Level-Based Skill Bonus System for D&D 3.5
This variant is inspired by the skill systems of SWSE and 4E, adapting level-based bonuses to skill checks while endeavoring to abide by the maximum-rank limit of the standard rules.
Instead of receiving skill points (SP) per level to spend on skill ranks, your character's class(es) gives you bonuses to your character's skills that increase by level. The bonuses you gain to checks with your various skill vary depending on whether the skill is a class skill, a cross-class skill, or a primary skill (the skills your character specializes in).
Skill Selection & Class Bonuses
Step 1: Mark Class Skills. On your character sheet, mark all of your character’s class skills. You are considered trained in all your class skills.
Step 2: Choose Primary Skills. You can choose one or more of your class skills to be primary skills. You get one primary skill for each skill point your class would normally get per level:
2 + Int modifier: Cleric, Fighter, Paladin, Sorcerer, Wizard, Adept, Commoner, and Warrior
4 + Int modifier: Barbarian, Druid, Monk, and Aristocrat
6 + Int modifier: Bard, Ranger, and Expert
8 + Int modifier: Rogue
• Humans, sea kin, underfolk, and other races which acquire bonus SP gain an additional primary skill slot for each additional SP they normally get per level.
• Clerics of certain domains which gain additional class skills (for example: Animal, Knowledge, Plant, Travel, Trickery) may choose among these skills for their primary skills as well.
• Experts may choose any ten skills to be class skills, and gain a number of primary skills equal to 6 + Int modifier.
• All characters with an Intelligence score will have at least one primary skill.
• Your class bonus for a primary skill equals your class level + 3. (See Table 1.)
Step 3 (optional): Cross-Training. You can sacrifice one primary skill slot per point of Intelligence modifier to train in a cross-class skill that is useable untrained, making it a class skill for you. There is also the Cross-Training feat (see below) which can give you additional class skills. Example: Having an Intelligence score of 15 (modifier +2) allows you to cross-train in 2 cross-class skills, making them class skills.
Step 4: Class Skill Bonuses. Your class bonus for your other class skills equals your primary skill bonus divided by 2, rounded down.
Step 5: Cross-Class Skills. Your class bonus for cross-class skills that are usable untrained equals your primary skill bonus divided by 4, rounded down. You don’t get a class bonus to trained-only cross-class skills and can’t use those skills until you do get trained in them.
Step 6: Speak Language (optional). If you have Speak Language as a class or primary skill, then in addition to any native and bonus languages you already know, you learn a number of languages equal to your class bonus for this skill. For example, a fighter with Speak Language as a (cross-trained) class skill will have picked up six new languages by 9th level in addition to their initial number known, while a bard of the same level with Speak Language as a primary skill will have learned twelve new languages.
Synergy Bonuses
You need at least a +5 class bonus in a skill (not including bonuses from feats such as Skill Focus and Alertness) for its synergy bonus to kick in toward another skill. For example, once your class bonus in Knowledge (arcana) reaches +5 you gain a +2 synergy bonus to Spellcraft checks. Note that if a skill is cross-class and trained-only, you don’t have a class bonus in that skill nor do you gain any synergy bonuses related to it.
Feats
Skill-related feats under this system:
• Alertness and its clones (various sources)
These feats work as normal, giving the usual +2 bonus to two specific skills.
• Cross-Training (new feat)
Benefits: Choose a cross-class skill that is usable untrained. If you choose Craft or Perform, choose one field of study to cross-train in (examples- Craft: alchemy, Perform: oratory). That cross-class skill becomes a class skill for you. You are considered trained in this skill.
Special: You may take this feat multiple times. Each time you take this feat, choose another skill or field of study to cross-train in. You may not cross-train in a trained-only skill.
Supersedes: Jack Of All Trades (Complete Adventurer)
• Improve Skill (new feat)
Benefits: Choose a class skill. This skill becomes a primary skill for you.
Special: You may take this feat multiple times. Each time you take this feat, choose another class skill to improve. You can also improve a formerly cross-class skill that you have cross-trained in.
