What skill levels would academics have?

[Michael Dean]

I'm looking for a rule of thumb for creating npcs or characters who are professors at the college or university level. What skill levels in their field would be appropriate? Not only for an average, run-of-the-mill associate professor but also for one who would be world renowned in his or her field.

So I am guessing, for example, that a philosophy professor would have a Knowledge (philosophy) level of 8 to 10 for someone at the junior college level, while say John Rawls at Harvard would have had a Knowledge (philosophy) of maybe 25 to 30+, not counting bonus for intelligence? Am I way off base here or reasonably close?

Also, would there be any differences in the above assumptions if it were a purely scientific field like physics or quantum mechanics?

Any advice/discussion would be much appreciated.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Well, let's look at it from a rules perspective:

The Field Scienstist gains the ability "Minor Breakthrough" at Level 5.
Minor Breakthrough gets him a bonus to reputation (and wealth), representing the fame for his work.
Assuming the character took the optimal path to this ability, he would be an 8th level character, with a maximum possible number of ranks of 11. He has an effective Reputation of +4 (plus any additional modifiers) in the scientific community.
Certainly not every "renown" scientist needs to become a Field Scientist (this would probably be indeed difficult for most academics, since they are probably not heroic characters), but these gives some parameters to work with.

In D20 Modern, reputation is a actual a character "attribute", so to be _really_ known for your expertise, you probably need a good reputation score first. A Score of +4 is sufficient for the Field Scientist. A Smart Hero/Ordinary could reach this at level 10, with a maximum possible number of ranks of 13.

So, any "renown" academic might have between 11 to 14 ranks and a reputation score of 4 or more.

For a Harvard-Type Academic, maybe the Field Scientist "Major Breakthrough"-ability could be the guideline. As a Smart 3 / Field Scientist 10, the character would have a maximum number of ranks of 16, and a reputation bonus of +8 in the scientific community.
A Smart Ordinary 10 / Charismatic Ordinary 7 could reach similar values. (reputation bonus +8, maximum ranks 20).

This is all ignoring feats, talents or abilities modifying the skill or reputation scores.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

I'm looking for a rule of thumb for creating npcs or characters who are professors at the college or university level. What skill levels in their field would be appropriate? Not only for an average, run-of-the-mill associate professor but also for one who would be world renowned in his or her field.

So I am guessing, for example, that a philosophy professor would have a Knowledge (philosophy) level of 8 to 10 for someone at the junior college level, while say John Rawls at Harvard would have had a Knowledge (philosophy) of maybe 25 to 30+, not counting bonus for intelligence? Am I way off base here or reasonably close?

Also, would there be any differences in the above assumptions if it were a purely scientific field like physics or quantum mechanics?

Any advice/discussion would be much appreciated.

I think you're giving them too many levels. Just because someone is a Harvard professor doesn't mean they're going to have a high Rep. Maybe a bit higher than someone not going to Harvard, but they could get a +1 bonus for being associated with Harvard, instead of legimately having a higher Rep score.

I saw it described this way: high school best subject, maybe 2 ranks. College best subject, 4 to 6 ranks. (5 ranks is expert, 6 is what you need to qualify for an AdC.) The highest level professor isn't likely to exceed 10th-level, and they're incrementally advancing science rather than winning big awards. Note that D20 Modern doesn't really have rules for "advancing science", other than abstractly, so there's no really good guideline for how skilled you have to be in order to get a Nobel Prize, build an X-Ray gun, or whatever. It's easier for NPCs to design stuff just because the GM can hand-wave it.

College professors would probably range from 3rd-level up to 10th. ABout 95% are Ordinaries. The highest ranked professor doesn't have to have the highest skill score, either - they probably got their position due to seniority, ambition and leadership ability, and might not be gaining ranks in their best skill very quickly since they spend so much time doing administrivia rather than doing lab research. The most brilliant scientist (and highest level) around might be an unambitious nerd with lots of Smart and Dedicated Hero levels but Charisma 8 and no desire for publicity, either - maybe they even have the Low Profile feat. Isn't that why they're working on the top secret cold fusion reactor?

