Baseline Competence (skills patch)

[ChrisAsmadi]

It's always bugged me that beyond a point, it becomes hard to use certain skills as part of challenges, because the gap between characters who're trained and those who aren't is too vast (an issue that becomes especially prevalent with Stealth), but I'd rather avoid a blanket skill bonus because I don't think it makes sense for every skill. Thus, this attempt at a house rule. Thoughts?

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Baseline Competence: Add +1/2 Character Level (min 0) to all Acrobatics, Climb, Perception, Ride, Stealth and Swim checks. You may only spend skill points in these skills up to a maximum of character level / 2, rounded up. If you possess a natural fly speed, this also applies to the Fly skill. Skill rank prerequisites are halved, rounding up (min 1).

[Morphic tide]

I'd expand it by making it more related to pre-existing competence (also, streamline it by having it be automatic ranks, so you don't need the bundle of clauses). Almost every class has most of the genuinely vital skills, so +1/3 level Skill Ranks to every Class Skill gets you most of the same effect, making Skill Monkeys more skilled and allowing much more specialization in side competencies. Automatic scaling based on skill points spent could make cross-class skills more tolerable (and cover the classes that lack important stuff on-list), and make it so that heavy cross-class actually ends up allowing for more broad skills than in-class, while staying in-class lets you have more things high up. Which is, in my opinion, exactly how it should be.

[ChrisAsmadi]

I'd expand it by making it more related to pre-existing competence (also, streamline it by having it be automatic ranks, so you don't need the bundle of clauses). Almost every class has most of the genuinely vital skills, so +1/3 level Skill Ranks to every Class Skill gets you most of the same effect, making Skill Monkeys more skilled and allowing much more specialization in side competencies. Automatic scaling based on skill points spent could make cross-class skills more tolerable (and cover the classes that lack important stuff on-list), and make it so that heavy cross-class actually ends up allowing for more broad skills than in-class, while staying in-class lets you have more things high up. Which is, in my opinion, exactly how it should be.

I considered using automatic ranks and then decided against it, just in case it allowed for anything unforeseen with regard to qualifying for stuff.

Also, adding it to all class skills doesn't really solve my issue, because not every class has those particular key skills that really need to be available to an entire party in order to build any sort of challenge around them (it also buffs certain traits over others, along with races with an alt-racial ability that grants them extra class skills) on their class skill list.

[Morphic tide]

I considered using automatic ranks and then decided against it, just in case it allowed for anything unforeseen with regard to qualifying for stuff.

The problem is that you also halved the skill ranks they can have to avert larger bonuses than intended. Either accept inflated bonuses, or have them be ranks so that qualifications aren't buggered in the other, more-problematic, direction. After all, you already halved prerequisites, so a lot of the issues are already present.

Also, adding it to all class skills doesn't really solve my issue, because not every class has those particular key skills that really need to be available to an entire party in order to build any sort of challenge around them (it also buffs certain traits over others, along with races with an alt-racial ability that grants them extra class skills) on their class skill list.

Which is where the last sentence comes in, with people getting more ranks by spending actual points in a skill. So people who are grabbing it cross-class can invest the full number of skill points, getting a larger return on total skill ranks they have and having the ability to quite handily catch up.

[ChrisAsmadi]

The problem is that you also halved the skill ranks they can have to avert larger bonuses than intended. Either accept inflated bonuses, or have them be ranks so that qualifications aren't buggered in the other, more-problematic, direction. After all, you already halved prerequisites, so a lot of the issues are already present.


Which is where the last sentence comes in, with people getting more ranks by spending actual points in a skill. So people who are grabbing it cross-class can invest the full number of skill points, getting a larger return on total skill ranks they have and having the ability to quite handily catch up.

Inflated bonuses defeats one of the objectives - I want to avoid the usual "here's a stealth mission, let's send the stealth guy solo" thing. With a reduced variance on those skills in the party between specialists and everybody else, it gives the option to actually use challenges where the whole party has to use them.

Also, short of a somewhat inelegant "you cannot qualify for feats earlier than you otherwise could without this houserule" clause, this method seems to be the closest way to sticking close to existing prereqs - the only thing it shifts is allowing access to stuff that has an even number of ranks required a level early.

[Nifft]

- Go in the 5e direction and lower the ceiling on skill maximum. Perhaps each skill point buys fractional ranks after the first -- harmonic progression would mean each rank = costs for 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. -> total expenditure would be 1, 3, 6, 10 in that example, so at level 10 you'd have at most 4 ranks per skill.

Pro: lower ceiling means expanded relevance for low-skill-rank party members.
Con: you're adding complexity to emulate something much simpler.


- Universal Basic Improvement - Every check gets (half-level + ability modifier) OR your regular bonus, whichever is better.

Pro: simple.
Con: enforces focus.


- Caste System - Instead of giving (half-level + ability modifier) to all skills, only give that to skills that are idiomatic to the PC, per race / class / archetype. Work out skill groups that are iconic for each category of PC build choice, and balance groups across those. Try to ensure each cluster of skills is relatively fair as compared to other clusters.

Pro: simple for players, doesn't enforce focus.
Con: might be a lot of work for the DM.