| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Here is a little homebrew to change up the skill system. The goal is to give non-casters some cool abilities as well as make class skills more significant. This is an incomplete first draft and if anyone has any input or suggestions I would be open to them. Thanks in advance!
I changed acrobatics to agility folding in escape artist and pulling out Jump so:
To Jump -> Jump skill check
To Balance, Tumble, or Escape Artist -> Agility
Class Skill Changes
Barbarian: loose acrobatics gains Jump
Paladin, Samurai: gain jump
Fighter: gains diplomacy and jump (also 4+Int)
Bard, Rogue, Ninja, Monk: loose acrobatics gain agility and jump
Due to homebrew changes to magic items there are no scrolls or wands so use magic device is suddenly way less useful therefore it has been removed. I also removed the appraise skill; instead it requires a relevant profession or craft skill check or of course an intelligence check.
Onward!
If a character has ranks in a class skill they gain special benefits. With one rank in a class skill they gain a +3 class skill bonus on all skill checks with that skill. With more ranks invested they gain additional bonuses relevant to that skill at 6, 11, and 16 ranks invested.
Agility
Special - with 3 or more ranks in acrobatics you gain +3 instead of +2 when fighting defensively, you gain +4 when taking the total defense action.
6 ranks- You may use your ranks in agility instead of your BAB for determining your CMB for avoiding a grapple.
11 ranks-You gain +2 dodge bonus to armor class and reflex saving throws when you are unencumbered and wearing light or no armor
16 ranks-You gain +10ft to your base movement speed when unencumbered and wearing light or no armor
Bluff
6 ranks-Feint as move action
11 ranks- If you fail to deceive someone you no longer have a -10 penalty to lie to them again as long as you admit you were lying then tell a new lie.
16 ranks-Bluff bonus (ranks+Cha+3+other bonuses) functions as spell resistance vs spells or spell like abilities which try to discern information from you (read thoughts, detect alignment, etc.)
Climb
6 ranks-climb at half your speed with no penalty, -5 penalty to climb at your whole speed
11 ranks-Climb with both feet but only one hand, your unused hand is free to cast a spell or wield a weapon or shield
16 ranks-Climb Speed equal to your base land speed
Craft
This is tied in with my alternative magic item crafting where you need to learn a recipe through a quest and find a special magic material to power the item but basically:
6 ranks- Craft Minor Magic Items (Minor Wondrous, +1-3 Weapons or armor)
11 ranks- Craft Medium Magic Items (Medium and some Major Wondrous, +4-6 Weapons and armor)
16 ranks-Craft Major Magic Items (Major Wondrous Items, +7-+9 Weapons and Armor)
And no it's not limited to spell casters anyone can do it.
Diplomacy
6 ranks-Sociable Feat*
11 ranks-You are no longer limited to adjusting an individual’s opinion of you by just two steps.
16 ranks- You gain followers as per the leadership feat except you use your ranks in diplomacy as your leadership score with no additional modifiers. (note the leadership feat is not otherwise allowed)
Disable Device
6 ranks- disable tricky devices in 1d2 rounds and difficult devices in 1d4 rounds
11 ranks- Pick locks as a standard action
16 ranks- Disable golems as a full round action which requires a successful touch attack and a disable device check DC = 20+their hit die*2
Disguise
6 ranks- No penalties for disguising yourself as a different gender, or age
11 ranks- Creating a disguise requires 3d6 minutes instead of 1d3 x10.
16 ranks-No penalties for disguising yourself as a different size or race
Fly
6 ranks-Flyby attack Feat*
11 ranks-Wingover Feat*
16 ranks-Hover Feat*
Handle Animal
6 ranks-Can Train/rear magical animals
11 ranks-Can train/rear vermin
16 ranks-Can train/rear Oozes and unintelligent Abberations
Heal
6 ranks – Asses Condition – Standard action make a heal check to determine the hit points of a creature.
Animal, Humanoid or Vermin DC 10
Dragon, Fey, Magical Beast, Monstrous Humanoid, Plant DC 20
Aberration, Outsider, Undead DC 30
Construct, Ooze – can’t be done.
