Organic Skills [houserule]

[Skjaldbakka]

Organic Skills:
Once per session, you may attempt to improve a skill used during that session. Roll a d20. If the roll is higher than your current skill modifier, you gain a free rank in that skill. If this would put you above your maximum number of ranks, you instead gain a +1 Inherent bonus to that skill (max +5).

Skill Focus and Skill Application* give a +3 and a +2 (respectively), to this skill training roll. Synergy bonuses also apply to this roll.
Also, for every week of downtime during the session, you gain an additional roll.

So the roll is 1d20+feats+synergy, with a DC equal to your current modifier on the skill.


*Catch all for all those +2 to 2 skills feats.

[F.L.]

That's an interesting idea.

I had once had a similar idea, where, every time a 1 or a 20 is rolled on a skill check, you get a +1 bonus to it (up to your int mod total) from learning from failure or success, which would lessen the sting of critical failures, but your idea also has merits.

Does it intend to replace level up skill advancement, or just be an additional supplement to enhance PCs? Or an explanation for highly skilled, low level NPC experts?

Hmm, though I just thought of what I see as a small problem with your algorithm.

1d20+synergy+feats > current mod

Now, this gives a bonus up until perhaps 15 ranks before it becomes roughly impossible, with one main exception:

Recalculate that current mod for a person wearing plate mail trying to enhance hide. The -10 armor check penalty should drop the current mod to hide, or any of the other skills of that type, to allow 25 ranks or so. Further, the formula has better odds of enhancing those skills which have a negative ability modifier. This doesn't seem logical to me.

[The_Dead_Legion]

I like it alot. As what was said above: is it suposed to replace skill point buy, or coexist with it?

[Fiery Diamond]

This could work well - within a single group. Trying to use this as a general rule could make things difficult because different groups have sessions of different lengths and frequencies, along with different rates of leveling up compared to number of sessions. But for use within a single group that agrees on it - I like this idea.
Also, what the previous posters said. Except:

1d20+synergy+feats > current mod

Now, this gives a bonus up until perhaps 15 ranks before it becomes roughly impossible, with one main exception:

Recalculate that current mod for a person wearing plate mail trying to enhance hide. The -10 armor check penalty should drop the current mod to hide, or any of the other skills of that type, to allow 25 ranks or so. Further, the formula has better odds of enhancing those skills which have a negative ability modifier. This doesn't seem logical to me.

I don't understand... putting on armor would make it easier to succeed on the roll, but it wouldn't allow more ranks for a skill. Unless you're saying that putting on armor would just increase the number of ranks required before you couldn't enhance a skill, in which case I agree with you. I also think that the OP wasn't intending the "lower mod or negative mod on a skill to make it easier to enhance that skill" to be "logical" in the sense of in-game, but rather metagame - this makes it easier to bring up scores that are too low, while preventing people from easily getting ridiculously high scores.

-Fiery Diamond

[F.L.]

This could work well - within a single group. Trying to use this as a general rule could make things difficult because different groups have sessions of different lengths and frequencies, along with different rates of leveling up compared to number of sessions. But for use within a single group that agrees on it - I like this idea.
Also, what the previous posters said. Except:

I don't understand... putting on armor would make it easier to succeed on the roll, but it wouldn't allow more ranks for a skill. Unless you're saying that putting on armor would just increase the number of ranks required before you couldn't enhance a skill, in which case I agree with you. I also think that the OP wasn't intending the "lower mod or negative mod on a skill to make it easier to enhance that skill" to be "logical" in the sense of in-game, but rather metagame - this makes it easier to bring up scores that are too low, while preventing people from easily getting ridiculously high scores.

-Fiery Diamond

True, it would mean that you could only hit the skill cap this way, but there are plenty of ways to make it easy to bring up scores that you use normally. Poison yourself, armor check penalties (nothing says the rogue can't wear plate, it's just usually a bad idea), custom magic items that give -5 to a skill (insane, but should be craftable), circumstance penalties (practice lockpicking with improvised tools), disease, magical spell penalties, curses, etc. Given enough sessions, or weeks, you could have as many skills maxed as you like. Also, can this apply to 'trained only' skills? Having the party warrior pick up autohypnosis, UMD and UPD for no real reason doesn't strike me as reasonable either.

[Skjaldbakka]

You have to have used the skill during the session. So trained only skills could not be picked up this way. Don't have a good answer for penalties aside from liberal application of the no stick.