IDEA: Expanded skills

In my home brewed system - based on DnD, and a few others - I use a skill grouping method. All skills are divided between Skullduggary, Athletic, Combat, Mystical, General, Artistic, and Scholarly categories. Each class is then given a set of numbers (such as 4,3,2,2,1,1,0) which it can assign to each of these categories at character creation.

Henceforth, the character receives this many skill points under that heading each level. This not only allows players to personalize the way their characters develope, skill wise, but also insures that each character will have a wider variety of skills.

Thus, fighters won't only have combat skills because the most they can assign to such are 4 pnts, then they must make purchases under the other headings. (Thus a fighter might have 4 in combat, 3 in athletic, 2 in artistic, 2 in sculduggary, 1 in general, 1 in scholarly, and none in mystical)

Mind you, in my system there are skills which still cost more than 1 point to purchase (though they are only 1 pnt to improve thereafter) so one might need to reduce the numbers a little to reflect that initial skill costs are cheaper in 3E.

We do add a bonus at first level for high intelligence, but that is a one time thing - so players might have a broader or better grasp of skills right off. After that statistics are only important when used for skill checks.

As you can see, using this method also prevents the system from forcing vast generalities (such as "all fighters are going to have high combat and low scholarly knowledge") on the players. (since, by this method one could make a very scholarly or artistic warrior) As hit points, combat modifiers for level, saving throws, armor restrictions, etc. still keep each class different from one another, one needn't worry that allowing for a Scholastic warrior (or a mage with combat skills) will make him worthless in battle.

If characters change class, it doesn't alter the skill point distribution, though we did add a rule which allows one to exchange the position of two point assignments every six levels. (thus a 6th level the fighter could trade his 4 combat and 1 scholarly point assignment to reflect a growing knowledge of the world and less focus on warfare. [thus, taking the above example, after 6th level that fighter would have: 1 in Combat, 3 Athletic, 2 Artistic, 2 Scullduggary, 1 General, 4 Scholarly and none in mystical]) At 12th level the player could, if he so chose, exchange the assigned place of two more numbers - as at 18th, 24th, etc. In this way the system can reflect the evolution of characters throughout their career.

This sytem has worked quite well for us and makes for more, well rounded characters.