• Skill Focus (from Player’s Handbook)
This feat gives the usual +3 bonus to a skill.
• Skill Talent (new feat)
Benefit: Choose any five non-primary skills. You gain a +1 bonus to checks with these skills. This feat does not make you trained in a cross-class skill.
Special: You may take this feat multiple times. Its effects do not stack. Each time you take this feat, choose five other non-primary skills. The effects of this feat no longer apply to any skills that become primary skills for you.
Supersedes: Open Minded (Complete Adventurer)
Changed Intelligence Modifier
At any time, whenever your Intelligence modifier is permanently increased (such as by reading a Tome of Understanding or putting a bonus ability point into Intelligence), you immediately gain one or more additional primary skill slots to spend as appropriate. If for any reason your Intelligence modifier is permanently decreased (such as by ability drain), one primary skill of your choice is demoted to an ordinary class skill (or one class skill you cross-trained in using a primary skill slot is demoted to a cross-class skill).
Multiclassing (standard version)
• When you take a level in a new class (including prestige classes), you gain its class skills in addition to the ones you already have but you don’t gain any additional primary skill slots (except for the Loremaster -- see below). You don’t gain any special benefit from having one of your class skill shared by more than one class. However, multiclassing is the only way to learn a trained-only skill that is cross-class for you, and your total class bonuses to skills may be higher than a single-classed character of the same character level. These are the special benefits of cross-training with multiple classes.
• Example: a multiclassed 4th-level fighter / 2nd-level rogue with an 18 Intelligence
– Gains all fighter and rogue class skills as class skills.
– For his seven primary skill slots, he might have chosen Climb, Handle Animal, Intimidate, Jump, Ride and Swim as primary skills with Survival as an alternate class skill.
– His class bonuses to skills would be +9 for primary skills, +4 for class skills, and +2 for all cross-class skills that are usable untrained. (He doesn’t gain a class bonus to any trained-only cross-class skills such as Knowledge: nature. Speak Language, or Spellcraft)
Prestige Classes
The same rules for multiclassing apply to prestige classes, along with the following differences:
• When meeting prestige class requirements, your total class bonus for a given skill is equivalent to having the same number of ranks in that skill. However, this doesn’t include other bonuses to a skills, such as skill synergy or the Skill Focus feat. Example: the Archmage prestige class (among other things) requires a class bonus of at least +15 in Knowledge (arcana) and Spellcraft.
• Loremaster prestige class, Instant Mastery secret: The loremaster gains any one cross-class skill (even a trained-only skill) as a class skill.
Optional Multiclassing Variant (see table 2)
• When multiclassing, the class you took as a 1st-level character is considered your main class, and any additional classes beyond that are considered secondary. Secondary classes do not grant you any additional primary skills.
• A multiclassed character gains a separate class bonus to each skill from each class they have taken, and these bonuses stack.
• You’re not considered trained in a skill unless you have a total class bonus of at least +1 in that skill.
• Your main class grants skill bonuses as above.
