Canonfire!

Mon Feb 27, 2006 10:03 pm Skill Synergy - need help

A minor issue, and way off topic: - For skill synergy (p.66 PHB) where 5 or more ranks in a particular skill will give a +2 bonus to a related skill.

In in-house games is that an absolute no matter how many ranks, or are DM's allowing another +2 for every 5 ranks (thus a high-level character with 20 ranks in a skill could get +8 for the related skill or can they only expect a +2 regardless of ranks as relates to synergy).

Tue Feb 28, 2006 5:01 am

I don't allow, nor do other DMs I play with. +2 max. But, muliple skills can provide synergy to the same skill, and they do stack.

Wed Mar 01, 2006 9:42 am

According to epic rules you get another +2 for every additional 20 ranks. Thus +4 synergy at skill rank 25, +6 synergy at 45 rank, etc..

Wed Mar 01, 2006 3:01 pm

I think a house rule of a +1 bonus for every five ranks would work well. It hurts them a bit at lower levels where they could have gotten the +2 for 5 but lets them get higher bonuses for the higher cost.

Mon Mar 06, 2006 3:29 am

Some dm's also tag a very specific ativity to each skill, granting a furhter +2 bonus to that specific skill usuage.

For example, A ranger might have the the basic Climb skill, with the specialty of climbing trees. This would look as follows:

Climb(trees) 5 ranks

So, the ranger would Climb using 5 ranks of skill in most circumstances, but is even better at climbing trees. A thief might have the following:

Climb(walls) 5 ranks

Another example would be regarding knowledge and craft skills, such as follows:

Knowledge: History(Suel Empire) 5 ranks

or

Knowledge: Local(Furyondy) 5 ranks, where Furyondy is the charcter's place of origin.

or

Craft: weaponsmithing(swords) 5 ranks

This is a simple way of making a broad skill more intersting. You can also choose to give a -2 penalty on any skill checks that are not the specialty of the skill the character knows, but this is kind of harsh and not recomended. Still, some like the harshness. Every skill can have a specialty.

Forgery(orders, invitiations, proclamations, warrants, love letters)

Profession: gambler(dice, cards, roulette, cups)

Listen(high pitched sounds)

Hide(woodlands, urban, underdark, dungeons, hills, jungle, arctic)

knowledge: nobility & royalty(heraldry, those from a specific land)

etc......
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