Skill Focus

[Xeriar]

Hmmm... that has quite some impact for a fair few Prestige Classes, since there a quite a lot that are predicated on having so many ranks in certain skills to be the way to control the level of entry to the class.

Have you found any problems in designing PrC's for your setting?

If I really want to specify a level limit, I can require a caster level, ability to cast certain spells, ability to turn undead as an xth-level character, a base attack bonus, sneak attack bonus, x number of feats...

You get the idea, I don't mind someone single-mindedly fasttracking to a prestige class. I am actually planning on designing some classes where this type of thing is specifically possible, even encouraged (if not required).

 

[Spatzimaus]

The Star Wars d20 system uses +3 for Skill Focus. That's where a lot of people seem to get it from.

For me, I wanted something different, because I feel that Feats shouldn't give stuff people get as part of their normal classes (usually). Just adding +2 or +3 doesn't really seem very interesting.

So, here's what I did:

SKILL FOCUS
Prerequisite: 5 ranks of a selected skill
When making a skill check with the selected skill, you may re-roll any roll of 5 or less; the final result stands. This adds, on average, 1.875 to the roll.
Also, you may Take 10 with the skill in question even while threatened or distracted.

(The Take 10 thing is similar to the high-level Rogue ability, but the Rogue one lets you pick 3+INTmod skills for this)

IMPROVED SKILL FOCUS
Prerequisites: Skill Focus in the selected skill, 10 ranks of the skill
The re-roll threshold increases to 10 (you may re-roll any roll of 10 or less, final result stands) This adds, on average, 2.5 to the roll.
As with Skill Focus, you can still take 10 when threatened or distracted.
Also, you may Take 20 for this skill even when there is a penalty for failure. It still takes 20 times as long, but only the last 1/20th is a 'real' attempt; the rest of the time is spent planning your course of action. You can't Take 20 when threatened or distracted, though, and any major interruption forces you to start over.

(Example: Rogue wants to disarm a trapped chest. He sketches out on the ground what he knows of the mechanism, figures out what happens at each step, etc.; by the time he's ready to make the attempt, he knows step-by-step what he's going to do, which gives a 20 on the roll)

I also am thinking of adding a "Master Skill Focus" that lets you Take 30 at 30x the time of a Take 20, or re-roll the skill check no matter what the first roll was.

 

[candidus_cogitens]

For me, I wanted something different, because I feel that Feats shouldn't give stuff people get as part of their normal classes (usually). Just adding +2 or +3 doesn't really seem very interesting.

I agree. It really isn't very interesting.

I kinda like your ideas for modified Skill Focus, but I kinda don't. First of all, it is somewhat more interesting, because it makes the PC more reliable with that skill, without making him more able to achieve dazzling new heights.

Re-rolling 5 or below I could accept. Re-rolling 10 or below I would have to object to. Way to powerful. You have miscalculated the average increases that this would provide.

Re-rolling 5 or below makes your average roll of the d20 a 13, rather than 10.5. That's a boost of 2.5 to the mean (not 1.875).

If you re-roll 10 or below, your average roll is 15.5. A boost of 5 (not 2.5) to the average.

The difference between providing the bonus your way, as opposed to just adding a normal bonus to the roll is that you end up with a narrower range of results. In other words, rather than having a range of 3 - 22 (as you would with the standard Skill focus, not including any skill points or ability modifiers), you would have a range of 6-20 with your modified feat.

Thus it adds security without raising the ceiling on a peak performance.

Another way to achieve a similar (though not identical) effect would be to allow the player to roll 2d10 or 3d6 instead of 1d20. Rolling more of a "smaller" die makes you more likely to score near the mean rather than very high or very low. Look at it this way, if you roll 1d20, you're result will be a 20 exactly 1/20 of the time. But if you roll 2d10, a 20 will occur only 1/100 of the time, but your chance of rolling an 11 is significantly higher than with the d20. It's sort of the next best thing to being able to take 10--or maybe a bit better, in some ways.

Here's a feat idea:
Select two class skills. Each time you use one of these skills, you can opt to roll either 2d10 or 1d20.

 

[Spatzimaus]

No, CC, you misunderstood. Note the part where it says "final result stands". As in, if you re-roll, you keep the later result even if it's lower. It doesn't narrow the range, you can STILL end up rolling a 1, it's just a LOT less common since it'd require you rolling so low that you want to reroll and then getting a 1 on the reroll.

Let's assume I'll always re-roll if possible.

If I re-roll 5 or less, there's a 75% chance of my original roll being a 6-20 (average 13) and a 25% chance of taking a new roll (average 10.5). Your average roll is now 0.75*13 + 0.25*10.5 = 12.375, a difference of 1.875 (as I said)
The average would only be 13 if you continued to reroll until the result was above 5.

Or, look at it another way; the second roll would average 10.5. So, if I roll a 1, I increase by 9.5. If I roll a 2, 8.5. A 3 gains 7.5, a 4 gains 6.5, and a 5 gains 5.5. Add those five gains, divide by 20, and you get the 1.875.

If I re-roll a 10 or less, there's a 50% chance of my original roll being an 11-20 (average 15.5) and a 50% chance of a new roll (average 10.5), for an average of 13.0, a gain of 2.5.

Both of these are lower than the existing Skill Focus/Greater Skill Focus ideas. Since it's not a plus, you can't succeed at something that was out of your range before. It also doesn't stack with Take 10. BUT, there are advantages: you're far less likely to fail easy tasks, and the feats add other abilities.