• Your secondary class(es) grants base skill bonuses as follows:
Skill is class skill for secondary class = secondary class level divided by 2, rounded down
Skill is cross-class for secondary class = secondary class level divided by 4, rounded down
(note the absence of the +3)
• Example: An 8th-level character (Fighter/Rogue) with Int 11 chooses Intimidate & Handle Animal for primary skills. At 6th Ftr/2nd Rog his skill bonuses will be:
Fighter & Rogue class skills
Intimidate: class bonus +10 (+9 fighter primary skill bonus, +1 rogue class skill bonus)
Climb, Craft, Jump, & Swim: class bonus +5 (+4 fighter class skill bonus, +1 rogue class skill bonus)
Fighter-only class skills
Handle Animal: class bonus +9 (+9 fighter primary skill bonus, +0 rogue cross-class skill bonus)
Ride: class bonus +4 (+4 fighter class skill bonus, +0 rogue cross-class skill bonus)
Rogue-only class skills: class bonus +3 (+2 fighter cross-class skill bonus, +1 rogue class skill bonus):
Appraise, Balance, Bluff, Decipher Script, Diplomacy, Disable Device, Disguise, Escape Artist, Forgery, Gather Info, Hide, Knowledge/local, Listen, Move Silently, Open Locks, Perform, Profession, Search, Sense Motive, Sleight of Hand, Spot, Tumble, Use Magic Device, Use Rope
Any other usable-untrained skill: +2 (+2 fighter cross-class skill bonus, +0 rogue cross-class skill bonus)
• To summarize the bonuses again:
Skill Bonuses From Main Class
Primary skill bonus = class level + 3
Class skill bonus = ( class level + 3 ) divided by 2 (rounded down)
Cross-class skill bonus = ( class level + 3 ) divided by 4 (rounded down)
Skill Bonuses From Secondary Class(es)
Primary skill bonus = no additional primary skills for secondary classes
Class skill bonus = ( class level ) divided by 2 (rounded down)
Cross-class skill bonus = ( class level ) divided by 4 (rounded down)
When multiclassing, skill bonuses from each class stack.
This variant is inspired by the skill systems of SWSE and 4E, adapting level-based bonuses to skill checks while endeavoring to abide by the maximum-rank limit of the standard rules.
Instead of receiving skill points (SP) per level to spend on skill ranks, your character's class(es) gives you bonuses to your character's skills that increase by level. The bonuses you gain to checks with your various skill vary depending on whether the skill is a class skill, a cross-class skill, or a primary skill (the skills your character specializes in).
Skill Selection & Class Bonuses
Step 1: Mark Class Skills. On your character sheet, mark all of your character’s class skills. You are considered trained in all your class skills.
Step 2: Choose Primary Skills. You can choose one or more of your class skills to be primary skills. You get one primary skill for each skill point your class would normally get per level:
2 + Int modifier: Cleric, Fighter, Paladin, Sorcerer, Wizard, Adept, Commoner, and Warrior
4 + Int modifier: Barbarian, Druid, Monk, and Aristocrat
6 + Int modifier: Bard, Ranger, and Expert
8 + Int modifier: Rogue
• Humans, sea kin, underfolk, and other races which acquire bonus SP gain an additional primary skill slot for each additional SP they normally get per level.
• Clerics of certain domains which gain additional class skills (for example: Animal, Knowledge, Plant, Travel, Trickery) may choose among these skills for their primary skills as well.
• Experts may choose any ten skills to be class skills, and gain a number of primary skills equal to 6 + Int modifier.
• All characters with an Intelligence score will have at least one primary skill.
• Your class bonus for a primary skill equals your class level + 3. (See Table 1.)
Step 3 (optional): Cross-Training. You can sacrifice one primary skill slot per point of Intelligence modifier to train in a cross-class skill that is useable untrained, making it a class skill for you. There is also the Cross-Training feat (see below) which can give you additional class skills. Example: Having an Intelligence score of 15 (modifier +2) allows you to cross-train in 2 cross-class skills, making them class skills.
Step 4: Class Skill Bonuses. Your class bonus for your other class skills equals your primary skill bonus divided by 2, rounded down.
Step 5: Cross-Class Skills. Your class bonus for cross-class skills that are usable untrained equals your primary skill bonus divided by 4, rounded down. You don’t get a class bonus to trained-only cross-class skills and can’t use those skills until you do get trained in them.
Step 6: Speak Language (optional). If you have Speak Language as a class or primary skill, then in addition to any native and bonus languages you already know, you learn a number of languages equal to your class bonus for this skill. For example, a fighter with Speak Language as a (cross-trained) class skill will have picked up six new languages by 9th level in addition to their initial number known, while a bard of the same level with Speak Language as a primary skill will have learned twelve new languages.
