Making new skills- where in the DMG?

[AmeVulpes]

I have had no internet access for the last few days, so I've been poring over various sourcebooks (particularly core, Savage Species, and Arms & Equipment Guide).

There's a line in the PHB, page 110.

Skills and Feats: You can call your skills,
feats, and class features whatever your character
would call them. Lidda, the halfling rogue, talks
about “footpaddin’ ” rather than about “moving
silently,”
[...]
You might also think of other skills that your
character ought to have. Your DM has guidelines
(in the Dungeon Master’s Guide) for creating new
skills.
Emphasis mine.

So, where in the DMG are these guidelines? I kept trying to find it, to no avail. I tend to lose track of text after a few dozen paragraphs to pages, so maybe I skipped over it. I really like this idea, and it comes up a lot that players think the core skills are a bit restricting, or don't quite fit them.

EDIT: I tried more google-fu just now, and found this in reference to said line:

Grant you, that line about the DMG having rules on creating new features is something of a white lie, but it makes an important point.

So does this guideline exist at all?

[Jeraa]

Really, it is a lie. But it is on page 14, under Changing the Rules. It really gives no guidelines at all.


Consider the following questions when you want to change a rule.
• Why am I changing this rule?
• Am I clear on how the rule that I’m going to change really works?
• Have I considered why the rule existed as it did in the first place?
• How will the change impact other rules or situations?
• Will the change favor one class, race, skill, or feat more than the others?
• Overall, is this change going to make more players happy or unhappy? (If the answer is “happy,” make sure the change isn’t unbalancing. If the answer is “unhappy,” make sure the change is worth it.)


One way to judge whether a new skill, feat, spell, or other option is balanced is to ask yourself, “If I add this to the game, is it so good that everyone will want to have it?” At the same time, ask yourself, “Is this so limited that no one will be interested in it?” Keep in mind that it’s easier and more tempting to create something that’s too good rather than not good enough. Watch yourself.

Yeah, that is basically it.

[AmeVulpes]

Really, it is a lie. But it is on page 14, under Changing the Rules. It really gives no guidelines at all.

Yeah, that is basically it.

Wow, that's pretty lame. Thanks for the cite, though.

[Thurbane]

This thread may be of some interest: Skills not present in any books (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?570726)

...it has some suggestions for new skills people have come up with.