Bad Omens wrote:Rhifox wrote:Bad Omens wrote:The game wasn't designed to have this many skill options.
Actually, it was designed to have this much
and more. In PnP, along with all the skills we have right now, you also have Handle Animal, Profession (divided up like Knowledge), Craft (divided up like Knowledge), Speak Language, Climb, Swim, Balance, Jump... and more.
You are not meant to be able to maximize a wide variety of skills. Or even a couple skills. If you
do maximize, you are in turn not
supposed to have a broad range of skills. Be the best sneak-thief in the world, sure, but you better be content with that being about the only thing you can do.
There is already an avenue for people who want more skill points than they have: Put more points into Intelligence. For every two more points in Int, you gain an extra point at each level. This adds up.
Ok, then if you are saying that there are enough skill points to go around, how about the DCs on the new lore? DC10 for minor questions, DC15 for average, DC20+. That is pretty High when you really think about it? Maybe lower it to DC5, DC10, DC 15. That might help to equate better. If you want to be able to answer just regular questions in two separate genres, currently you are looking at 30 skill points being sewn up. That adds up
It's not very high. A DC 15 knowledge check is extremely easy to reach, and that represents a basic question someone is supposed to know the answer to if they have devoted any amount of time to its study.
A level 1 character can have 4 ranks in a lore skill, + their INT bonus (let's say +4 for maximum INT for most races). That's already a minimum roll of 9 on a Lore skill and they only need to roll a 9 to beat a DC: 15 check, so a level 1 character will easily know the answer to these questions more than half the time.
Throw in +3 from Skill Focus and a first level character rolls a minimum of 12, easily beating a DC 15 almost all the time.
Throw in +1 if they are a Bard and they roll a minimum of 13, even harder to fail a DC 15 check.
If they are also a Tiefling add +1 from their racial bonus to INT, meaning the minimum roll they can make is 14. It is now almost impossible for the character to fail a DC 15 lore check at level 1.
If you want your character to be a smarty pants there are many ways to do it, lowering the DC of checks just makes smart characters useless since it detracts from what is supposed to make them special. For example my main character is a smart warrior. At level 17 he has 18 INT and +5 in every lore skill. One of his defining features is he can nail most common lore checks by only rolling a 6, but dumber warriors will be lucky if they ever succeed. By the time he is level 30 he will probably have +10 in every lore skill, meaning he'll probably be rolling a minimum of 15, an automatic success.
Because I invested in it.
If you lower the DC's you make my character worth less because power builds that didn't bother to invest in skill points (and instead focussed in AC and damage) will also be clever enough to reach those DCs. So why did I bother?