Special-Allies who you know closely can have their condition assessed as a swift action with no check.
11 ranks-Enhanced Magical Healing –Whenever you use a healing spell or spell like ability out of combat you can multiply the casting time by ten and heal the maximum amount.
16 ranks-Bonus Healing-Whenever you use a healing spell or spell like ability you heal an additional amount of hit points equal to your total heal skill bonus
Intimidate
6 ranks- Demoralize as a move action
11 ranks-Frightful Presence 20ft DC equals Intimidate ranks +Cha
16 ranks-Frightful Presence extends to 40ft
Jump
6 ranks – No penalty without a running start for jumping
11 ranks – Vertical jump DC = Height x2 (not x4)
16 ranks – Vertical Jump DC = Height
Knowledge
6 ranks-???
11 ranks-???
16 ranks-???
Linguistics
This is again tied to my homebrew world which has the following languages
Common Languages
Common (pidgin trade language)
Imperial (human)
Khuzdul (dwegar)
Orcish (orcs)
Elven (elves)
Uncommon Languages
Aquan (water elementals)
Auran (air elementals)
Celestial (good outsiders)
Draconic (dragons)
Gruck (Giants, gnolls, goblins, kobolds)
Ignan (fire elementals)
Infernal (evil outsiders)
Sylvan (Fey)
Terran (earth elementals)
Yxzar (Underdark creatures)
Rare Languages
Languages of undiscovered cultures or rare outsiders from the stranger parts of the cosmos
6 ranks-Speak all non-rare languages (stop learning languages one per level as you have learned them all)
11 ranks-Speed Reading-Can read faster than a normal person, one page per round, can check for forgeries as a move action (2 pages per round)
16 ranks- Can learn any rare languages quickly
-half an hour with a good example of the language (A native speaker who also shares a language with you or a translation book)
-1d4 hours with a decent example of the language (a native speaker who is helping but does not share a language with you)
-3d4 hours (a native speaker who is not cooperating but not refusing to speak)
Perception
6 ranks-Enhanced Vision
Humans gain low light vision
Elves and orcs ignore up to -10 penalties for distance
Dwegar gain +30ft to their darkvision
11 ranks-Blind sense 20ft
16 ranks-Blind sight 10ft
Perform
6 ranks-???
11 ranks-???
16 ranks-???
Profession
6 ranks-???
11 ranks-???
16 ranks-???
Ride
6 ranks- Mounted Combat Feat*
11 ranks- Ride by Attack Feat*
16 ranks-Trick Riding Feat*
Sense Motive
6 ranks-???
11 ranks-???
16 ranks-???
Sleight of Hand
6 ranks-Quick Draw Feat*
11 ranks-Improved Steal Feat*
16 ranks-Quick Steal Feat*
Spellcraft
Additional skill use: abnormal spell use requires a Spellcraft check depending upon how abnormal the spell modification is.
Examples
Reduce spell effect, have a fireball only explode with a 10ft radius DC 10+spell level
Avoid ally, give ally a +2 bonus against your area of effect spell DC 20+2*spell level
6 ranks- Improved Counterspell Feat*
11 ranks- Can counter spell using any spell at least two spell slots higher than the spell you are countering
16 ranks- Can counterspell using a spell of the same school and the same level or above, can counterspell using a spell of a different school which is one level above or more.
Stealth
6 ranks-your sniping penalty is reduced from -20 to -10
11 ranks-Can use stealth while observed at a -10 penalty
16 ranks- Move at full speed while sneaking with no penalty
Survival
6 ranks-???
11 ranks-???
16 ranks-???
Swim
6 ranks-Swim at half your base speed as a move action
11 ranks-Can hold your breath twice as long as normal
16 ranks-Gain a swim speed equal to your base land speed
*If a character gains a bonus feat from investing class in a class skill but she has already taken said feat she instead gets a bonus feat of the same category (general, combat, etc.)
This is brilliant. I was working on something similar (and much less nifty), but your rough draft is way further that I got. I'll look it over more later, as I'm sick and posting from my phone, but count me as extremely interestied.
