Putting multiple ranks into a skill when advancing a Level

[DungeonMastering.com]

Ok, so this may be obvious but I wanted to be sure my group is playing it right.

"Each level, your character gains a number of skill ranks dependent upon your class plus your Intelligence modifier. Investing a rank in a skill represents a measure of training in that skill. You can never have more ranks in a skill than your total number of Hit Dice."

Let's say my character has just become a 10th Level Rogue with a 15 Int. She gets 8 Skill Ranks from Rogue & +2 from Int, so 10 points for her, as I took the HP option for Favored Class.

She suddenly decides to train her cat, & train her well. Per RAW + the RAI of, "As your character advances in level, he can gain new skills and improve his existing skills dramatically," can she just put all 10 ranks into Handle Animal? All at once?

[Yora]

If you have 10 HD, you can have 10 Ranks in a skill. That's the only restriction.

[Morain]

DungeonMastering.com wrote:

can she just put all 10 ranks into Handle Animal? All at once?

Yes

[Vod Canockers]

The only restriction is that you can't exceed your level.

[Howie23]

The limit isn't based on level, it's based on HD. Often the same, but not always.

[DungeonMastering.com]

Howie23 wrote:

The limit isn't based on level, it's based on HD. Often the same, but not always.

Thank you for the replies everyone. Howie23, what are some examples of when Level doesn't equal HD?

[jlighter]

Rogue 7/Master Spy 3. That character is only a level 7 Rogue, but the maximum number of ranks that she could put into a skill is 10, because she is a level 10 (10 HD) character.

Alternately, a Minotaur Barbarian 2. Only a level 2 character, but it has 8 HD, thus its maximum ranks in a skill would be 8.

[Lakesidefantasy]

For a normal Player Character from the core rulebook there is a difference between Character Level and Class Level. Character Level is equal to the sum of all Class Levels. For a normal character, Character Level is equal to Hit Dice. Sometimes, for characters that are not normal, you have to add racial Hit Dice to all their Class Levels to come up with the total Hit Dice (as in the minotaur example above).

In my opinion Hit Dice are not explained very well in the rulebook. Which is odd, considering how important they are. Hit Dice need to be known for every character in order to adjudicate many different spell effects, but they don't even have their own entry in the standard stat block. The Hit Dice of a character is noted in the Hit Point (hp) entry of a stat block but you have to know what you're looking for because I don't know if it's ever explained anywhere in the core rulebook.

[DungeonMastering.com]

Lakesidefantasy wrote:

Sometimes, for characters that are not normal, you have to add racial Hit Dice to all their Class Levels to come up with the total Hit Dice (as in the minotaur example above).

Because Minotaurs have 6HD (d10's) then you add the 2 Barbarian Levels to get 8HD.

Thank you guys.

I don't know that I'd ever have a character drop 10 ranks into any 1 skill, but it's also nice to have as an option. Plus it would make for some interesting role playing explanation, no?

[Rynjin]

"I never knew I was so good at training animals! I should have tried this YEARS ago", he says as he teaches his tiger to juggle flaming tennis balls on his first ever attempt at training animals.

[DungeonMastering.com]

Exactly! Which of course causes intriguing background additions or revisions.

It's also a decent way to get some bang out of skill ranks at higher Levels- instead of putting 1 into every stereotypical rank my Rogue already has, (Disable Device, Stealth, etc.) she could drop a whole bunch into a totally different skill & get decent at Swimming or even something like Spellcraft.

(I'm still not used to the Cross-Class skill penalty going away but since it has, it'll make more character variations)