Variant skill class: Wisdom based!!!!

[Umbran]

A few additional points for Craft or Profession skills probalby won't break anything. However, you do have to be a little careful with Knowledge skills. Only Bards and Wizards have all knowledges as in-class skills. Suddenly allowing everybody access to these then intrudes on a strength of these classes.

In general, though, I kind of like the idea that the lifestyle of most PCs simply doesn't leave room for much else. Being a Fighter is as much a career as being a weaponsmith. So, the Fighter shouldn't generally be able to be a terribly good weaponsmith, just as the weaponsmith cannot be a terribly good fighter.

There's also a benefit to not giving too many such skill points to PCs - it keeps them interacting with NPCs. If they don't have a skill, they can go out and find someone who does. The more interaction you get with NPCs, the more opportunities you have for plot.

Let us also remember that one can "round out" a character without actually spending skill points. The character can have an interest in cooking, and try to do lots of cooking, without having a specific skill.

 

[candidus_cogitens]

maybe a good way to implement this would be to assign 4 bonus skill points to all characters at first level that must be assigned to either craft, profession, or perform (which is cross-class for all but bards, monks, and rogues). this does a few things:

I did this in my campaign! Well, almost. I didn't include perform among the options. But I like that idea too.

It's good to know another person came up with the idea independently.

It worked well in my campaign. It really helped the character-building, because every player knew that every other player's PC had a profession or craft and knew what it was. So, it helped the players understand each other's PCs that much better!

 

[DanMcS]

I've been pondering the following:

Everyone gets class-based + int bonus skills per level, normally (multiply at first level, you know the rules). These can be spent on anything the character is allowed to buy.

Characters get skill points equal to their modifier, minimum zero, for every other ability, which can only be spent on skills related to that ability, at the character's normal cost. So a fighter with 18 str, 12 int, 12 wisdom, gets his 2 +1 skill points per level, plus 4 strength skill points, plus 1 wisdom skill point. The area I'm running into problems with this is that there really aren't that many constitution skills

Maybe they should just get (Wis bonus) wisdom skill points, and (Cha bonus) charisma skill points. Hmm- this will require more thought.

 

[Tonguez]

Have a look at their character sheets and assign extra points where YOU want them, as DM.

Yeah I give out bonus skills and skill points based on character backgrounds so a character whose father was amerchant (for instance) might get Profession: Merchant +2, a character who was raised in a fishing village will get Profession: Fisherman, a Knight might get Knowledge: Etiquette etc etc

 

[Aitch Eye]

Asgard #5 has an "education skill point" system by Cyberzombie that you might want to check out. In addition to the class skills (which stay the same, but use a classes' primary stat to modify the bonus points) each class gets 2 plus their Int modifier education skill points at each level (x4 at first lvl.) which can only be used to buy craft, profession, knowledge, and perform as class skills. In addition, speak language and literacy can be bought as cross class skills. Perform is modified so that characters purchase ranks in specific types of performances.

It looks like we'll be using this in when we convert our 1e game. Since it didn't have a skill system, the characters evolved to a point that they knew a lot, and they'd suddenly get a lot dumber -- and the feel of the campaign vastly curtailed -- if we used standard 3e rules.

Asgard #6 has an article by Faisal Abdullah with suggested synergy bonuses for professions. We may be incorporating this into our straight 3e game.

http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/news...e=Downloads&file=index&req=viewdownload&cid=8

 

[candidus_cogitens]

So I tought it could be a good idea to make a SEPARATE skill system, one that grants skills point, based on WIS, to spend on profession. I dont know yet if it would also work for craft and knowledge, since these are based on INT, but i await your opinions. It would possibly be 1pt/level + WIS bonus.

I think Shiner's idea is well worth considering further. Giving exta points based on WIS helps to avoid balance problems. Here's how:

Let's say you have a wizard and you're likely to take Knowledge Arcana anyway. If you allow the player to spend extra points on that skill, then it doesnt really accomplish the goal of providing a richer background for the character. All it does is give the wizard more skill points to spend. BUT, it you take Shiner's suggestion and give 1 pt/lev + WIS bonus, and if you make these WIS based skills separate and non-stackable with the INT based skills, and you make the limit on ranks equivalent to level (instead of level +3), then that wizard will have a dis-incentive to rely on his WIS skill points for Knowledge Arcana and he’ll more than likely want to spend those extra skill points on something a bit more unique.

This way you can include Knowledge and Perform, in addition to Craft and Profession, without balance problems. You might even consider including Alchemy and Pick Pocket, or other skills that would make interesting character background stories.