Here are some thoughts on survival
Survival
6 ranks-Constant Endure Elements effect on self
11 ranks-Can move at normal speed while using Survival to follow tracks without taking the normal –5 penalty. Takes only a –10 penalty (instead of the normal –20) when moving at up to twice normal speed while tracking.
Ranger's or Hunters with Swift Tracking have no penalty for moving at up to twice normal speed.
16 ranks-Gain Resist Cold 5 and Resist Fire 5
Maybe Knowledge and Profession get some sort of advantage system since they are too varied for me to think of anything specific...
6 ranks-When making a check roll twice and take the better result
11 ranks-When making a check roll thrice and take the best result
16 ranks-When making a check roll four times (quadrice?) and take the best result
Heal
6 ranks – Asses Condition – Standard action make a heal check to determine the hit points of a creature.
Am I troubled by this, or intrigued? Too many variables.
Am I troubled by this, or intrigued? Too many variables.Heal
6 ranks – Asses Condition – Standard action make a heal check to determine the hit points of a creature.
Yah I'm not sure about that I think I might change it to something like 0-25%, 26-50%, 51-75%, and 76-100% for enemies and only allow exact numbers when assessing allies.
Asses is the plural form of the noun ass. I'm sure you meant to type assess, a verb.
Sense Motive
6 ranks-Detect Conspiracy, you can make eerily correct guesses as to the hidden motives of large shadowy organizations which so often seem to be trying to destroy the world DC 30
11 ranks-You are a suspicious person and are always ready for a fight, gain the improved initiative feat*
16 ranks-When someone with 3 fewer ranks in bluff than you have in sense motive tries to lie to you you automatically know without needing to make opposing checks.
Asses is the plural form of the noun ass. I'm sure you meant to type assess, a verb.
Oh damn i totally missed that.
I don't know that I agree with all of your choices at 6, 11 and 16 ranks, but I dig the intent. Skilled characters need some love too. Its hard to make the three benefits from one skill balance out with the three benefits of another skill.
When PF rolled Jump into one skill with Balance, Escape Artist, and Tumble, I wasn't entirely thrilled, because Jump's companions Climb and Swim were still stand alone skills, and were essentially weakened in comparison. I know jumping isn't a perfect fit with Acrobatics, but it feels to me like you've gone backwards.
I don't know that I agree with all of your choices at 6, 11 and 16 ranks, but I dig the intent. Skilled characters need some love too. Its hard to make the three benefits from one skill balance out with the three benefits of another skill.
When PF rolled Jump into one skill with Balance, Escape Artist, and Tumble, I wasn't entirely thrilled, because Jump's companions Climb and Swim were still stand alone skills, and were essentially weakened in comparison. I know jumping isn't a perfect fit with Acrobatics, but it feels to me like you've gone backwards.
This whole thing is a first draft so I know the skills are not balanced against each other very well and that needs work, I'm more spitballing ideas at this point rather than fine tuning things.
As for acrobatics I removed jump from it but rolled in escape artist which had previously been a stand alone skill.
Comparing 3.5 to PF
standard
Tumble, Jump, Balance -> Acrobatics
Escape Artist -> Escape Artist
This Homebrew
Tumble, Balance, Escape Artist -> Agility
Jump -> Jump
So more a step sideways than a step backwards. The reasoning is that I wanted to give martial classes jump without giving them tumble and balance. I'm okay with a world where bruiser fighter types cannot run along tightropes. I'm not okay with a world where bruiser fighter types cannot jump on a dragon stab it in the eyes then wave their sword in the air as they fly it into an erupting volcano...
That said if I wanted to go further in the consolidating skills direction I would combine jump, swim, and climb into athletics but I am not sure that I want to do that.
I would combine climb and jump into athletics and add in an endurance skill to cover all the misc Constitution checks that just kinda float around in the ether, which is a fairly common house rule (I know Kirthfinder uses endurance, Star Wars Saga, and I use it, for example).
What Da'ath said. It's a what 4e did, but I back it.