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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Afrodyte" data-source="post: 4019791" data-attributes="member: 8713">my own ideasI'd love to do it, particularly for a short adventure or one-shot that is sort of a fusion of Rob Roy and Willow (ie, the aesthetics of Rob Roy and the magic level of Willow).  I just don't have the time to devote to it right now.  Since 4e is going to have a lot in common with Star Wars: SE, I'm using that as my baseline.  I don't know enough about Star Wars: SE to do very detailed house rules.  However, I know that skills, feats, and class abilities will get the most work.SKILLSSkill ListI want enough skills to make it possible to reflect a character's physical, mental, and/or social "style" without making them so granular that you spend too much time weighing the pros and cons of each individual skill.   I work off of two guidelines.  First, skills are active.  They are things characters do, not what they have.  As much as possible, I try to use active verbs as skill names.  Second, as a corollary to the first guideline, skills are defined by how the player uses the skill, not who or what the player uses it on.  The uses for each skill are far from exhaustive.Acrobatics (Dex): flipping, cartwheeling, somersaults, tumbling, contortingArcana (Int): learning spells, creating spells, using magical objectsAthletics (Str): climbing, jumping, swimming, runningCraft (Int): make and appraise smaller non-mechanical handiworks (like jewelry)Empathize (Wis): discern personality/nature, understand motivations, predict behaviorEndurance (Con): push your limits despite pain and/or distractionImpress (Cha): inspire, intimidate, motivate, captivateInvestigate (Int): find clues, solve riddles, create and decode cyphersLanguage (Int): speak, read, and write another language; figure out the meanings of an unfamiliar language based on the ones you already knowLarceny (Dex): conceal things, pick pockets, open locks, slip out of bondsLore (Int): apply knowledge of history, culture, philosophy, religion, literature, and artMedicine (Int): treat injury, poison, and disease; diagnose illness, poison, or cause of death; create poisonsNature (Int): survive in the wilderness, identify plants and animals, navigateObserve (Wis): notice things with five senses and/or intuitionPersuade (Cha): negotiate, lie, cheat, seduce, debate/parleySmith (Int): create and appraise larger non-mechanical handiworks (like weapons)Stealth (Dex): hide, sneak, shadowStreetwise (Wis): make and work local contacts, uncover local rumors, get hard-to-find items, determine if something is legit or stolen, buy and sell on the local black marketTinker (Int): fiddle around with mechanical objects (like traps and locks)There might be room for additional skills, especially for PCs' backgrounds, but most of them fall into one or more of these categories.Nature of skillsWith the way skill points and DCs work now, it's easier to be optimized for a few things than generally competent at several things.  The system currently supports myopic characters who are excellent at their chosen specialties but inept at everything else.  Though it can encourage party balance, niche protection, and teamwork, it sometimes forces the group to stay huddled together if everyone wants to participate in the scene.  This isn't always the most interesting or the most fun thing to play.Instead of forcing specialization early on, I prefer to give PCs general competency with many things and exceptional ability in few.  This gives players more options in any given scene, but a few chances to really shine.  I like SWSE's skill system.  I'd start there but nix the idea of class skills altogether.  Instead, I'd have the classes balanced by the number of trained skills they can start with (Intelligence bonus notwithstanding).  PCs can always use a bonus feat to pick up additional trained skills, and the Skill Focus feat can help them specialize even more.FEATSLike the 4e developers, I want to steer clear of feats that were conditional on a specific effect.  Not to mention, I want something that players would want to pick up at any level, not just when every +1 counts.  Perhaps making certain feats (like Weapon Focus) scale with level would do the trick.CLASS ABILITIESI love talent trees.  Ideally each class would have between 3 and 5 of them.OTHER STUFFI was never fond of the idea that PCs could get a bigger bonus from magic items than from character growth.  So, I like the idea of giving out more ability increases.I like static defense scores.  I never understood why PCs had to roll for saves but didn't have to roll for AC.  Also, I like that these go up as PCs level.  Once again, I never understood why PCs get better at hitting things as they level up but never better at avoiding getting hit.  With static defense scores, I don't need a separate score for AC, which cuts down on extra book-keeping, which makes me happy.Tying weapon damage to level is a good idea, but I'd probably want to do something different so that rolling a 15 and hitting is different from rolling a 5.CONCLUSIONI did this when I was pretty tired, so I can't vouch for any of it.  This is about all I could come up with for now.</blockquote>

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