Choosing Your Skill Levels

Choosing Your Skill Levels

Gauging what skill levels you need to survive is no easy task. Determining how much skill is realistic can be tricky as well. When creating a PC (or an NPC), bear the following guidelines in mind.

Ordinary Folks

For an "average" person, it is reasonable to assume attributes between 9 and 11, and from 20 to 40 points in "life skills" (varying with education and dedication). Most people spread these points fairly evenly over roughly a dozen skills. This will result in skill levels between 8 and 13. Skills used to earn a living tend toward the upper end of this range (12 or 13), while little-used skills and those originating from long-forgotten college courses are at the lower end (8 or 9).

Experts

Once your skill level reaches 14, additional levels of skill don't improve your odds of success much. Furthermore, it can cost a lot of points to acquire higher skill levels. If you are an adventurer, though, the investment is worthwhile, to help you overcome the penalties for difficult tasks. For instance, if you have Lockpicking-23, ordinary locks are no easier for you – you fail on a 17 or 18, no matter what. But when you run into a hard lock that gives -6 to skill, your effective skill is 17 and you still only fail on a 17 or 18!

Masters

If you are a "master" in your field, you might be tempted to increase your skill levels ad infinitum. However, a true master has a detailed understanding of every aspect of his calling, best represented by stopping at a masterful level (20 to 25) in the "main" skill and branching out into several "subsidiary" skills. An extreme level (anything over 25) in one skill tends to be excessive and unbelievable – and is frequently less useful than a lesser level combined with one or more subsidiary skills.

Example: Instead of improving Karate skill to 30, a kung fu master would be better off using those points to buy Karate at 25 and decent levels of Acrobatics, Judo, Meditation, etc.

Masters should also consider putting some points into advantages that negate skill penalties for adverse conditions. For instance, a kung fu master might buy Trained By A Master (reducing his penalties for multiple attacks and parries) and Combat Reflexes (improving his chances of defending himself), extending his capabilities in ways that high skill alone cannot.

To encourage players to develop their characters laterally instead of sinking all their points into just one or two skills, the GM might wish to consider limiting PCs to skill levels somewhere in the 20-25 range.