Tome of Prowess (3.5e Sourcebook)/Rules

=Rules= Adjusting the skill system to fit the scaling challenge system that D&D uses requires some extensive changes. The core, system level changes are explained in this chapter along with conversions for the core base classes to make adoption more convenient. Changes to other class feats and subsystems can be found in the Supporting Changes chapter.

General Rules
There are enough changes and updates in this work to make it worth rewriting any duplicated parts of the base rules for clarity. As such, this section is intended to be used on its own and you should not need to reference the SRD rules at all. Where the rules differ substantially from the SRD, we have generally included sidebars to discuss the reasoning behind the changes.

Those of you who are familiar with the SRD rules and just want to know what the big differences are can find them in the spoiler box below.

Skill Points
Every class comes with a number of granted skill points, which are used to gain ranks in a skill. You gain a bonus to checks with a skill equal to the number of ranks you have in it, and unlock more impressive skill abilities based on your total ranks in a skill. The way that you invest these points to gain ranks in a skill depends on whether you elect to advance your skills automatically or manually, as described in the sections below.

Automatic Skill Investment
At first level, you gain a number of skill selections equal to the skill point value of your class. You may select any class skill to advance at the class rate of character level + 3, or you may use that selection to instead gain two skills at the cross-class rate of (character level + 3) / 2 rounded up. Once a skill is selected in this way, it automatically gains ranks based on your level and the selected progression.

Multiclass Characters
This system works poorly with multiclass characters and may require substantial additional bookkeeping. Because a class skill for any class is a class skill for every class, we recommend that multiclass characters simply make the same selections across all classes if possible. If it is not possible due to differing numbers of skill points, we instead recommend that they use the manual skill investment rules instead.

Manual Skill Investment
Some players prefer a bit more management of their skill selections. There is power to be squeezed out of a completely manual assignment of skill points, if you want to spend the time and energy looking for it.

If you elect to manually assign your skill points rather than simply select some skills for maximum investment, you gain a number of skill points as determined by your class selection each time you gain a level. At first level, the skill points granted by your class are multiplied by 4.

The skill points acquired from your levels are invested in your skills. Each skill point you invest in a skill grants you 1 rank in the skill. You may invest up to your character level + 3 skill points in any class skill, and up to (your character level + 3) / 2 rounded up in any cross class skill. Once you have reached these rank maximums, you may not invest additional skill points in that skill until you increase the maximum through level gain.

Multiclass Characters
If a skill appears as a class skill for a class that a character possesses, the maximum ranks for the character in that skill is equal to their character level +3. Effectively, if a skill is a class skill for one of your classes, it is a class skill for all of your classes.

Additionally, if a character takes a level in a base class that offers more skill points per level than any of his other current base classes, he gains an additional number of skill points equal to 3 times the difference between the number of skill points granted by his new class and the highest number of skill points granted by one of his current classes. These points may be invested in current or new skills as normal.

Skill Abilities
Each of the new skill abilities include a rank minimum (even if that rank is Untrained), and characters with at least this many ranks may attempt that use of the skill without penalty. This adjustment allows us to ignore the trained / untrained distinction previously present in skills. There are simply abilities that you can use at your current skill level, and abilities you can not because you lack sufficient ranks.

Skill Checks
To make a skill check, you roll 1d20 and add your skill check modifier to your roll. Your check modifier includes your skill ranks, your attribute bonus from the related attribute, and any miscellaneous modifiers for circumstances related to the ability ranging from racial bonuses to equipment bonuses or armor check penalties.

