee) as well as Endurance (which replaces Fort), he is left with 2+Int skill points, as before. But really, I don't think any fighter should purchase all four all the time.

This means nobody can ever have more than 3/4 BAB (except maybe at level 1), but assuming youre redesigning ALL the classes to compensate, that could be cool. I'd probably give less skill points, more often, and let them take skills every level. But some of this sounds quite reasonable. As I mentioned before, it resembles the well designed White-Wolf, with the exception of a few things I could see as problems.

2. Here are the class affiliated skill lists:

• Bard: Acrobatics, Arcana, Crafting, Deception, Deftness, Expression, Heraldry, Insight, Linguistics, Perception, Persuasion, Resolve, Streetwise, Theology
• Champion: Athletics, Crafting, Endurance, Healing, Heraldry, Insight, Intimidation, Melee, Persuasion, Resolve, Theology, Warcraft
• Cleric: Crafting, Healing, Heraldry, Insight, Netherlore, Persuasion, Resolve, Theology, plus two deity-appropriate skills
• Druid: Brawl, Crafting, Delving, Earthlore, Endurance, Healing, Perception, Resolve, Survival, Theology
• Fighter: Athletics, Brawl, Crafting, Endurance, Healing, Intimidation, Marksmanship, Melee, Survival, Warcraft
• Mage: Arcana, Crafting, Earthlore, Heraldry, Linguistics, Netherlore, Resolve, Theology, Tinkering, plus one specialization-related skill
• Ranger: Acrobatics, Athletics, Brawl, Crafting, Delving, Earthlore, Endurance, Healing, Marksmanship, Melee, Perception, Survival, Stealth
• Rogue: Acrobatics, Athletics, Crafting, Deception, Deftness, Delving, Insight, Intimidation, Linguistics, Perception, Persuasion, Stealth, Streetwise, Tinkering

• That Seems cool.

3. I strongly disagree with the premise that BAB, saves, and HP make a class. I think the class abilities are what makes the class, and I have redesigned all classes to reinforce that fact. All classes now gain unique abilities a lot more frequently than before, and the spectrum of those abilities is a lot wider than before. Of course, without seeing my classes, you have no way of knowing how they work (there will be a separate thread for that), but I'll try to recap them briefly here:

• Bard gets spellsongs (3 tiers, usable at will), a warlock-like sonic blast power, and various sonic and lore-based abilities.
• Champion gets pledges (4 tiers, one or more active at the time, basically various ways to boost his weapon), smite, and auras.
• Cleric gets prayers specific to deity (5 domains, 2 prayers per tier per domain, 10 tiers), divine channelings (ability to convert prepared prayers into specific effects), resistance to all forms of damage, and bonuses to attack with deity's favored weapon. He loses medium/heavy armor proficiencies and his HD is reduced.
• Druid gets wild shape from level 1 (but greatly reduced in power), invocations (10 tiers, limited knowledge, spontaneous casting), and animal companion.
• Fighter gets fighting style, maneuvers (former fighter feats, now exclusive* to fighter), ability to craft trophies, and various minor abilities. This is the only class proficient with all weapons and armor.
• Mage gets spells (10 tiers, unlimited knowledge, limited preparation, but can cast any combination of prepared spells per day; spells are somewhat reduced in power), metamagic, ability to combine slots, and signature spells.
• Ranger gets exploits (various movement-based attack abilities), skirmish, animal companion, and monster slayer abilities based on type of monsters defeated.
• Rogue gets tricks (former rogue special abilities, and many more), sneak attack, and bonus skill-related feats (allowing him to gain more affiliated skills, gain a sudden skill boost, etc).

*All class abilities are exclusive until level 6, when all characters gain the ability to pick up a limited amount of abilities outside of class through feats ("multiclassing lite"). Of course, multiclassing still allows you to mix'n'match from level 2, as before.

That sounds cool, but you shouldnt base HP on class either then, realistically. I'm all for classes being entirely made of unique abilities. The idea sounds quite cool. Of course, this will likely have little to no compatibility with any other sourcebooks (just a preliminary opinion), but as long as you dont plan on using any monsters, and just stick to races with no LA or HD and just Class levels it should be ok.

So, what happens if a rogue picks up Skill Affinity (Melee)? Yes, he becomes better at hitting people (at the cost of some other skill), but he doesn't get the fighter's maneuvers, champion's pledge's, or ranger's exploits. So, rogue + Melee = brigand. Similarly, a fighter who picks up Arcana will gain a few cantrips (1 per rank), but that hardly makes him a mage. Fighter who takes Acrobatics instead of Endurance? Swashbuckler. And so on, and so forth. The number of classes is limited, but the possibilities are endless.

That sounds cool. The only thing I saw in there is that the swashbuckler will probably have a AC due to no class-based AC bonus. The swashbuckler makes more sense as a sort of monk, assuming you use a non-magical monk and then switch the weapon list.

If I could see a full set of these rules, theyre starting to sound much better than I initially thought, and sound quite cool in a unique playability kind of way.

 

[Sammael]

Don't forget the base bonus. It adds 1/2 your level to ALL skills. Thus, you can have effectively a full BAB in Melee and 1/2 BAB in Marksmanship, for example.

Base bonus adds to AC as well, and I have a Swashbuckler fighting style for the fighter class (each fighter gains a style at 1st
class level; "attribute" below is actually "ability modifier" in the usual 3.x sense):

Swashbuckler
Your wit is your weapon and you tend to dazzle your opponents with acrobatic maneuvers.
Skill Expertise: Melee
Benefits: You receive Skill Affinity (Acrobatics) as a bonus feat. As long as you are conscious and not wearing medium or heavy armor, you receive a bonus to AC equal to your Intelligence attribute (minimum +2). This bonus improves by 2 at 10th level, and by 2 at 20th level.

So, basically, with a decent Dex and Int (+3 each), you could wear studded leather at 1st level (no chain shirts... ever) and have an AC bonus of 10+3 (armor) +3 (Dex) +3 (Int) = 19, which is pretty good.

EDIT: I may change the swashbuckler bonus granularity to +1 every 5th level rather than +2 every 10th.

 

[CAFargo]

While I find it to be a facinating idea, I find that it has three problems:

1. Its boring. No player in my group would ever sacrifice their skill bonuses for lower skill bonuses, except maybe the newest.

2. BAB and saves are considered in character class power balances, so making them into skills makes characters like the monk (good BAB+all good saves) a poorer choice.

3. On the above topic (#2), who wants to give the wizard just as much BAB as the fighter...or rogues and fighters...or anything thats not a tank and fighters...fighters rock.

I also like pie. My favorite is apple pie. Try dutch apple pie sometime.