The-Mage-King
2014-02-27, 02:42 PM
Expertise Bonuses
This system exists as an alternative to the traditional +1 swords, Belts of Giant Strength, Cloaks of Resistance, and the like. When building a character using these rules, the GM should reduce the amount of treasure found by roughly 30% percent, and never place the items being replaced by this variant.
This variant introduces a new type of bonus, called the Expertise bonus. This represents a character's inherent skill and talent, and stacks with all bonuses except for other expertise bonuses, enhancement bonuses, and resistance bonuses.
Cost per rank
Bonus Type Cost per Rank
Weapon Use4
Defensive Mastery2
Heroic Resistance1
Paragon3
Skill Mastery2
From 3rd level onwards, a character gains 2 points/level to spend on Expertise bonuses, and may select from the following. These points do not have to be spent all at once, but once spent cannot be changed barring GM fiat. At 11th level and 16th level, if the character does not possess the ability to cast spells of 5th and 7th level, respectively, they increase the number of points gained each level by 1, to 3/level at 11th, and 4/level at 16th.
Weapon Use: +1/rank Expertise bonus to hit and damage with a chosen weapon*. You may only take 1 rank per four hit dice you possess, minimum 1. A character possessing the Improved Unarmed Strike feat may gain this bonus on his or her unarmed strikes.
Defensive Mastery: +1/rank Expertise bonus to AC with chosen suit of armor or shield*. You may only take 1 rank per four hit dice you possess, minimum 1.
Heroic Resistance: +1/rank Expertise bonus to all saves. You may only take 1 rank per four hit dice you possess, minimum 1.
Paragon: +2/rank Expertise bonus to chosen ability score. You may only take 1 rank per six hit dice you possess, per ability score.
Skill Expertise: +2/rank Expertise bonus to chosen skill. You may only take 1 rank per four hit dice you possess, minimum 1.
*This may be used with a different weapon, armor, or shield by taking a 1-rank penalty while using it. You may change your chosen item after an 8-hour rest by practicing with the new weapon, armor, or shield for an hour. You may change any and all relevant instances of these abilities when you do so.
The costs of these bonuses should be reduced for certain types of characters- any character with three or more levels in a class or classes with proficiency in all martial weapons should reduce the cost per rank for weapon use by 1, any character with three or more levels in a class or classes with at least 10 class skills (excluding sub-skills, such as the various Knowledge skills) should reduce the cost per rank for skill expertise when applying it to their class skills by 1, and any character with three or more levels in a class or classes proficient in all forms of armor and shields should reduce the cost per rank for defensive mastery.
GMs should apply other reductions as they see fit, based on the overall character.
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Opinions? This is a rough-work for a homebrew project I'm working on, but since it's applicable to other parts of the systems, I figured I'd toss it up to get some review.
This system exists as an alternative to the traditional +1 swords, Belts of Giant Strength, Cloaks of Resistance, and the like. When building a character using these rules, the GM should reduce the amount of treasure found by roughly 30% percent, and never place the items being replaced by this variant.
This variant introduces a new type of bonus, called the Expertise bonus. This represents a character's inherent skill and talent, and stacks with all bonuses except for other expertise bonuses, enhancement bonuses, and resistance bonuses.
Cost per rank
Bonus Type Cost per Rank
Weapon Use4
Defensive Mastery2
Heroic Resistance1
Paragon3
Skill Mastery2
From 3rd level onwards, a character gains 2 points/level to spend on Expertise bonuses, and may select from the following. These points do not have to be spent all at once, but once spent cannot be changed barring GM fiat. At 11th level and 16th level, if the character does not possess the ability to cast spells of 5th and 7th level, respectively, they increase the number of points gained each level by 1, to 3/level at 11th, and 4/level at 16th.
Weapon Use: +1/rank Expertise bonus to hit and damage with a chosen weapon*. You may only take 1 rank per four hit dice you possess, minimum 1. A character possessing the Improved Unarmed Strike feat may gain this bonus on his or her unarmed strikes.
Defensive Mastery: +1/rank Expertise bonus to AC with chosen suit of armor or shield*. You may only take 1 rank per four hit dice you possess, minimum 1.
Heroic Resistance: +1/rank Expertise bonus to all saves. You may only take 1 rank per four hit dice you possess, minimum 1.
Paragon: +2/rank Expertise bonus to chosen ability score. You may only take 1 rank per six hit dice you possess, per ability score.
Skill Expertise: +2/rank Expertise bonus to chosen skill. You may only take 1 rank per four hit dice you possess, minimum 1.
*This may be used with a different weapon, armor, or shield by taking a 1-rank penalty while using it. You may change your chosen item after an 8-hour rest by practicing with the new weapon, armor, or shield for an hour. You may change any and all relevant instances of these abilities when you do so.
The costs of these bonuses should be reduced for certain types of characters- any character with three or more levels in a class or classes with proficiency in all martial weapons should reduce the cost per rank for weapon use by 1, any character with three or more levels in a class or classes with at least 10 class skills (excluding sub-skills, such as the various Knowledge skills) should reduce the cost per rank for skill expertise when applying it to their class skills by 1, and any character with three or more levels in a class or classes proficient in all forms of armor and shields should reduce the cost per rank for defensive mastery.
GMs should apply other reductions as they see fit, based on the overall character.
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Opinions? This is a rough-work for a homebrew project I'm working on, but since it's applicable to other parts of the systems, I figured I'd toss it up to get some review.