Skills

[napoleonbuff]

I've decided that I like the new errata-ed numbers (5, 10, 15 at 1st), as they make it that other party members can indeed help even with hard tasks. To give that extra umph to the characters with the huge modifiers, however, I'm thinking about going with a tiered system of penalties and rewards.

Basically, the first reward tier will be from n (the check number) to n+9, the second reward tier will be anything > n+9; the first penalty tier will be from n-1 to n-5; and the second penalty tier will be anything < n-5.

There will be two additional tiers that can only be triggered by a natural 1 or natural 20.

So here are the six tiers for a moderate lvl1 check:

Reward 3
Reward 2 20+
Reward 1 10-19
Penalty 1 5-9
Penalty 2 <5
Penalty 3

Natural 20 = shift up 1 row (min reward 1); only way to get reward 3.

Natural 1 = shift down 1 row (max penalty 1); only way to get penalty 3.

Fill in the rewards/penalties as you like (no need to use all rows for all skill checks/challenges.

For crossing a narrow 10 foot plank, it might be:

Reward 2 = cross at normal speed
Reward 1 = cross at 1/2 speed
Penalty 1 = advance 1 square then pause for balance
Penalty 2 = fall

For disarming a trap that takes 6 successes, it could be:

Reward 3 = 3 successes
Reward 2 = 2 successes
Reward 1 = 1 success
Penalty 1 = no effect
Penalty 2 = needle dart stabs you for 1d6 damage
Penalty 3 = needle dart stabs you for 2d6 damage

Etc.