NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="SHARK" data-source="post: 179395" data-attributes="member: 1131">Greetings!Hmmm...that sounds interesting! Mmadsen, seeing that you have WOT, STAR WARS, and Call of Cthulhu, why in those games, the character classes/types all have considerably more skill points per level than the character classes in D&D? You know, when I mention characters having a reasonable chance of survival in the future, I'm not quite limiting my scope to merely survival in direct combat, though that is an important part. I'm also focusing on the eventualalities of a member of the group not having the range of skills necessary to succeed in life, throughout the other 70-90% of the time when fighting and direct combat *isn't* taking place.For example, the Standard Ranger has 4+intel bonus for skill points. Now, assuming the character isn't especially brilliant, let's take the straight average--let's assume a "10" intelligence. Now I know that Humans get extra skill points, for "Game Balance" reasons, so people will want to be humans, but there's a huge credibility problem: Let's assume our Ranger is an Elf. Sorry, but Elves, with their incredibly ancient lives, should know incredibly more than a Human. In my campaign, I have changed the Elves significantly, to better reflect the absolute mythological superiority of Elves over much of creation. None the less, let's assume our Ranger is an Elf. With a "10" Intelligence. That means that he starts the game with 4+0x4=16 Skill Points. In my campaign, I provide an across the board bonus of +2 Skill Points, for every class. Even then, though, our Elf Ranger of average intellect still only gets 24 Skill Points at first level, and 6 Skill Points each level after that. Let's look at the Ranger's class skillls:(1) Animal Empathy (CHA)(2) Climb (STR)(3) Concentration (CON)(4) Craft (INT)(5) Handle Animal (CHA)(6) Heal (WIS)(7) Hide (DEX)(8) Intuit Direction (WIS)(9) Jump (STR)(10) Knowledge--Nature (INT)(11) Listen (WIS)(12) Move Silently (DEX)(13) Profession (WIS)(14) Ride (DEX)(15) Search (INT)(16) Spot (WIS)(17) Swim (STR)(18) Use Rope (DEX)(19) Wilderness Lore (WIS)(20) Knowledge--Hearth Wisdom (INT); *Optional*To this broad range of skills, I add Knowledge--Hearth Wisdom, (INT); Reading the description of the skill in SoF or DoF if I recall correctly,<img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />--the skill is ideal for Rangers.Whether these skills are augmented by others, or not, the argument could be made, especially with the increased depth in "New Uses For Old Skills" sections, that Sense Motive, Diplomacy, Gather Information, Bluff, Appraise, and perhaps a few more, are all not only very useful, but practically essential. The thing is, though these skills are seemingly slated as "Rogue" skills, in my campaign, at least, everyone is thrown into the deep end of intense social/political interaction, in addition to combat. It just isn't realistic, or practical, to somehow task all social interactions to the "Rogue" character. What if there is no Rogue in the group? Something that happens often in my campaign, is that I make allowances and opportunities for a vast array of things to happen, even very important things, to different *individual* characters. The problem is, they don't go everywhere and do everything *Together* For example, when the Ranger Maria is hit on by Baron Lowenbrau, and he invites her to attend a ball at his estate, he sure as hell isn't expecting the group's Rogue or Bard to talk for her, you know? Ranger Maria is the only person invited, from the group. However, there are some problems to begin with. because of Ranger Maria's low skill points, she is probably going to burp at the dinner table, and generally make an array of social blunders. In addition, though, through a developing romance, Baron Lowenbrau is a leading cultist of a Dark Cult, and Ranger Maria is going to need many social skills to not only continue to entice his interest, but also to gather the information needed, to go along with what the rest of the group discovers, in order to make a raid upon his estate eventually, and either kill him, or drag him before the magistrates.I offer this to simply show that the backgrounds, and the current demands, are often quite broader than what the Standard Classes allow, as to the skill points, and sometimes skills offered. Typically, if following the rules and capabilities strictly, Ranger Maria would put in foot in her mouth in such a crass manner, that at best, she would be swiftly dismissed and taken back to town by carriage, never to see the Baron again. (And the party won't learn what they could have, had Ranger Maria been seeing the good Baron.) At worst, Ranger Maria would make such a scene, that, enraged, the Baron would have Ranger Maria imprisoned, where he would ravish her, and afterwards, have one of his trusted servants dump her dead body in the sewer somewhere. (Unless she notified the rest of the group, the group might not even be aware of this happening to her.) All of these things, and other plot strands, can develop, or fail to develop, from the Ranger having, or not having, sufficient skills beyond combat.Classes definitely need more skill points, in order to develop more "Rounded" characters, and they should be able to do so without everyone having an 18 intelligence, you know?<img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Semper Fidelis,SHARK</blockquote>

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