Skill Bonus items: An idea

Crothian

First Post
Okay, some people have problems with items that give +X to a single skill. So, what if instead of giving +X, they allow you to roll 2 d20's and take the better of the two? More powerful items could allow you to roll even more d20's, like three or five taken the best of them.

Thoughts?
 

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NP

I have no problem with items that give +X to a single skill... Masterwork Thieves' Tools give +2 to Open Locks and Disable Device, and Cloak/Boots of Elvenkind give +10 to Hide/Move Silently. Even Svirfneblin daggers give +1 to-hit/damage.

Either way sounds fine, to me.
 

I think Crothian meant magical items, specifically... I don't really have a problem with those, and think they make interesting stuff to hand out to low level PCs (I gave out a Ring of Ledgewalking to my group at level 2, giving a +5 bonus to balance checks.). When they get excessively powerful, i.e. ring of jumping +30 style bonuses to skills that require opposed rolls, I start to worry, but then I remind myself that spells that would do the same things (Make someone hide perfectly, as in invisibility, or lie perfectly, etc), wouldn't be more then 4th or 5th level anyway.

Am I on the same track as you? I don't have any problems with your idea for an item, but it would be a totally different one. I'd probably price it at around the price of a +10 to one skill item (2,000gp).
 

+5 items are not really a problem, but at high levels a +30 item is realitively cheap and allows someone with no ranks use a skill at perfection.
 

Hmm...I like the idea. Makes a lot of sense. 'Course...a DM who uses it might lose some of the favor of the players...we never like to lose some little loophole through the system.
 

The problem, as I see it, is not that there are magic items that give +X to some skill. The problem is that some DMs give out +X items too cheaply, to characters of too low level, and without regard to what skill the item is boosting. I wouldn't worry too much about your ring of ledgewalking, since Balance isn't as useful as, say, Tumble even at lower levels.

The cost (and hence, availability relative to level) of a +skill item should depend on how useful the skill is both in general and at the level of the character who would most likely have the item. At higher levels, when characters are more likely to have spells, items, and abilities allowing them to fly, change shape into winged creatures, or whatnot, Balance is pretty useless, while Spellcraft is more useful than ever given the increased number of enemies with spells or spell-like abilities. Skills that can be replaced with spells (such as Move Silently with silence, or Swim with polymorph self/polymorph other) should be cheaper than those cannot be so replaced (Spellcraft again).

The final thing that should be considered is the relative availability of the skill. Giving +X to Craft or Profession doesn't take anything away from any specific player character, since almost all classes have these as class skills. Giving +X to a skill like Read Lips or Use Magic Device, OTOH, will take away from the party's rogue.

I feel that trying to achieve general balance in +skill magic item creation will prove to be a "nicer" solution, as it will involve a lot less dice rolling (and stack better with other "roll twice" effects, like the granted power of the Luck domain).
 

I don't like any of the +X to skill magic items, I feel that they cheapen a character building his ranks in a skill over time. Instead, here you go joe, now your just as good as Billy the Rogue over there whose been training for 5 years!!
 

Stalker0 said:
I don't like any of the +X to skill magic items, I feel that they cheapen a character building his ranks in a skill over time. Instead, here you go joe, now your just as good as Billy the Rogue over there whose been training for 5 years!!


Okay, then you are the type of person this idea is aimed at. What do you think?
 

I think it's a great idea.

The multiple D20's feels a little too much like L5R, as opposed to D20, and all rerolls in D20 are keepers. You cannot reroll a reroll.

So I'd have a Lesser/Greater Ring (or whatever) of Skill.

Minor Ring. Increases your max ranks by 1-5. (Or a reasonable skill bonus.) Or allows you to treat as a class skill. All benefits are temporarily lost if you take it off.

Lesser Ring. Allows a "Take 10" even under stress.

Ring of Skill. Allows one reroll on one skill per day.

Greater Ring. All of the above, plus you can reroll an extra 1 or more times per day. They just have to be on seperate rolls.

Epic Ring. Allows everything a Minor Ring does, plus a "Take 20" under any cirumstances.




As an alternate to just adding bonuses to a ring, the creator, or those helping him, would have to have the skill. Even then you could only add a bonus equal to their Character level. Essentially forging a bit of them into the item.
 

I was thinking on this the other day;

they should simply set caps:

+1-5 cost is the same as now.
+6-10 cost is similar to magic armor
+11-20 cost is similar to magic weapon
21+ cost is more expensive than magic weapon.

Ring of jumping is pretty cheap for a 2,000 GP ring - I see too many low level charaters wanting one of these.

Bottom line? Right now very few classes have enough skill points to max all the skill sthey want, if you make items that increase skills cheap and plentiful, then this is no longer a factor.
 

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