To be world renowned, you need Rep and lots of skill ranks. Assuming you got the good reputation legitimately, the scientist needs ranks in Craft (writing) to write interesting journal articles which eventually got him noticed. In such an instance, I think an 8th to 10th level heroic scientist is quite reasonable. A Smart Hero 8 would have Rep +3 (+6 with the Renown feat, maybe a tad more with levels in Field Scientist). Compare to a 10th-level Smart Ordinary toiling away where few people have heard of them: Rep +3. While Rep +6 isn't that great, anyone with 5 ranks in the appropriate scientific skill has a decent chance of knowing about you. To be well known to non-scientists, you need a ridiculously high Rep score.

When it comes to skill scores, a Smart Hero 10 who started with Int 15 and now has a 17, took the right occupation, the right Educated feat and the right Savant talent could have a score of +29. A Smart Hero 4/Field Scientist 6 would have 6 points lower (so +23).

IMO, Rep doesn't advance quickly enough. You have to put a lot of effort into boosting your Rep if you really want a high Rep.

 

[Michael Dean]

Thanks a lot, guys. Both of those responses were better than I was hoping as food for thought. I didn't even consider the reputation bonus for the world-renowned scientist; I was more imagining how many skill points that a Nobel prize winner would likely have in order to make the big discoveries that would get him famous.

The fact that it takes so much to pump up the reputation score does suggest some good story lines, though. Is that professor famous because he's so smart or does he just know how to play the fame game better than his peers. I've heard that "wars" in academia can get pretty vicious.

 

[arscott]

There's an adventure on the d20 modern site that involves feuding professors. One is either a straight smart hero or a smart/feild scientist, and the other one is a charismatic/personality.

Keep in mind that any super-genius, stephen hawking famous scientist is probably going to be a heroic character. And while feild scientist grants a few renown bonuses and better hit dice, to actually improve their scientific understanding, they're better off staying smart Heroes and taking the savant talent for each skill they specialize in (and maybe a dip of dedicated for skill emphasis)

 

[wingsandsword]

There are some stock scholars in the Menace Manual (Parapsychologist and University Scientist archetypes) to give you a picture of what levels of skill various levels academics could have.

Using these as examples, a typical graduate student or research assistant is listed as a Smart Ordinary 2 or Smart Ordinary 1/Dedicated Ordinary 1 (+9 or +10 in two knowledge categories directly related to their field, +6 or +7 in research, and a +1 reputation), a typical junior faculty member (like an associate professor) is lsited as a Smart Ordinary 6 or Smart Ordinary 3/Dedicated Ordinary 3 (+14 in two knowledge categories related to their field, +8 to +12 to research, and a +2 reputation), and a highly experienced, tenured professor is listed as a Smart Ordinary 10 or Smart Ordinary 5/Dedicated Ordinary 5 (+18 in two knowledge skills for their field, +10 to +16 in Research, and a +4 reputation).

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Keep in mind that any super-genius, stephen hawking famous scientist is probably going to be a heroic character.

I don't know if he actually qualifies for being a heroic character, but then, I don't really what constitutes heroic and what constitues ordinary. If Heroic requires overcoming great hindrances and still prevailing, Hawking certainly qualifies. Would Einstein do?

(From a gamer's perspective - No offense to Hawking - , I could perfectly see someone creating a character like Hawking in a system like GURPS or SR: "Okay, I take the "ALS-disability" flaw, and put all the points to Int. Man, this guy will totally rock at science"... )

 

[reanjr]

Don't forget the +2/+2 feats and Skill Focus (I think it would be entirely reasonable to allow Skill Focus in a game). These stack. If there is not currently a +2/+2 feat for the applicable skill, create one by picking a related skill. This will help with creating scholars that are very good at their subject but aren't necessarily level 15 to be that way.

Honestly, I think there should be an NPC type class for Academics that grants bonuses to the field of expertise as well. It's one of the places where d20 tends to fail at modeling the situation.

To answer your question, I think you're about right where you should be on skill bonus.

 

[Michael Dean]

There are some stock scholars in the Menace Manual (Parapsychologist and University Scientist archetypes) to give you a picture of what levels of skill various levels academics could have.

Ahh. That is one of the few Modern books I don't have. That's good, I'll use that. Thanks again, everyone who posted so far.