| Chris Hogan |
My campains all have no max rank to skills. This has resulted in several things. I now have an explanation for why someone can be a mastercraftsman, yet not 20th+ level. <trim anecdotage>
I think it should be included in the base set, with max skill ranks an option.
What do you think?
(delurking to respond to this)
I think you should read Justin Bacon's article on Calibrating Your Expectations in 3.X. He makes the case that even a 1st level character can be a master craftsman (functional definition of 'master craftsman': a character who can can make ~masterwork~ items) and that a 5th level character can consistently hit DCs of anything below 40 with minimal or no tweaking.
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Semi-related:
An idea you might want to consider in order to keep characters within sight one another at high levels (definition: within an RNG or two): limit bonuses to skills to an amount equal or less than the number of Ranks the character has in that skill.
Eg: a character with 12 ranks in a skill could have no more than an extra +12 to their skill from the various bonuses (attribute, circumstance, luck, etc.) available.
The rationale for this tweak: someone with only limited skill cannot co-ordinate all possible beneficial factors on offer to their best advantage.
Spell and magic items might follow a similar rule. You could rule that no-one can safely use a skill-enhancing spell/item with a greater bonus than their native skill ranks. Any attempt to do so results in Sorcerer's Apprentice-style hijinks.
The net result should hopefully be the end of skill abuse cheese, and is the death of the Diplomancer, or the +220 bonus at 10th level, really a bad thing?
(relurking)