Characters and skills

[X-Points East]

OoC:

Suggestion:

Point-Buy Method.

Each skill level above unskilled costs one point.

Heroic characters have five points, with which to buy skill levels.

Perhaps heroic characters above a certain level could have access to an additional point.

[Should more than four skills be deemed relevant to RoE II, a modification of the above might be in order.]

[X-Bellam & BC/TB (Bobby)]

I know I have at least one Knowledge skill which would impact Adventures and certain other actions - enough to be relevant, and to need a rating attached.

[DM B]

How do we "guess" whether our character is a master of a particular skill, an expert ot skilled?

Will there be any guidelines as to how many of each particular degrees of skill one can choose?

I.E. Can a fighter be a master of warcraft and skilled in command or expert in both or...

 Bjørn we need some guidelines to go with on this.

This is like the least important thing that needs to be addressed. Use your imagination + character description + what I've stated previously (it can't be THAT hard - its onyl a few relevant skills and only four 'levels' of competence).

[X-DM Jon]

It may be the least important, but it's the one question that keeps coming up.

 Anyway; people - enter your suggestions for the relevant skill levels your aa's have and we'll approve them as we go along.

[DM B]

It keep coming up because players like to focus on the little things...

[X-Elinie/RiD (Niels)]

I don't imagine any regent being a master of any skill really.  I would imagine that the dedicate neccessary for such is well-outside the realities for any regent, whom always have a need to cross-specialize or at least be knowledge in the basics of many things.

Well, many Noble/(Any warrior type) might by masters in Warcraft or Command or both.

[X-DM Jon]

Well I guess you could solve it in two ways:

 Just decide on the skill levels based on the description of the character in question (maybe add to that description if you feel it needs more clarification, just let us know - write it in red or something).

 Or

 Create the character as per actual 3.5 D&D rules, then you can cross-reference the list and see what skill ranges you fall within. In that way a 3rd level character may be master in one thing, but only expert once reaching level 5 (since the skill won't change).

[X-Osoerde (Alan)]

Mastery is very difficult to come by.  Realistically how many people playing this game are the 'master' at something?  I am thinking that no one is.

If people use their common sense, keep an eye towards the meaning of these skills, and are mindful of descriptions and history, I fail to see a reason why 'rules' are needed.

Rules are always neccessary for munchkins, but honestly, can't people just use their imaginations?

[X-Haelyn's Aegis/RK (Andy)]

Why not just make up the character sheet? Am I missing something?  The real problem is getting a PC who can cast realm spells - the skills required will severely impact skills applied to domain rule and kiss goodbye to adventure or focus feats...  I wonder if there are any mage/priest regents who couldn't cast realm spells if they make their PC sheet? 3 feats, 8 ranks in three skills - <ouch> (P202).

[X-Elinie/RiD (Niels)]

I have moderated my opinion above with a little research. To qualify as Master you have to have max ranks in the skill (duh), but you also need Skill Focus and a Regional Feat, in addition the key attribute has to be high, and here I'm guessing 16+.

Thus, its a significant sacrifice to Master a skill, but likely for career professionals. For Regents, well, depending on several things, they might be more evenly spread out in general.

First off, throwing a 16+ in intelligence if you are not a rogue or wizard is not common, secondly spending two feats in addition, is quite tight for most non-fighter builds of medium levels.

Being an Expert seems fairly approachable though, max ranks, a sturdy ability score (14?) and you can do it.

Skilled looks like either a high attribute and a x-class skill, or a class skill and fewer skill points.

Unskilled is close to plain attribute or very few skill points and a low attribute.

And using the point-buy rules for most of the Regents is not possible, our bloodscores are way too high to be able to match with a new character, they'd be severely gimped. - I suppose you can just ignore the bloodline score when building, but its impossible to be dead-on accurate.

Rather, count available feats and skill points and adjucate from the regent description how his array would be arranged.

My input anyway.

