House Rules -- Ability Scores and Skills

[todd]


ABILITY SCORES:
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Per Delving Deeper, with the following exceptions:

INTELLIGENCE -- at the beginning of the game, characters will only know one language: Gwellan. However, the languages known bonuses for high intelligence will apply to potential languages to learn during campaign play.

To learn a new language, a character must make five successful language skill checks (explained below) and have an unused potential language slot. If those criteria are met, the character can add that tongue to his list of known languages.


WISDOM -- Per Delving Deeper but, additionally, having a high wisdom grants a character extra skill points (as explained below):

 WISDOM    EXTRA SKILL
 SCORE       POINTS
 ------    -----------
  3-12          0
 13-14          1
 15-18          2


SKILLS:
------

Skills represent a character's proficiency at various activities or areas of expertise (default chances in parentheses):

* Architecture (1 in 6)
* Trek (1 in 6)
* Climb (1 in 6)
* Languages (1 in 6)
* Search (1 in 6)
* Sleight of Hand (1 in 6)
* Sneak Attack (0 in 6)
* Stealth (1 in 6)
* Tinker (1 in 6)
* Appraisal (1 in 6)
* Thaumaturgy (0 in 6)(1)


(1) In this sense, thaumaturgy does not represent magical ability as much as the ability to discern magic, magical properties, and effects.

All characters begin with the default chances as listed in parentheses. A character with exceptional wisdom can add an additional bonus to one or more skills.

During play, a character can spend experience to increase his proficiency. The cost is the character's current level multiplied by the new success rate multiplied by 1000 XP. Example: Brud the Brave, a 2nd level fighting man, wants to increase his stealth skill from 1 in 6 to 2 in 6. He must spend 2 (his level) x 2 (the new success rate) x 1000 XP or 4000 XP to do so.