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HourlyKeyboard
2012-08-02, 02:09 AM
I was told to post this here because it was a good idea to let other more knowledgeable people read through my ideas for balance issues:

This idea is based on the concept of Oblivion and Skyrim, a progression of abilities. You use a skill and, amazingly, it improves, thus practice makes closer to perfect. I am hopeful to not receive comments of "this is the worst idea I have ever seen" and would rather people read through this and tell me about the balance issues, or how to correct balance issues that I already know are there.



Amount of Skill Levels:
A character can level up each class skill to their level plus one, additionally a level one character has the ability to learn this amount of additional skill levels: 4*(Int+CSP+2). At each subsequent level the character can learn one additional level in each class skill and has this amount of additional skill levels (Int+CSP+2). Int is Intelligence Modifier and CSP is the Class Skill Points1. If the character is Human or Half-Elf then the equation is Int+CSP+3 instead, a racial bonus.
Example: A fighter has the class skills of Climb, Craft, Handle Animal, Intimidate, Jump, Ride, and Swim; at level three they can get each of these skills up to level four. If this fighter has a Intelligence of 14, assuming that this Intelligence score has not changed, then they can earn 36 additional skill levels.
A characters skill levels cannot exceed their level plus five, thus a rogue can only get their sneak to level six at the first level.
Experience required for Skill Levels:
Every use of a skill adds one experience to the skills progression.
Every successful use of a skill adds one experience, or two experience, to the skills progression.
A natural 20 roll on the skill adds one experience, or three experience, to the skills progression.
The amount of experience required to level up a skill is the level of the skill plus a number based on their Class Skill Points:
If the CSP is 1-2 then this value is 5
If the CSP is 3-4 then this value is 4
If the CSP is 5-6 then this value is 3
If the CSP is 7-8 then this value is 2
If the CSP is 9+ then this value is 1
Building a Character:
When building a character then there needs to be a way to account for the progression of skills, it would be far too boring to just automatically assign yourself a fully filled out amount of skills. At level one you get the standard Int+CSP amount of skill points to put into skill levels (at the standard 1 for 1 on class skills and 2 for 1 on cross-class skills). Note that you do not get the standard *4 for level one.
At higher levels you get (Level+Int+CSP)*2 amount of skill points to put into skill levels.

Attack Bonuses:
Characters can improve their Attack Bonuses by practicing with their weapons. For these purposes the Attack Bonus is divided between the Strength/Melee Attack Bonus and the Dexterity/Ranged Attacked Bonus. Note that there are feats which allow for the use of Dexterity in Melee attacks or the use of Strength in Ranged attacks; when using these feats then the Dexterity Attack Bonus can apply to Melee or the Strength Attack Bonus can apply to Ranged.
When both the Strength and Dexterity Attack Bonus is raised then it reverts into raising the Base Attack Bonus by 1.
Certain classes have a slower progression of the BAB, such as the Wizard and Sorcerer, for these classes they can only raise the BAB by one for every two levels, or otherwise can alternate between raising the Dexterity one turn and the Strength on the following turn.
Other classes have a more rapid progression of the BAB, gaining +1 per level; these classes can improve both their Dexterity and Strength Bonuses every level, thus gaining +1 BAB every level.
Classes which start at level one with +1 BAB will automatically receive this and can improve this to +2 before reaching level two.
Experience required for Attack Bonuses:
Every successful strike adds one experience, when striking with a melee weapon (or unarmed) then this applies to your Strength Attack Bonus (unless a feat differs how the attacks work), when striking with a ranged weapon then this applies to your Dexterity Attack Bonus (unless a feat differs how the attacks work). The classes which can only level up one of the attack bonuses per level can still accrue experience in both paths, while only one of those bonuses can go up during this level the opposing attack bonus can use the accrued experience on the following level to improve.
The amount of experience that is required to level up a attack bonus is based on this equation: (Current Attack Bonus + 4) * 5. Thus to get a Dexterity Attack Bonus from 0 to 1 you will need 20 successful hits. To get a Strength Attack Bonus from 5 to 6 you will need 45 successful hits.


Progression of Attributes:
A character can improve one attribute by one value per level. At every fourth level the character can work on improving two attributes. To level up an attribute you need to have a certain amount of attribute based skill levels (Strength and Dexterity Attack Bonuses count as the respective attribute based skills).
Skills and Attack Bonuses can level up as you have accrued the experience, Attributes do not improve until leveling up regardless of meeting the prerequisites for improving the Attribute.
The amount of skill levels that are required to improve an attribute is based on the level of the attribute. A strength of 17 needs to have 17 Strength based Skill Levels (including the Strength Attack Bonus) earned before it becomes 18 Strength.
Sometimes a class may be unable to earn the appropriate prerequisites for leveling up a Attribute, such as a Fighter Class that is not very heavy on skills. When this is the case then it is up to the discretion of the DM to allow for the Attribute to improve based on whether the character has put effort into improving. One of the many factors which can be in the favor of getting the DM to decide to give the player the improvement is whether the character has previously earned the required skill points through work during previous levels.

Edit - I know one possible complain is too much paperwork or whatever, what with having to keep track of the progress on various skills and stuff... personally myself and my friends are willing to do that just to see if we can play an awesome game, so you will just have to look past THAT part and look at all the other balance and other craptastic mistakes.

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AR