[X-OIT/Narvelon Diem-Avan]

I have to admit I haven't thought too much about the technicalities of character builds for my regent or any AA's.  Unless a character is deemed to have single mindedly pursued one path I've assumed these heroic types will be expert in a couple of areas, skilled in a few more and unskilled in a few more still, driven by personality description meets character levels.  Trying to work out feats and skill ranks is way too complicated     Anyway, I'm a bit hazy on what the added birthright character skills are anyway - are they here in the site somewhere?

[X-Elinie/RiD (Niels)]

 Administration (Int; Trained Only) [Class Skill: Cleric, Guilder, Magician, Noble, Rogue] –
Allows a character to cut domain costs.

Command (Cha) [Class Skill: Barbarian, Fighter, Noble, Paladin, Scout] – Allows a character
to improve the abilities of units he commands during the battle stage.

Warcraft (Int) [Class Skill: Barbarian, Fighter, Noble, Paladin, Scout] – Allows a character
to act well within the framework of the campaign stage.
Works on WIS for 1 feat

Unskilled: Character is completely unsuitable for the task. Example: Wizards and Command.
Skilled: Character has some skill, but it's not his primary focus. Example: A fighter sovereign that has never shown much interest in Administration.
Expert: Character is very skilled for his level; this within his area of expertise. Example: A multi-class noble that has maxed out his ranks in Warcraft.
Master: Character has pursued the skill with singular focus; he has max ranks, one or more feats to support it, and a good ability score keyed to that skill. Example: An expert who has maxed out his Admin skill, his Int, purchased Skill Focus (Admin) and a regional feat giving a bonus to Admin.

I've ripped these lines from different posts from the GM's. Its not a big issue for them, but I suppose we players like to geek out on these details. 

[X-Osoerde (Alan)]

Administration (Int; Trained Only) [Class Skill: Cleric, Guilder, Magician, Noble, Rogue] –
Allows a character to cut domain costs.

Command (Cha) [Class Skill: Barbarian, Fighter, Noble, Paladin, Scout] – Allows a character
to improve the abilities of units he commands during the battle stage.

Warcraft (Int) [Class Skill: Barbarian, Fighter, Noble, Paladin, Scout] – Allows a character
to act well within the framework of the campaign stage.
Works on WIS for 1 feat

Unskilled: Character is completely unsuitable for the task. Example: Wizards and Command.
Skilled: Character has some skill, but it's not his primary focus. Example: A fighter sovereign that has never shown much interest in Administration.
Expert: Character is very skilled for his level; this within his area of expertise. Example: A multi-class noble that has maxed out his ranks in Warcraft.
Master: Character has pursued the skill with singular focus; he has max ranks, one or more feats to support it, and a good ability score keyed to that skill. Example: An expert who has maxed out his Admin skill, his Int, purchased Skill Focus (Admin) and a regional feat giving a bonus to Admin.

I've ripped these lines from different posts from the GM's. Its not a big issue for them, but I suppose we players like to geek out on these details. 

Bjorn examples are meant to give people an opportunity to describe the skillset of their character through abstraction.

IMO, D&D lends itself to too much power-gaming.  This abstraction allows for more character-based decisions for the skill-set.

Osoer, for instance, is a Fighter/Noble/Scout -- Technically he can have a pretty decent diplomacy score, but I am going to gimp it because as a rule he has never been very good at negotiating -- though he is often well-liked on a personal level. 

As for administration, he spent most of his life running and gathering allies, not trying to figureout ways to save a few pennies here and there, hence I am planning on making him totally unskilled at Administration.

[DM B]

Very, very, very few characters a Masters at anything, and if they are almost never at more than one skill. So basically, if you're really good at something, you're an expert. If you're just competent, the you're skilled. If you're not into the skill at all you're unskilled.

Character LEVEL doesn't figure into this - a 1st lvl character COULD be a Master of something, as could a 20th lvl character.

Other skills are also possible, like Spellcraft, but more on that later.

[X-Elinie/RiD (Niels)]

Hehe, I think I'll have to... adjust... the expected skill levels of my assistants then.