Skills

[DanMcS]

Why is the limit for class skills 3+ your character level? It seems arbitrary and random, and I dislike it. I'm thinking of making the limit equal to character level. It makes sense.

Now, one, it makes skill focus type feats more important, and I'll have to hold off on high skill check traps and stuff a while longer, that's ok.

Two, it makes some PrCs harder to get into, but that's really just a matter of dropping the requirement 3 points.

But why was it put so high to begin with?

 

[Drawmack]

My guess would be that if you look at things in the rulebooks like picking locks you'll see that it's really balanced with 3+chr lvl. Also take into account that if you do this then at first level a rogue gets 8+int bonus*4 skill points to spend and can only put 1 point in each skill so he's going to have every class skill at the max ranks and then some. My guess is that this was done for just this reason.

 

[whatisitgoodfor]

Drawmack:

My guess is that this was done for just this reason.

I think you might be a little bit backwards there. IMO, they instituted the 4 levels worth of skills at first level across the board so that characters could choose a set of skills to continually have maxxed out at every level.

The reasoning as to why they instituted skills like that was so that there would be a difference between a character who had studied something extensively and one who hadn't. (Oh, wow, my character spent the last 5 years of game time learning how to be 5% better at something than Joe Schmoe.)

Of course, the same rationale can be applied to BAB.

The obvious solution is to get rid of the extra 3 levels worth of skills and then just start every campaign at level 4.

 

[The It's Man]

I guess it has also something to do with skills that can be used untrained.

If PC has a +3 modifier on an untrained skill because of an ability of 16 or 17, he still will be worse than a PC who is trained and who has maxed the skill and who does have a modifier of 0.

Personally, I wouldn't like to play a PC who has to spend three levels putting skillpoints in a skill so his skillmodifier is as good as the skillmodifier of an untrained PC.
I prefer to have a skillsystem where someone who did all the practice he could do at first level (and thus maxing the number of skillranks) in a skill [which doesn't relate to an ability with a negative modifier ofcourse], is better in it than someone who is also first level and didn't have any practice in it.