Synergy Bonuses
You need at least a +5 class bonus in a skill (not including bonuses from feats such as Skill Focus and Alertness) for its synergy bonus to kick in toward another skill. For example, once your class bonus in Knowledge (arcana) reaches +5 you gain a +2 synergy bonus to Spellcraft checks. Note that if a skill is cross-class and trained-only, you don’t have a class bonus in that skill nor do you gain any synergy bonuses related to it.
Feats
Skill-related feats under this system:
• Alertness and its clones (various sources)
These feats work as normal, giving the usual +2 bonus to two specific skills.
• Cross-Training (new feat)
Benefits: Choose a cross-class skill that is usable untrained. If you choose Craft or Perform, choose one field of study to cross-train in (examples- Craft: alchemy, Perform: oratory). That cross-class skill becomes a class skill for you. You are considered trained in this skill.
Special: You may take this feat multiple times. Each time you take this feat, choose another skill or field of study to cross-train in. You may not cross-train in a trained-only skill.
Supersedes: Jack Of All Trades (Complete Adventurer)
• Improve Skill (new feat)
Benefits: Choose a class skill. This skill becomes a primary skill for you.
Special: You may take this feat multiple times. Each time you take this feat, choose another class skill to improve. You can also improve a formerly cross-class skill that you have cross-trained in.
• Skill Focus (from Player’s Handbook)
This feat gives the usual +3 bonus to a skill.
• Skill Talent (new feat)
Benefit: Choose any five non-primary skills. You gain a +1 bonus to checks with these skills. This feat does not make you trained in a cross-class skill.
Special: You may take this feat multiple times. Its effects do not stack. Each time you take this feat, choose five other non-primary skills. The effects of this feat no longer apply to any skills that become primary skills for you.
Supersedes: Open Minded (Complete Adventurer)
Changed Intelligence Modifier
At any time, whenever your Intelligence modifier is permanently increased (such as by reading a Tome of Understanding or putting a bonus ability point into Intelligence), you immediately gain one or more additional primary skill slots to spend as appropriate. If for any reason your Intelligence modifier is permanently decreased (such as by ability drain), one primary skill of your choice is demoted to an ordinary class skill (or one class skill you cross-trained in using a primary skill slot is demoted to a cross-class skill).
Multiclassing (standard version)
• When you take a level in a new class (including prestige classes), you gain its class skills in addition to the ones you already have but you don’t gain any additional primary skill slots (except for the Loremaster -- see below). You don’t gain any special benefit from having one of your class skill shared by more than one class. However, multiclassing is the only way to learn a trained-only skill that is cross-class for you, and your total class bonuses to skills may be higher than a single-classed character of the same character level. These are the special benefits of cross-training with multiple classes.
• Example: a multiclassed 4th-level fighter / 2nd-level rogue with an 18 Intelligence
– Gains all fighter and rogue class skills as class skills.
– For his seven primary skill slots, he might have chosen Climb, Handle Animal, Intimidate, Jump, Ride and Swim as primary skills with Survival as an alternate class skill.
– His class bonuses to skills would be +9 for primary skills, +4 for class skills, and +2 for all cross-class skills that are usable untrained. (He doesn’t gain a class bonus to any trained-only cross-class skills such as Knowledge: nature. Speak Language, or Spellcraft)
Prestige Classes
The same rules for multiclassing apply to prestige classes, along with the following differences:
• When meeting prestige class requirements, your total class bonus for a given skill is equivalent to having the same number of ranks in that skill. However, this doesn’t include other bonuses to a skills, such as skill synergy or the Skill Focus feat. Example: the Archmage prestige class (among other things) requires a class bonus of at least +15 in Knowledge (arcana) and Spellcraft.
• Loremaster prestige class, Instant Mastery secret: The loremaster gains any one cross-class skill (even a trained-only skill) as a class skill.
