PDA

View Full Version : D&D 3.x Class Skills by ability other than int [PEACH]



ace rooster
2014-09-28, 07:17 AM
While I can see why they decided to award skill points based on int, I don't think it actually works well. Being intelligent does help you learn many things faster, but many things will be much easier to learn by it coming naturally to you; ie, having a good score in the relevent ability. At high levels your skill ranks will tend to dominate your ability score, and high int characters will be better at skills cued off any ability.

Skill ranks by ability variant:
You do not get int bonus skill points per level. For each ability you get half your modifer bonus skill points to spend on skills which use that ability (rounded up if the score is odd, down otherwise). So a character with str 17, dex 12, con 16, int 11, wis 15, cha 13 would get 2 extra str skill points, 0 dex, 1 con, 0 int, 1 wis, and 1 cha. Cross class skills are still cross class, and the usual caps apply.
Penalties do apply, but do not cross abilities. To place ranks in a skill with a penalty you must pay the penalty in skill ranks first, but if you do not intend to put any ranks in skills cued off that ability then you do not have to pay it. For example, say that a str 7 halfling wanted a rank in swim, he would have to spend one rank paying off the penalty, and then he could put a rank in it. He could then also place a rank in climb if he desired, having already paid the str penalty. If he did not want to place any str cued skills then he would not have to spend a rank on the penalty.

Other than everyone having maxed out concentration, is there anything silly going to happen with this? It should hopefully make orcs less bad at swimming, because they are stupid.

Extra Anchovies
2014-09-28, 12:59 PM
This system is nice, and quite novel. It also lets martial characters ignore Int and still get a good number of useful skill points. There would, however, need to be a few more Constitution-based skills, for DFAs and Incarnum users.

The issue, however, is that Intelligence doesn't affect much of anything anymore. All of the other abilities are still important (strength: melee to-hit, damage, and some skills; constitution: Concentration, hit points and fortitude; dexterity: ranged to-hit, AC, a big pile of different skills, and reflex; wisdom: will, plus the perception skills; charisma: Bluff, Diplomacy, and UMD, plus a few other skills), while Intelligence would only be needed by Int-based characters, because it now only affects Knowledge, Appraise, Craft, Decipher Script, Disable Device, Forgery, Search, and Spellcraft. Of those, only Knowledge, Disable Device, Search, and Spellcraft see much use, and Disable Device can be changed to Dexterity-based via Tactile Trapsmith. I suppose you could make the Knowledge skills more important, but without any changes, Intelligence would become a build-dependent ability like Charisma, because there are few enough Int-based skills that most characters who need them could cover them with class-derived skill points.

ace rooster
2014-09-28, 01:32 PM
Free knowledge devotion, only without gaining a knowledge? It might be a bit of a faf though.