Hi. First time posting on the forums.
I don't know if this has been proposed before but in my upcoming game we're implementing an idea of mine for skill points.
Normally having more skill points is almost entirely INT based. I've never liked that. You can be dumb and skilled. This is my solution.
1. All classes now cut their default skill points in half.
Fighter 2+INT would now be just 1+Nothing and is now a "universal skill point" (see below)
2. Ability Score based skill points.
Your ability score mods grant you ability related skill points.
Str 14 nets you 2 STR skill points to be placed only in STR based skills. Dex 18 nets you 4 DEX points to be placed only in DEX related skills. 10 Cha nets you 0 CHA skill points. 7 Wis nets you 0 WIS points.
3. Universal Skill Points.
Universal skill points may be placed in any skill. Favored Class Bonus is also converted to Universal Skill Points and any other skill points obtained similarly.
For our example Fighter. 2+int becomes 1 Universal.
Str: 16 +3 STR skill points
Dex: 14 +2 DEX skill points
Con: 13 +1 CON skill point (for all those con based skills, I guess)
Int: 7 +0 INT skill points
Wis: 12 +1 WIS skill point
Cha: 12 +1 CHA skill point
In total this level 1 fighter would start with 9 skill points, 10 with FCB. Far more than he normally would. He'll have a hard time acquiring Knowledges, but "book lernin" was never his strong suit anyway.
Uh. You know there are only 2 Str-based skills... What any decent fighter with Str 16 or more has to do with spare Str skill point?
Uh. You know there are only 2 Str-based skills... What any decent fighter with Str 16 or more has to do with spare Str skill point?
hmm. I suppose the easiest thing would be to say they are lost, but I doubt that would be well received.
I suppose you could convert them into half a universal point. Doesn't make too much sense, but I hadn't thought of it before.
EDIT: If one were to classify Str, Dex, and Con as 'Physical' skills, you could say that points from those stats could be converted to half a Physical Skill Point. Likewise with Mental Skill Points.
It's an interesting idea — front-loading skill ranks and reducing the amount you get later. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be balanced yet, and would require tweaking. At low levels or for characters with negative modifiers in INT, this would be great, but by the time a 10 INT fighter reached level 10, they'd be missing out on 10 ranks, which would only be offset by 6-7, depending on their stat array. If they had 12 INT, they'd be missing another 10 ranks. A level 10 Rogue with 10 Int would be missing 40 ranks. The few extra ranks at the beginning wouldn't come close to making up for it, and the overall result would be that the party as a whole would get worse and worse at meeting challenges as they leveled up.
It's an interesting idea — front-loading skill ranks and reducing the amount you get later. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be balanced yet, and would require tweaking. At low levels or for characters with negative modifiers in INT, this would be great, but by the time a 10 INT fighter reached level 10, they'd be missing out on 10 ranks, which would only be offset by 6-7, depending on their stat array. If they had 12 INT, they'd be missing another 10 ranks. A level 10 Rogue with 10 Int would be missing 40 ranks. The few extra ranks at the beginning wouldn't come close to making up for it, and the overall result would be that the party as a whole would get worse and worse at meeting challenges as they leveled up.
I think I see what you mean, and allow me to try to clarify. You get the ability skills at every level. So our level 1 fighter, at level 10, would have 10 (+FCB) Universal points, and 80 assorted ability skill points.
Oh, if it's every level then I would definitely advise counting the negative modifiers against the physical or mental ranks, as appropriate, and even then, you would probably end up with too many skill ranks because not every player would have a dump stat. As you describe it, every character (your stat array, no FCB) in the game would have 90-120 skill ranks by level 10, instead of the standard (assuming 10 INT, no FCB) 20-80. That's an incredible boost in power and would result in every physical character having the maximum number of skill ranks in every single physical skill if they wanted to.
Perhaps if, each level up, you got to choose one physical stat and one mental stat to receive the corresponding number of skill ranks for? So your example fighter could do this: Take 2 DEX skill ranks, 1 CHA skill rank and 1 universal skill rank at level 1; Take 3 STR skill ranks, 1 WIS skill rank and 1 universal skill rank at level 2. This would give each character their own flavor without giving a crazy number of ranks they may not even want to use.
Oh, if it's every level then I would definitely advise counting the negative modifiers against the physical or mental ranks, as appropriate, and even then, you would probably end up with too many skill ranks because not every player would have a dump stat. As you describe it, every character (your stat array, no FCB) in the game would have 90-120 skill ranks by level 10, instead of the standard (assuming 10 INT, no FCB) 20-80. That's an incredible boost in power and would result in every physical character having the maximum number of skill ranks in every single physical skill if they wanted to.
Perhaps if, each level up, you got to choose one physical stat and one mental stat to receive the corresponding number of skill ranks for? So your example fighter could do this: Take 2 DEX skill ranks, 1 CHA skill rank and 1 universal skill rank at level 1; Take 3 STR skill ranks, 1 WIS skill rank and 1 universal skill rank at level 2. This would give each character their own flavor without giving a crazy number of ranks they may not even want to use.
What if all the ability skills were half points? the 3 str points would add up to 1 point, and the floating half point could be combined with the con point and applied to a physical skill. The two half dex points forming 1 point.
This is an interesting concept, and I want to see how it develops.How about break it into mental and physical skills, then do the str+dex+con modifiers divided by two for physical skills and int+wis+cha modifiers divided by 2 for mental skills. Past that, keep the base skill points the same as universal skills, just without the +int modifier.
So say your stats for your fighter were the same. He'd be getting 2 universal, 3 physical, and 1 mental skill points, for a net total of 6 per level. That's still pretty balanced. Alternatively, you could give everyone the same base amount of universal skill points. Lets say for fairness sake the base is 4. So you'd have a net total of 8 for the fighter per level, mostly focusing on physical skills(as a fighter should). For classes that are specifically skill monkeys(bard, rogue), maybe up the base to 6.
That's a good idea. I would leave the base universal skills because some classes are supposed to be skill heavy and this is a pretty big bump to those that aren't. Here's how it looks now in my head.
1. Physical and Mental Skill Ranks.
Your Ability Score Mods grant you ability related Skill Ranks to be spent on corresponding Skills.
(STR+DEX+CON)/2 = Physical Skill Ranks (Minimum 1)
(INT+WIS+CHA)/2 = Mental Skill Ranks (Minimum 1)
Level 1 Fighter: 2 Universal
Physical
Str: 16 +3
Dex: 14 +2
Con: 13 +1
Mental
Int: 7 -2
Wis: 12 +1
Cha: 12 +1
Our Fighter would be getting 3 Physical Skill Ranks, 1 Mental Skill Ranks, and 2 Universal Skill Ranks per level.
2. Universal Skill Ranks.
A classes base Skill Ranks (Fighter 2, Bard 6, Rogue 8) are now Universal Skill Ranks that can be applied to any skill.