Your check result is compared against the task DC. This DC is either determined by the DM based on the obstacle or set by someone else making an opposed check. Your degree of success or failure against the DC is used to determine the degree of your success or failure with the skill ability. These results are listed in the skill abilities, which use this format:

Base DC: The basic DC required to use the ability. This entry also includes an indication of applicable modifiers. Check Result:
 * DC+10 and above: This entry indicates how the ability changes if you roll better than the DC by 10 or more. It may not be present in all abilities.
 * DC+5 to DC+9: This entry indicates how the ability changes if you roll better than the DC by 5 or more, or it may be written as “DC+5 and above” if there is no greater success possible. It may not be present in all abilities.
 * DC+0 to DC+4: This entry indicates the default level of success for the ability by meeting or exceeding the DC. It is present for all abilities, and may be written as “DC+0 and above” if there is no greater success possible.
 * DC-1 to DC-5: This entry indicates the default level of failure for the ability if you do not meet or exceed the DC. It is present for all abilities, and may be written as “DC-1 and below” if there is no greater failure possible.
 * DC-6 and below: If there is a more substantial failure possible than the default level, it is listed in this entry. It may not be present in all abilities.

Almost every skill ability includes a penalty for failing by more than a certain amount. This was done to discourage repeated attempts when the abilities are first acquired, since a number of these abilities mimic spells in effect. The abilities also include benefits for successes over a certain amount. This was done to provide characters improving benefits from their abilities and to reduce ability obsolescence, as well as to make characters choose between risking failure by rolling for a stronger result and playing things safe by taking a fixed result instead of the roll.

Checks without Rolls
Making a roll for a skill ability includes the potential for both great success and great failure, and there are times when you might rather just get by without worrying about it. These times are generally those when you are not under pressure to perform, like in combat, and when you have time to focus.

You may "take X" with any skill ability whenever you are not actively threatened or distracted. Additionally you may "take X" with any skill ability even when you are actively threatened or distracted as long as you have 4 more ranks in the skill than the minimum required to use the skill ability. Gaining four levels means you get the task under hand, and it’s just not that big of a deal anymore.

Taking 10
Taking 10 represents putting in an average amount of effort, and not attempting to reach for a greater result. It can be thought of as doing "just enough to get by". For the purposes of your skill check, you treat your 1d20 roll as if it had come up 10. Taking this option takes the same amount of time as a normal use of the skill ability does.

Taking 15
Taking 15 represents spending time and effort to do a good job, but without spending time to make it perfect. It can be thought of as "taking the time to do it right". For the purposes of your skill check, you treat your 1d20 roll as if it had come up 15. Taking this option takes four times as long as a normal use of the skill ability does.

Taking 20
Taking 20 represents putting in a great deal of effort in an attempt to make the check as "perfect as you can get". It means doing it over, and over, and over until you get it right... even if you get it wrong once or twice along the way. If you would fail the check in a way that would not allow you to retry it had you rolled a 1, you treat your 1d20 roll as if it had come up 1. Otherwise you treat your 1d20 roll as if it had come up 20. Taking this option takes 20 times as long as a normal use of the skill ability does.

Retraining
Retraining is a core part of the Tome of Prowess revision, not an optional rule that only some games take advantage of. The concept has been around in house rules for ages, but was officially introduced in the Player's Handbook II. The version in that book does not work well for our purposes and we do not use there here. So if you have read those rules, please forget them now.

Skill Bonuses
While your ranks are important for providing a level of competence and opening up new abilities, equally important is your total bonus to these ability checks. Each skill ability is designed to be usable, but not necessarily reliable, when you first acquire them in order to offset the fact that you can basically use them all of the time.

Bonuses to skills are broken up into five groups, each detailed below.
 * Skill Ranks are a bonus equal to the amount of skill points invested in a skill.
 * Attribute modifiers are gained from having a high attribute related to a skill.
 * Conditional modifiers are those gained based on actual conditions when you use a skill ability, and are generally detailed in the skill descriptions. Bonuses arising from different conditions stack, unless otherwise noted in the condition description.
 * Competence modifiers are any racial ability, class feature, feat, gear, spell, or any other bonus or penalty to a skill that does not fit into one of the other groupings. Bonuses do not stack with other bonuses, and are capped at +3 in order to keep success rates within expected progressions. Penalties do not stack with other penalties, but are not capped. Only the largest available competence bonus and penalty apply on any particular roll.
 * Circumstance modifiers are a miscellaneous +/-2 modifier that the DM may apply as necessary. They should be reserved for special cases where the existing condition modifiers do not adequately cover the situation.

