Increasing Skills past the limit?

[zephiros]

Is there anything that lets you?

eg, if I'm level 16 and I want to upgrade a skill past 19, is there any way to? (as far as ranks put in, I know there's items and ability mods and whatnot).

Also can anyone recommend items that provide spellcraft bonuses?

[kestrel404]

I recall a trick that involves using the bard song that temporarily increases you hit dice, while a psion uses the power that lets you change you skill selections from your last level. I forget the names ATM, though.

[FMArthur]

There is a feat in Cityscape called Primary Contact that lets you get 1 rank in a skill and explicitly allows increasing about the normal limit. Unfortunately, the way it's worded means that the benefit of this disappears at your next level-up where you are again limited by your max ranks. Further, it has some stringent fluff requirements and is based entirely around fluff so it can't really be ignored.

So if you wanted to take it at 16th level you'd have to get a bonus feat from a class at that level (eg: take a level of Marshal when you already have Skill Focus: Diplomacy) after taking its prerequisite feat, Favored and associating yourself with an organization that focuses on this skill somehow.

[Draz74]

As I recall, the professional cheesy way to pull this off involves polymorph cheese and some monster called the Dusk Giant.

[JoshuaZ]

As I recall, the professional cheesy way to pull this off involves polymorph cheese and some monster called the Dusk Giant.

Yes, the dusk giant is a monster from Heroes of Horror which gains hit die when it eats sentient beings but loses hit die if it goes a long time without eating them. So rpugh idea is you polymorph into a dusk giant, eat some people, then polymorph back into your normal form. There are some additional steps needed to justify keeping the extra hit die that I don't recall. It is very cheeserific.

[Urpriest]

Yes, the dusk giant is a monster from Heroes of Horror which gains hit die when it eats sentient beings but loses hit die if it goes a long time without eating them. So rpugh idea is you polymorph into a dusk giant, eat some people, then polymorph back into your normal form. There are some additional steps needed to justify keeping the extra hit die that I don't recall. It is very cheeserific.

The main way to do it is not to keep the extra hit dice (you're not allowed to) but to put all your skill points into one skill. Since the game only "checks" your hit dice when you put ranks in, losing the hit dice will let you keep the skill up high as long as all the points used were from your normal hit dice.

Also, the targets don't need to be sentient. Generally this plan involves buckets full of live chickens.

[Tengu_temp]

You mean sapient. Chickens are sentient.

[Nick_mi]

So how exactly do oyu do it?

[JoshuaZ]

You mean sapient. Chickens are sentient.

Yeah, thanks. I always confuse the two. (It doesn't help that a lot of people seem to use sentient when they mean sapient). Maybe I should just say,licing creatures with int at least 3 which is I think the actual standard. (Although book is in apartment right now so I can't look it up).

[Morithias]

Ravenloft has the "mechanical appitude" feat, in Legacy of Blood that lets you increase the max ranks of all int-based skills up to 5 + level instead of 3.

Pretty useful for getting in prestige classes, especially ones whose highest requirements are things like knowledge.

[PlzBreakMyCmpAn]

Ravenloft has the "mechanical appitude" feat, in Legacy of Blood that lets you increase the max ranks of all int-based skills up to 5 + level instead of 3.

Pretty useful for getting in prestige classes, especially ones whose highest requirements are things like knowledge.

Too bad Ravenloft campaign setting got its 3.0 license taken away, so it isn't legal in 3.5. Though we all saw it comin. There was some pretty unbalanced stuff in there!

[Morithias]

Too bad Ravenloft campaign setting got its 3.0 license taken away, so it isn't legal in 3.5. Though we all saw it comin. There was some pretty unbalanced stuff in there!

Wait, when in the name of Baator did that happen?