I know concentration isn't coming back. I don't even think it should, I dislike skills that are "mandatory" for certain classes. As it stands, Spellcraft is still mandatory for casters.
With all the merging of skills that has gone on thus far in Pathfinder, do we really need two skills for "knowing about magic"? My #1 reason for this change was that I had a hard time explaining the difference between the two skills to a new player.
In my playtest, we use (1d20 + caster level + Key Casting Ability) for concentration rolls, because that is fair to all casters, and it eliminates a "mandatory" skill purchase.
When you remove concentration from Spellcraft, what remains is most definitely a knowledge skill, so spell and aura identification has become a Knowledge Arcana roll. This has worked very well for us.
I notice in the Welcome thread that Jason suggests a will save for Concentration.
This strikes me as thematically elegant, but sadly it favors Clerics and Druids over Sorcerers and Wizards. This is good design if that is an intended consequence, but I would favor a more even-handed non-skill solution like the one in my original post.
That said, I guess I could live with it, since wisdom casters are more survivable in melee, it would make sense for them to get a few extra points.
|
In my playtest, we use (1d20 + caster level + Key Casting Ability) for concentration rolls, because that is fair to all casters, and it eliminates a "mandatory" skill purchase.
i agree
but Divine Magic is better represented by Knowledge: religion, and druids by Knowledge: naturethey should be good in their areas too, even if it depends on int
Well, I like the idea of adding the spell knowledge aspect of Spellcraft to Knowledges Arcana, Nature & Religion. This makes more sense in my opinion. Spellcraft then either goes away, like Concentration did before it, with the spell-fumbling aspect going on the proposed Fort/Will save, or it embraces the whole "practical spell-casting" aspect entirely and becomes a purely physical skill.