Looking for Ideas: Mundane Utility abilities

[Eldan]

What the title says.

I've started a homebrew project. The intention was that others would help, but it seems I'm the only one in it now. Complaining aside, here's what I need:


Ideas for utility abilities. Things characters can do that are useful out of combat. And they should be more or less inherent to the character and mundane.

By that I mean this: characters can be incredibly dextrous, fast, strong, smart, charismatic or perceptive, to superhuman degrees, but they shouldn't be calling up any energies to do so, or be meditating, or be summoning spirits or using special magitech items.

I'd be thankful for any and all abilities. Word them however you want, with rules suggestions or without. I'd also be thankful for a bit of a level spread. Meaning, I'll take both level 1 ideas (the character can see distant objects from twice as far away!) to the slightly superhuman (the characters can lift objects heavier than he is) to the ridiculous and legendary.

[Fouredged Sword]

I am implementing a homebrew incarnum class (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=287870) that focuses on augmenting the standard attributes to epic levels. You could crib some of the ideas I am implementing in the binds as non-incarnum abilities.

I personally like the ability to make break checks (to go through walls and doors) as part of a move action. This is intended as an ability for a very strong character.

[TheStranger]

How is this distinct from what is done in 3.5 using skills (and to a lesser extent, ability checks)? I mean, a good utility might be opening a locked door, and there's a skill for that. Or maybe preaching on a street corner to raise a mob, but there's (kind of) a skill for that, too.

I suppose you could break these things down to discrete skills and say that, for instance, walking a tightrope across a chasm is a utility available at level 3 instead of a DC 20 (or whatever) balance check. The problem comes when a character without the utility wants to try it, and you don't have a mechanic to handle that.

The problem with mundane utilities is that mundane things, by definition, are things that anybody can at least attempt to do. Maybe my wizard has little or no chance of climbing the wall that the rogue just went up, but I can try, and maybe I'll roll a natural 20. A system that doesn't even let me try just because I don't have that utility would bother me. If the DC is too high for me to succeed, that's somehow different in my mind, and I'm fine with that.

So if you're set on this utility idea, I guess I'd look to 3.5 skills and feats for ideas, because I'm having trouble thinking of things a mundane character could do out of combat where the DM wouldn't say, "OK, roll a [skill] check." But I'm not sold on the idea of reducing mundane things to a yes/no button, because it can frustrate players and/or break immersion. Skill checks are, IMO, one of the best core 3.5 mechanics from a simulationist perspective. You can quibble about the allocation of skill points, class skills, setting DCs, and other details of the implementation, but I really like the fundamental idea there.

[Eldan]

What I'm specifically trying to do is homebrew more Tome of Battle stances and boosts that help with utility more than with combat. Tome of Battle has a few, like magical ones that allow you to walk on air or water, or a more mundane one that gives limited scent.

So far, I have one that allows moving over difficult terrain easily for Desert Wind and a few other half-baked ideas, but I'd really like more.

Moving through terrain and walls by breaking it sounds like a good thing for Stone Dragon, as an example.

Sure, skill checks can do some pretty epic and strong things. but those are, well, available at epic levels, barring magic shenanigans. What I want to is make those things available earlier.

Now, a lot of them will interact with skill checks. Scent is most useful if you have track and survival skills as well. The one that lets you move over difficult terrain mostly just removes the rather massive penalties for tumbling, balancing, running, etc. over some kinds of terrain. And so on.


But thanks for that link, Mister Sword. I'd quite like to adapt a few of those.

[limejuicepowder]

I'm with TheStranger on this one; I don't think giving mundanes specific abilities is the way to go. That leads to "well if I want to do X well (or at all), I need to take Y levels in Z class," and that's just terrible.

I think the framework of what you're trying to do is already there, and it just needs to be tweaked: Skills, and to a certain degree feats. Both of these represent a person practicing a mundane task over and over and getting better at it over time. Once a character gets to a high enough level, or focuses on it enough, they are capable of amazing things. It's not tied to class or race, which is a good thing.

The main problem with skills is the same problem virtually all mundane things have: spells to it better. From giving massive bonuses to skills (jump, glibness) to making the skill outright superfluous (invisibility, knock), spells do it better, faster, and safer. This makes skills seem fairly lame.

So here are my suggestions:
1) ban or change the spells that stomp all over other roles. This is going to involve a good deal of personal opinion, as there are many "grey" spells to this. Does charm replace bluff? I say no due to it's limits and risks, but others might disagree. I'd focus on the spells that give large bonuses (+10 or more) to skills, and ones that are basically strictly better than the skill counterpart (with little other use besides. For example, fly replaces climb and jump pretty completely, but there are tons of other uses as well).

2) increase the skill points of mundane classes. Both from a game theory and game balance perspective, mundanes should have more skills. They are supposed to be the guys who spend countless hours honing their natural abilities. It only makes sense that they have more points to spend than the guy who practices magic all the time.

3) decrease skill DC's. More specifically, make epic skill usage readily attainable before epic level. Basically, if the party mage is up to teleporting thousands of miles, summoning angels, sleeping in private sanctums, and crafting legendary swords, the party rogue should be picking amazing locks with a snap of his fingers, balancing on thread, walking between rain drops, and convincing the king to invest in the "Give the Rogue all the Treasure" start-up company.