Comments, questions, concerns welcome.
This is only intended to be implemented in games where it is feasible that the party will run into encounters too hard for them. It provides a buffer against TPKs in such a game. Note that it is a sense motive/Wis based system and thus represents intuition.
Edit: I will probably bump up the DC of reckon opponent by 5 and reckon encounter by 10.
No interest in this?
The v3.5 PHBII expanded the Sense Motive skill to include this use.
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i like it. gives a good use for Sense Motive.
Core Classes that get Sense Motive as a class skill:
Bard
Cleric
Monk
Paladin
Rogue
i think EWHM has a point this list seems a little... off?
anyhow, what's also missing is how this interacts with Bluff or Intimidate...
another thought:
maybe it could key from Profession (soldier) against 10+BAB or Spellcraft against 10+CL to determine BAB's and CL's?...
The v3.5 PHBII expanded the Sense Motive skill to include this use.
It was Complete Adventurer (unless it was reprinted in PhB II, can;t be botehred to check ATM). And that is what inspired this (along with a thread about this topic in general discussion).
It checked against bluff, used different charts (as CR was a bit different), didn't have the encounter option, as well as some other miscellaneous things.
Whale,
Your link doesn't work for me, however I have a fundamental disagreement with your approach.
My approach is this: figure out who (i.e. what classes) should be good at this and work backwards from there, rather than shoehorning it into existing skills.
My take is that fighters should be top tier at this, with rogues a fairly close second, with 'fighty' hybrids and semis in third and pure spellcasters in last place. Bards would get parity with rogues only where the monsters/opponents in question were 'legendary', and barbarians and rangers would get parity with rogues when dealing with things native to their homeland or favored terrain.
Basing something off the skill system tends to advantage the wrong classes, and frequently those classes that absolutely don't need any more advantaging (a wizard, for instance, often has more skill points than a rogue despite the difference in base number simply because the wizard stacks his INT so high, to say nothing of the 'skillwire' skills he usually gets from his headband).
That is a good point. As it is written right now, the DC is low enough that even those who don't have sense motive as a class skill shouldn't have too much of a problem with it.
What would you suggest basing it off of? BAB? BAB seem like the most logical way to address your very valid concerns.
Some of what you suggested is included, such as circumstance bonuses for specific class features.
I'm not sure why the link won't work for you, I have found dropbox links to be quite trouble free thus far.
maybe it could key from Profession (soldier)
I'm a big fan of the profession skills in general, but the fighter (who probably should be the best at this, as EWHM notes) is already starved for skill points.
The system this is based off of used sense motive vs bluff... That was... weird. I liked keeping sense motive because it represents intuition, but Wis is usually not that important for the classes most likely to make use of this subsystem.
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I feel like Fighters, Rogues, Monks, and Cavaliers should be the best at doing this. I like that Rangers get their Favored Enemy bonus. Races that have a "hatred" racial trait should get that bonus on their racial enemies, so Gnomes would get it against Goblins and the like.
Sense Motive seems like the most obvious way to do it, but I feel like Int would play a role as well. Actually, Con could come into play here too-- you know what kind of punishment you can and can't take.
There should be a Divination spell that aids your ability to do it, as well as an Illusion spell that allows you to present yourself or your group as a different challenge level than you are. Maybe Spellcraft could play a role when the opponent is using magic? Perhaps Detect Magic lets you, after the third round, make a check like this using Spellcraft instead of Sense Motive?
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The system this is based off of used sense motive vs bluff... That was... weird. I liked keeping sense motive because it represents intuition, but Wis is usually not that important for the classes most likely to make use of...
i meant interaction initiated from the other direction.
can a character who knows they will be 'reckoned with' or 'sized up' use the Bluff skill to fool or the Intimidate skill to overcompensate?
or Perform? (think gladiator stuff)
how would they know? Perception?
i know i'm throwing a lot of skills out there, but i'd like to see a neat way to do this, as well as a neat way to try mutual posturing and trickery...
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The system this is based off of used sense motive vs bluff... That was... weird. I liked keeping sense motive because it represents intuition, but Wis is usually not that important for the classes most likely to make use of...i meant interaction initiated from the other direction.
can a character who knows they will be 'reckoned with' or 'sized up' use the Bluff skill to fool or the Intimidate skill to overcompensate?
or Perform? (think gladiator stuff)
how would they know? Perception?
i know i'm throwing a lot of skills out there, but i'd like to see a neat way to do this, as well as a neat way to try mutual posturing and trickery...
Maybe something like pegging the DC to CR or Bluff, whichever is higher? Thoughts? That would be similiar to how feint works.
I feel like Fighters, Rogues, Monks, and Cavaliers should be the best at doing this. I like that Rangers get their Favored Enemy bonus. Races that have a "hatred" racial trait should get that bonus on their racial enemies, so Gnomes would get it against Goblins and the like.
Sense Motive seems like the most obvious way to do it, but I feel like Int would play a role as well. Actually, Con could come into play here too-- you know what kind of punishment you can and can't take.
There should be a Divination spell that aids your ability to do it, as well as an Illusion spell that allows you to present yourself or your group as a different challenge level than you are. Maybe Spellcraft could play a role when the opponent is using magic? Perhaps Detect Magic lets you, after the third round, make a check like this using Spellcraft instead of Sense Motive?
Hatred makes perfect sense. I will add that.
For the spell, I was thinking of "Detect Threat"; round 1 you know the biggest threat, round 2 you can determine a specific threat, round 3 you can reckon/size up the situation.
I want to avoid making this subsystem too complex, as the game has enough rules as it is. I might just incorporate another situation modifier for those with ranks/class skill in spellcraft when reckoning an enemy spellcaster.
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Maybe something like pegging the DC to CR or Bluff, whichever is higher? Thoughts? That would be similiar to how feint works.
'feinting' is a complex and interesting model/precedent.
how do we differentiate between an active bluffer and somebody (with a bluff skill or not) who doesn't know they are being 'sized up'? is the buy-in an immediate action? what is it's trigger? Perception?...