Skills

[sireric08]

Ok, I got the PDA and have been reading over it, and I am a little confused about skills.

1.  Going by the setup in the book, the 5-4-3-2-1 setup of skills, before you could raise a skill a rank, you would have to take a new skill at 1 in order to be able to raise any of your other skills up a rank permanently.  Is that right, or am I reading it wrong?

2.  At minor milestones, you are able to change the rating of any two skills.  Going by the reading in the book, you can have Lore at superb for when you are doing research, with combat skills at 1, and then switch them out for when you know you are having a combat session.  I don't think that's the way it's supposed to be.

[KnightFerrous]

Ok, I got the PDA and have been reading over it, and I am a little confused about skills.

1.  Going by the setup in the book, the 5-4-3-2-1 setup of skills, before you could raise a skill a rank, you would have to take a new skill at 1 in order to be able to raise any of your other skills up a rank permanently.  Is that right, or am I reading it wrong?

You are slightly confused, you need to buy a new skill at one before you can raise a skill to 2. Picture it like building blocks you need a wider base to support a narrow top. If moving a skill up one level would make it float in midair, or cause your skill tower to topple down you cannot do it.

2.  At minor milestones, you are able to change the rating of any two skills.  Going by the reading in the book, you can have Lore at superb for when you are doing research, with combat skills at 1, and then switch them out for when you know you are having a combat session.  I don't think that's the way it's supposed to be.

Well yes and no, remember you need GM approval for these. So you have to explain why your book worm has suddenly focused himself more on booting head. it is mainly a way of finding the proper feel for your character and keeping them from being completely useless during missions that only deal wiht their mediocre skills.

[Sigma77]

...Doesn't that also mean, despite how long a wizard may adventure, it's technically impossible to have all skills at fair?

[Deadmanwalking]

...Doesn't that also mean, despite how long a wizard may adventure, it's technically impossible to have all skills at fair?

Technically? Yes. But if you ever get to the point where your character has every skill at average, I'd say Average is now like Mediocre and doesn't count for pyramid purposes. Ditto Fair. And so on, and so on.

[iago]

1.  Going by the setup in the book, the 5-4-3-2-1 setup of skills, before you could raise a skill a rank, you would have to take a new skill at 1 in order to be able to raise any of your other skills up a rank permanently.  Is that right, or am I reading it wrong?

You need an equal or greater number of skills at N-1 than you have at N.  So if you have 1 Superb, you need 1 Great, 1 Good, 1 Fair, and 1 Average to support it.

If you had 1 Superb, 2 Great, 3, Good, 4 Fair, and 5 average, then you could take a Fair right away if you had 2 skill points to spend -- that'd bring the Fair level up to equal numbers.  It would have to be a new skill, since if you raised one of your Averages to be a Fair, then you'd have 5 fair, 4 average, and in order to have 5 fair you need 4 average.

However you slice it, if you want something to be Fair when you've got 5-4-3-2-1 you're gonna need 2 skill points to do it.

2.  At minor milestones, you are able to change the rating of any two skills.  Going by the reading in the book, you can have Lore at superb for when you are doing research, with combat skills at 1, and then switch them out for when you know you are having a combat session.  I don't think that's the way it's supposed to be.

First off, how would you achieve that knowledge, that a combat session is coming up? Second off, why is your GM giving you sessions that don't involve both research and combat? Third off, combat should not take a full session unless your sessions are like an hour long; if they are that short, then a minor milestone should not occur after each session.

But otherwise, yes, you *could* do that, and yes, your GM *should* goose you for obviously trying to game the system rather than portray a believable evolution of your character.

[iago]

...Doesn't that also mean, despite how long a wizard may adventure, it's technically impossible to have all skills at fair?

At some point you'll run into a limit on how many skills there are in the game (approximately 25). That point is really, really far out. If for some crazy reason you make it that far out, your GM can always "raise the floor" and say that everyone's skills now default to Average instead of Mediocre.

[sireric08]

First off, how would you achieve that knowledge, that a combat session is coming up? Second off, why is your GM giving you sessions that don't involve both research and combat?

Dude, have you ever played Shadowrun?

[iago]

Dude, have you ever played Shadowrun?

This game is not Shadowrun.

[luminos]

This game is not Shadowrun.

I thought there was something weird about having the words The Dresden Files one the cover.  That explains it.

[sireric08]

This game is not Shadowrun.

I would hope not.  I'm trying to 1) get a group of people interested enough to play it and 2) learn the game so it can be played without multiple book checks.  I was simply using Shadowrun as a "4 hrs legwork for 1/2 hr combat" ratio example.  Thanks for the help to everyone, btw.

[Moriden]

Technically? Yes. But if you ever get to the point where your character has every skill at average, I'd say Average is now like Mediocre and doesn't count for pyramid purposes. Ditto Fair. And so on, and so on.

i heart this ruleing

[toturi]

First off, how would you achieve that knowledge, that a combat session is coming up? Second off, why is your GM giving you sessions that don't involve both research and combat?

You ambush the other side? Hostage situation and the hostage taker is getting desperate? There are lots of ways to achieve knowledge that a combat session is coming up.

On your second point, so is the GM not supposed to give us session that don't involve research and combat?