Tome of Prowess (3.5e Sourcebook)/Characters in a Skilled Game

=Characters in a Skilled Game=

While there's a lot of additional options in the skills themselves, there are also updated feats, spells, and gear to take advantage of them.

Feats for the Skilled
Skills serve as a base level of power for the skilled characters of the world, but only a base. By employing feats, a skilled character can improve their abilities or expand them in unexpected and dramatic ways.

Gear for the Skilled
Most of the mundane gear presented in the SRD works just fine with the Tome of Prowess. And since masterwork tools no longer stack with bonuses from feats or race, they work as a nice way to grant bonuses to characters who should expect to have them.

We do need to add one mundane item to the list of options, however. This item allows characters without spellcasting access to the full range of abilities from certain skills.

SMW::off Etheliometer

Magical Skill Items
We discussed magic item changes back in the rules chapter, and about the items that you would need to get rid of. Here are the replacement items, as well as rules for determining the market price of other sorts of skill related gear.

While wearing this amulet, you may immediately reroll any Appraisal ability check as a free action. You do not have to use this new result if you do not want to, and may instead keep your original roll. You may use this reroll ability up to the number of times per day granted by the amulet.

If you use multiple items that grant re-rolls for the appraisal skill, you may not benefit from more re-rolls than the largest number granted by an item in any given 24 hour period.

Prerequisites: Craft Item of Prowess, Character level equal to granted re-rolls x 2 (or 15 for unlimited), Appraisal as a Class Skill.

"My fingers know what needs to be done."

While wearing these gloves, it only takes you twice as long to take 15 on any devices check that you make. Further, you may take 10 on any devices check that you make under pressure, even if you do not have 4 more ranks than the minimum required to use the particular skill ability.

Prerequisites: Craft Item of Prowess, Character level 6, Devices as a Class Skill.

"This headband is crazy! I almost can't close my eyes while I'm wearing it."

While wearing a Headband of Attention, a character acts as if they possess a number of ranks in the perception skill. The number of ranks granted in this way is determined by the strength of the headband. These ranks grant the wearer skill abilities as normal. If a character already possesses more ranks than the headband would provide, they gain no additional benefit from these ranks.

Prerequisites: Craft Item of Prowess, Character level equal to granted ranks - 2, Perception as a Class Skill.

SMW::on "I couldn't even tell you what color the cloak was, or was it a scarf..."

While wearing an Unnoticed Cloak, a character acts as if they possess a number of ranks in the stealth skill. The number of ranks granted in this way is determined by the strength of the cloak. These ranks grant the wearer skill abilities as normal. If a character already possesses more ranks than the cloak would provide, they gain no additional benefit from these ranks.

The cloak also provides a +3 competence bonus on all stealth checks. This competence bonus does not stack with any other competence bonus, including those granted by race, masterwork item, or feat.

Prerequisites: Craft Item of Prowess, Character level equal to granted ranks - 2, Stealth as a Class Skill.

Creating Magical Skill Gear
Any character who possesses the craft item of prowess feat may spend their time and energy creating skill items like those listed above.

Magical skill gear is broken up into two main categories: items that grant skill ranks and items that grant rolling abilities or modifiers. Skill gear does not grant additional skill abilities at all, unless it is granting them through a feat (which can not be imbued with the craft item of prowess feat).

Gear That Grants Ranks
Items that grant ranks need to be priced in such a way that characters who possess them can not buy power above their level, and can not buy substantial flexibility too early. They thus cost quite a bit of money.

Gear that provides ranks in skills follows the following pricing formula: (Granted Ranks - 2) x (Granted Ranks - 2) x 125 gp. This works out to the following:

The ranks granted by these items do not stack with the ranks a character already possesses. If you use an item that grants ranks, you use either your ranks or the ranks that it provides to you.

A character with the craft item of prowess feat can create a rank granting item for any skill which they possess as a class skill. The maximum rank they can imbue into an item is equal to their character level + 2.

Gear That Modifies a Roll
There are several ways to modify a roll, from a straight numeric bonus to re-rolls to more esoteric things. The most common ones are discussed here.

Competence Bonuses
A skill item may provide a +3 competence bonus to a skill. The market price for this upgrade is 1,000 gp.

A character with the craft item of prowess feat can create a competence bonus granting item for any skill which they possess as a class skill. They must have a minimum character level of 4 in order to do so.

Re-Rolls
Re-rolls are a useful tool in the hands of a skilled character. Since they are rarely used except when an initial roll results in failure, they work to increase successful rolls without also increasing the bonuses associated with them. All re-rolls granted from these items replace the original check result, even if the re-rolled result is worse. This means that most re-rolls will be vastly more useful for low rolls than high rolls.