Code:
TABLE 1 : SKILL BONUSES
Char. Primary Class Cross-class
Level skills skills skills
1st +4 +2 +1
2nd +5 +2 +1
3rd +6 +3 +1
4th +7 +3 +1
5th +8 +4 +2
6th +9 +4 +2
7th +10 +5 +2
8th +11 +5 +2
9th +12 +6 +3
10th +13 +6 +3
11th +14 +7 +3
12th +15 +7 +3
13th +16 +8 +4
14th +17 +8 +4
15th +18 +9 +4
16th +19 +9 +4
17th +20 +10 +5
18th +21 +10 +5
19th +22 +11 +5
20th +23 +11 +5Optional Multiclassing Variant (see table 2)
• When multiclassing, the class you took as a 1st-level character is considered your main class, and any additional classes beyond that are considered secondary. Secondary classes do not grant you any additional primary skills.
• A multiclassed character gains a separate class bonus to each skill from each class they have taken, and these bonuses stack.
• You’re not considered trained in a skill unless you have a total class bonus of at least +1 in that skill.
• Your main class grants skill bonuses as above.
• Your secondary class(es) grants base skill bonuses as follows:
Skill is class skill for secondary class = secondary class level divided by 2, rounded down
Skill is cross-class for secondary class = secondary class level divided by 4, rounded down
(note the absence of the +3)
• Example: An 8th-level character (Fighter/Rogue) with Int 11 chooses Intimidate & Handle Animal for primary skills. At 6th Ftr/2nd Rog his skill bonuses will be:
Fighter & Rogue class skills
Intimidate: class bonus +10 (+9 fighter primary skill bonus, +1 rogue class skill bonus)
Climb, Craft, Jump, & Swim: class bonus +5 (+4 fighter class skill bonus, +1 rogue class skill bonus)
Fighter-only class skills
Handle Animal: class bonus +9 (+9 fighter primary skill bonus, +0 rogue cross-class skill bonus)
Ride: class bonus +4 (+4 fighter class skill bonus, +0 rogue cross-class skill bonus)
Rogue-only class skills: class bonus +3 (+2 fighter cross-class skill bonus, +1 rogue class skill bonus):
Appraise, Balance, Bluff, Decipher Script, Diplomacy, Disable Device, Disguise, Escape Artist, Forgery, Gather Info, Hide, Knowledge/local, Listen, Move Silently, Open Locks, Perform, Profession, Search, Sense Motive, Sleight of Hand, Spot, Tumble, Use Magic Device, Use Rope
Any other usable-untrained skill: +2 (+2 fighter cross-class skill bonus, +0 rogue cross-class skill bonus)
• To summarize the bonuses again:
Skill Bonuses From Main Class
Primary skill bonus = class level + 3
Class skill bonus = ( class level + 3 ) divided by 2 (rounded down)
Cross-class skill bonus = ( class level + 3 ) divided by 4 (rounded down)
Skill Bonuses From Secondary Class(es)
Primary skill bonus = no additional primary skills for secondary classes
Class skill bonus = ( class level ) divided by 2 (rounded down)
Cross-class skill bonus = ( class level ) divided by 4 (rounded down)
When multiclassing, skill bonuses from each class stack.
Code:
TABLE 2 : VARIANT MULTICLASSING
-- Main Class –- -- Secondary Class(es) --
Class Primary Class Cross-Class Class Cross-Class
Level skills skills skills skills skills
1st +4 +2 +1 +0 +0
2nd +5 +2 +1 +1 +0
3rd +6 +3 +1 +1 +0
4th +7 +3 +1 +2 +1
5th +8 +4 +2 +2 +1
6th +9 +4 +2 +3 +1
7th +10 +5 +2 +3 +1
8th +11 +5 +2 +4 +2
9th +12 +6 +3 +4 +2
10th +13 +6 +3 +5 +2
11th +14 +7 +3 +5 +2
12th +15 +7 +3 +6 +3
13th +16 +8 +4 +6 +3
14th +17 +8 +4 +7 +3
15th +18 +9 +4 +7 +3
16th +19 +9 +4 +8 +4
17th +20 +10 +5 +8 +4
18th +21 +10 +5 +9 +4
19th +22 +11 +5 +9 +4
20th +23 +11 +5 +10 +5
Last edited:
I should have anticipated that.
