I'm sure that I read somewhere that any increase in Intelligence does not grant retrospective skill points on aquiring a new bonus. So I have a couple of questions:
1. Is this the same if you lose Intelligence? Are your skill ranks protected?
2. And when rolling NPC high level wizards or any other characters who may increase their intellgence, even by way of a Tome or such, do you build it from level one to account for changes to skill point awards? Or do you just ignore this rule for ease of use?
The second question is the one I'm realy seeking answers on. Do the NPC wizards in the DMG take this non-restropective rule into account? Also, is there a generator that takes it into account. The ones I've seen all seem to just total the lot up and award the extra skill points.
Anyone got some answers?
The answer to number 1 is yes, it's the same. If you have a 12 Intelligence for your first 10 levels then get permanently drained down to an 11, you don't lose those 10 skill points.
As for your second question - for me, it depends. If it's my home game and the wizard is somebody the PCs will only see in combat, I don't worry too much about it since it most likely won't come into play. The only skills I really care about for combat can already be maxxed out, and the other ones - likely extra Knowledge skills - won't matter.
If, on the other hand, I'm building the NPC for either something I'll be publishing (such as an article in Dungeon) or if the NPC is somebody my PCs are likely to interact with rather than applying a good ol' fashioned beat down, then yeah - I'll progress them from first level up to their current level, making note of where their Int score went up enough to alter their skill points and so on.
With PC Gen you progress level by level when buil;ding characters and should therefore take into account any changes in intelligence along the way.
House Rule:
I see the skill point by current intelligence rule as a way of keeping the math/work at each level quick. It bugs me for a few reasons, though.
1) No way of checking the math after the fact. Someone has too many skill points? Maybe they were wearing a helm of intellect for a few levels and lost it...
2) Creature classed PCs that have racial int boosts gained with levels (via Savage Species) don't get the same skill points a monster manual version does. (e.g. rakshasa) (There's a related problem with starting languages for these creature types.)
To resolve these gripes, I run skill rank totals off the current 'permanent' int of the character. Int, plus level bonuses, plus wishes and other "permanent" increases. No benefit for items, etc. It might once or twice in the lifetime of a character take more work total, but that work gets put off to between sessions, when it's not going to slow the game down.
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