The value of re-rolls in general is somewhat decreased by the ability to take 10 on a roll, since a success without a roll eliminates the potential to need a re-roll in the first place. It is important to note, however, that if a character "takes 10" with a skill ability, they can still use a re-roll if they have one available. "Taking 10" simply assumes that the die came up 10, so if they find that result insufficient they can use a re-roll to make a real attempt. Likewise, if a character is able to take 10 on a roll, they can roll initially and elect to "take 10" with a re-roll if they could normally choose to "take 10". They can not take 15 or 20 in conjunction with a re-roll, as those have a different action cost than a roll.

When a character makes a check and then uses a re-roll to "take 10", they are effectively setting the minimum possible roll result to 10. This is not a concern once in a while at lower levels since it just makes characters slightly more successful, but it would be detrimental to the game if it happened too often because it breaks expected success rates. At higher levels, this is less of a concern as the abilities trail off and it becomes less likely that a character would fail an ability check in the first place, except against equal-level foes where taking 10 isn't a guarantee of success anyway. The pricing for re-rolls has been set with these concerns in mind.

Gear that provides re-rolls is priced, per skill, as follows:

Note that you can not benefit from more re-rolls for a skill in a 24 hour period than the largest granted by one of your re-roll items. It doesn't matter which items actually grant the re-rolls, as long as the total does not exceed the amount granted by the item granting the largest amount.

A character with the craft item of prowess feat can create a re-roll granting item for any skill which they possess as a class skill. They must have a minimum character level of twice the granted number of re-rolls, or 15 for an unlimited item, in order to do so.

Other Modifiers
Gear that modifies the conditions of ability use or a roll, such as the ability to take 10 regardless of ranks or to take 15 in half the time, is relatively cheap. The listed benefits are not substantial boosts in power, as taking 10 early just makes you consistent (and possibly consistently bad) and taking 15 or 20 in half time won't be used in combat very often. Additional hurrying of "take X" options should not be allowed on a standard magic item, as they simply become large bonuses if they have no substantial time cost. Items that provide these benefits are listed in the examples above.

The ability to "take 10", "take 15" or "take 20" under pressure before meeting the rank requirements, as well as the ability to "take 15" or "take 20" in half the required time can each be placed within an item, and are added individually. Their market price is 1,000 gp each.

A character with the craft item of prowess feat can create items with these properties for any skill which they possess as a class skill. They must have a minimum character level of 4, +1 per additional ability, in order to do so.

Gear That Provides Multiple Benefits
Gear that provides multiple benefits from different categories, like skill ranks and a competence bonus, is treated as having multiple different abilities. The highest priced portion is used as the base price, and each additional aspect is added to this cost with a 50% surcharge. Adding a competence bonus to a rank granting item increases the market price by 1,500 gp, for example.

This is also the case for gear that provides benefits to different skills. An item that provides re-rolls for two skills is 50% more expensive than buying two items that each provide re-rolls for 1 skill.

Gear that provides multiple benefits from the same category, like taking 10, 15, or 20 under pressure without the rank requirements, is treated as having multiple similar abilities. The highest priced portion is used as the base price, the next highest priced addition gets a 25% discount, and any subsequent additions get a 50% discount.

Pricing Skill Items with the Book of Gears
The Book of Gears work in the Tome series proposes alternate magic item pricing guidelines, breaking items into Minor, Moderate, and Major categories. If this work is in use, items with a price less than 15,000 gp are considered minor items. A moderate skill item simply grants its wielder one of the following benefits: Character level + 3 (minimum 14) ranks in one skill, or unlimited re-rolls with one skill. A major skill item would grant two moderate benefits.

Magic for the Unskilled
Since magic and the skill system are intended to achieve similar ends while interacting as little as possible, some spells have been removed while others have been rewritten.

Removed Spells

 * Glibness
 * Greater Heroism
 * Moment of Prescience

''Note: Some of these spells may be re-added as variant spells in the future. Greater Heroism in particular is only problematic because of its skill bonus size. If this is reduced to +3 it can be otherwise used as is, though it is not as valuable as it previously was.''

Rewritten Spell Descriptions
The following is a list of spells that have been rewritten to work with the updated skill system presented here. SMW::off

SMW::on The subjects are able to clear a gap up to 20' wide, plus 2 1/2' per caster level over 1 (maximum of 30' at level 5) without any chance of failure. During this magical jump, the subjects can reach a height of 10', plus 1 1/4' per caster level over 1 (maximum of 15' at level 5); this height occurs no later than the midpoint of the jump. Subjects do not need to use the full width or height of the jump if they are constrained for some reason. If the jump is short but the subjects are within a distance to a ledge that is equal to or less than their height, they automatically grab the ledge, and may pull themselves up later.

Use of this jump requires a move action from each subject, and the effect is lost if it is not used within 1 round of the spell being cast.

Material Component: A grasshopper’s hind leg, which you break when the spell is cast.

Skilled Classes
The classes linked below are designed with the updated skills in mind, but are not a core part of this work. They are intended as replacements for core classes, and are only listed here for ease of reference. Additional classes that are compatible with this work may be found here: Category:Tome of Prowess Compliant.


 * Priest (Cleric replacement)
 * Ranger (Ranger replacement)
 * Templar (Paladin replacement)