| Brian Brus |
As you continue to refine and playtest the game, I'd suggest that you decide on a default perspective in regard to the (oft-overlooked) feats that provide skill bonuses.
Approaches that have been adopted in various other sources include:
* Basic skill focus: +3 bonus to Skill X.
* Related skills: +2 Skill Y and +2 Skill Z, with short explanation of why Y and Z are related. A limited number of such skill pairings are specified in the rules.
* Additional points: +Q points to spend on any skill(s), but may not exceed normal level-rank limits.
The simplest approach would be to offer a single feat that allows a +2/+2 bonus to any two skills -- chosen by the player -- as long as they're logically related and approved by the GM (ex: Sense Motive and Bluff, or Acrobatics and Stealth, but unlikely Appraise and Swim). Allow stackability. One feat written in an open-ended manner would save page space and provide flexibility. ... This would effectively eliminate the need for Skill Focus, of course, but that's not a big deal except in the case of prestige class prereqs.
Alternately, I would suggest the "additional points" option, which allows a player to swap out a feat for skill points. This would be a reasonable avenue of approach for the fighter to build his scrawny skills base - he already recieves a bunch of fighter bonus feats, so he could afford to give up a standard character leveling feat every so often if that's the player's concept.
The difference between those two should be obvious: The former provides a *bonus* that can raise a skill ability above the level-rank limit, while the latter reaffirms the character level glass ceiling for ranks. They both have their advantages, depending on your perspective. I'm sure you have an opinion for game mechanics reasons.
(Pesonally? I opt for the +2/+2 bonus option, as it has more of a sense of the lost synergistic skills element from previous 3.x rules. ... You could even name the feat "Skill Synergy" and kill two birds with one stone.)
Thanks much.
| Chris Brown 66 |
As you continue to refine and playtest the game, I'd suggest that you decide on a default perspective in regard to the (oft-overlooked) feats that provide skill bonuses.
Approaches that have been adopted in various other sources include:
* Basic skill focus: +3 bonus to Skill X.
* Related skills: +2 Skill Y and +2 Skill Z, with short explanation of why Y and Z are related. A limited number of such skill pairings are specified in the rules.
* Additional points: +Q points to spend on any skill(s), but may not exceed normal level-rank limits.The simplest approach would be to offer a single feat that allows a +2/+2 bonus to any two skills -- chosen by the player -- as long as they're logically related and approved by the GM (ex: Sense Motive and Bluff, or Acrobatics and Stealth, but unlikely Appraise and Swim). Allow stackability. One feat written in an open-ended manner would save page space and provide flexibility. ... This would effectively eliminate the need for Skill Focus, of course, but that's not a big deal except in the case of prestige class prereqs.
Alternately, I would suggest the "additional points" option, which allows a player to swap out a feat for skill points. This would be a reasonable avenue of approach for the fighter to build his scrawny skills base - he already recieves a bunch of fighter bonus feats, so he could afford to give up a standard character leveling feat every so often if that's the player's concept.
The difference between those two should be obvious: The former provides a *bonus* that can raise a skill ability above the level-rank limit, while the latter reaffirms the character level glass ceiling for ranks. They both have their advantages, depending on your perspective. I'm sure you have an opinion for game mechanics reasons.
(Pesonally? I opt for the +2/+2 bonus option, as it has more of a sense of the lost synergistic skills element from previous 3.x rules. ... You could even name the feat "Skill Synergy" and kill two birds with one stone.)
Thanks much.
I agree wholeheartedly with both of these changes. In fact, to keep the synergy in line, I would make a prerequisite for the Skill Synergy feat at 5 skill ranks in each skill. Then you could have Advanced Skill Synergy with prereq 15 ranks and an additional +4/+4 bonus.
The exchange a Feat for skill points seems very intelligent, especially for the dual-classed characters that can't "catch up" with two or three skills, simply because they have one class without many points.
| Iralie |
There is already a feat that gives you skill points which would be the same thing.
Open Minded is a feat from the XPH originally and I believe to be OGL due to being on d20srd.org. It gives you 5 skill points each time you take it.
Link: http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/psionicFeats.htm#openMinded
On this note - would love to see this reprinted in the beta as a core PfRPG feat.