Forgotten Kingdoms Forums

Jaenoic wrote:I'm sorry, Tyr killing Helm over a love dispute of Tymora? That's just lame. I don't EVER see the strict god of justice, who relies on codes and laws, becoming romantically involved with Tymora, who stakes everything on chance and being bold.

Solaghar wrote:It's really nice to see Forgotten Realms being given the respect it deserves by being the first of the campaign settings to be updated.

Trained/Untrained

Though it may be considered a radical change, Saga Edition eliminates the concept of skill ranks. Instead of investing resources and micromanaging skills, a character is either trained or untrained in a skill, period. Our research into how players created their characters showed that they typically maxed out their ranks in a couple of skills and put only a few points into other skills. That led to disparities between their favored skills and their "leftover" skills. Moreover, players who created "jack of all trades" characters typically chose classes that received a lot of skill points and spread them evenly over many skills.

Skill points were one of the most complicated parts of character creation. Not only was it prone to error, but it also meant that creating high-level NPCs could take up to an hour. Eliminating skill points allowed us to streamline character creation and keep skill bonuses consistent with what most players were accustomed to.

So, what does it mean to be trained? When you're trained in a skill, you can perform any of the "Trained Only" uses found in many skills. While some entire skills were "trained only" in the previous version of the game, now only certain uses of the skills require training. Moreover, being trained in a skill provides you with a flat bonus that, when combined with a bonus based on your class level and your ability score modifier, determines your final skill modifier. Essentially, being trained in a skill means that you can do things that other characters of the same level might not be able to do, bumping you up to the next tier of skill DCs.

The formula for determining a character's skill bonus is as follows:

1/2 character level + relevant ability modifier + 5 (if trained) + 5 (if Skill Focus)

One advantage of this system is that characters who aren't trained in a skill can still use it in some cases. Since part of your skill bonus is based on your level and ability modifier, as you advance in levels, you essentially gain "free" bonuses to skills you aren't trained in. Thus, you become able to do simple things that previously were available only to those trained in the skill.

For example, a 1st-level character trained in the Use Computer skill can slice computers, open doors, and reprogram droids right out of the gate. But imagine that later in the campaign, when the hero is at 10th level, he becomes disabled during a battle just as his fellow heroes need to hot-wire a door. Another character who is not trained in Use Computer can try to open the door. Her success depends on how well she rolls, but at least the group isn't completely stymied. Essentially, lower-level challenges can be attempted by any higher-level hero, even if the character is untrained in the needed skill.

Horace wrote:Yeah Astriya, it doesn't really make sense...but it's just following along the lines of older real life polytheistic pantheons. Where we monotheistic folk are so quick to assume immutability and infallibility among certain paradigms, polytheistic gods generally have more human (read imperfect) characteristics, at least way more so than the abrahamic god. And while they may champion one thing, they can be coerced into doing something against their nature just like a human can.

Tons and tons of stories about gods doing dumb stuff because of seductions of this and that. Ao is the only infallible one - and that's only because Ao is heavily suggested to be the dungeon master

dnd4.com wrote: Paladin.(Defender, Divine)
• Paladins have had their alignment restriction removed so you can have non lawful good paladins.