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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Roman" data-source="post: 3789105" data-attributes="member: 1845">We already know from designer statements that the Star Wars Saga can be looked at as a preview of the skill system of D&D 4E, even though there will be differences between the two skill systems. Some people are thrilled, but some of us intensely dislike some aspects of the Star Wars Saga skill system. Rather than complain incessantly about the new system and accomplish nothing, I thought I would instead state the exact issues some of us have with the new skill system and suggest how these could be rectified within the system. My main problem with the new system is the lack of an ability to create characters with serious flaws. Yes, I accept the oft repeated phrase that the characters are heroic, but even heroes can have flaws and it often makes them more interesting. Instead of discarding the automatic advancement of skills every second level, though, this could be rectified by enabling the use of character flaws. I envision something like a character flow called “Inept” followed by a noun derived from the skill, for example: “inept swimmer”, or “inept climber” and so on. This flaw would mean that the character does not automatically advance in the given skill and would conversely provide some other mechanical benefit. The mechanical benefit could be an extra feat or some smaller benefit to prevent abuse. Another way to prevent abuse would be to have a rule that each subsequent character flaw requires more “inept” skills to be chosen to grant further feats (1 non-advancing skill for 1 feat, 2 more non-advancing skills for a 2nd feat, 3 more non-advancing skills for a 3rd feat, etcetera) or abuse could be prevented through limiting the number of character flaws that can thus be taken. For added flexibility, we could also enable the skill to revert from ‘inept’ (non-progressing) to ‘normal’ (progressing at 1 point every two levels, or whatever the rate of skill advancement will be in 4E). Many people also have a problem with what they deem insufficient granularity in the new skill system (only three levels at each level: untrained, trained and skill-focus). For me this is less of an issue than the inability to simulate character flaws. In any case, it is easily rectified by simply changing the bonuses trained and skill-focus provide and creating more training levels, such as untrained, trained, accomplished, expert and masterful. I think hardly anybody has a problem with combining the myriad 3.X E skills into fewer broader skills in 4E. That is just a plain good change.</blockquote>

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