The competence bonus limit is a substantial change, and one worth understanding. A simple example of the non-stacking implications can be found among feats. While skill focus and the various skill feats that boost two skills by +2 are still in the game and still work normally, these feats no longer stack. If you want to be very skilled in one thing, you should take skill focus in it. If you want to be rather skilled in multiple things, you should take the feat that offers a +2 bonus to each of those things. You should never take both for the same skill or take feats to boost skills that you gain racial bonuses on, because they do not stack and that's a big waste of your rather limited feats.

There are many racial features, class features, feats, gear abilities, or spell benefits that do not fit into the strict new bonus structure. They may offer bonuses to skills that no longer exist, bonuses that are too large, or grant an ability that doesn't make any sense. These generally require some conversion on your part before they can be used properly. While it is impossible to cover every conversion case for every published item, the most common are detailed in the next sections and should provide a good reference for any that aren't covered.

Converting Racial, Class, and Feat Bonuses
Every bonus or ability that does not fit into the Tome of Prowess bonus structure must be updated independently. If there are two racial abilities, class features, or feats that grant skill bonuses going in, there should be two after conversion as well. While it may be tempting to merge some abilities before converting, doing so will reduce their effectiveness and is not recommended.

Every skill conversions can generally be performed as indicated in the skill updates section later in this chapter. The following table provides suggestions on how to convert bonuses and abilities.

Converting Gear Bonuses
Masterwork skill items don't really fit with the spirit of the new skills. In the SRD system, they grant bonuses to a very focused skill and are rather narrow in use. Here each skill grants several abilities and it is difficult to justify a single tool granting bonuses to all of them. We also don't need minor number boosts like this anymore and they conflict with the revised racial benefits. As a result, masterwork skill items have been removed from this work and do not exist.

Like masterwork skill items, the SRD magical skill items have also been replaced. There is still a place for magical skill items, however, they just need to work within this altered system and not allow people who use them to gain extraordinary benefits or perform well above the expected mark for their level. These items need to be useful for characters who don't substantially invest in a particular skill, and this can be done by giving ranks with the items instead of bonuses. They also need to provide some utility to characters who have already invested heavily in a skill, and this can be done with competence bonuses, "take X" abilities and variations, or re-rolls.

Conversion to these items is a simple matter of replacement, or of allowing the character to select new gear with the appropriate cost. Example skill items that offer benefits to those who have the skill, as well as those who don't, appear in the Running a Skilled Game section.

Converting Spell Bonuses
With the revised skills here, there is no place for spells that provide temporary ranks in a skill, or that provide a static bonus to a skill. While there is actually room for spells that function as temporary skill items, you probably shouldn't do that for thematic reasons, as well as to avoid putting every tool in the game in spellcasters' pockets. To avoid the magic vs. skill thematic issues, value concerns, and omnitasking possibilities, we have just removed spells that directly affect your skill modifier from the game or rewritten them into a spell that just does something appropriate for its spell level.

Conversion of spells to this system involves equal parts spell replacement and bonus adjustment. Updated and removed spells appear in the Running a Skilled Game section.

Dealing with Attribute Bonuses
The above topics cover the most common direct skill bonuses and at least offer suggestions on dealing with the more unusual cases. But they don't talk about indirect bonuses at all, like the bonuses you get from the attributes that you will be increasing as you level. Between +6 enhancement bonuses from items and +5 inherent bonuses from wishes or books and +5 more from simple levels, you can get an extra +8 bonus on an attribute modifier (or more) fairly easily in some games. And in other games, you never see even half of that. This isn't as large a modifier as you used to get from skill boost items, but suffers all the same problems of deciding whether to expect it in the base DC or not.

Unfortunately, because of large variances in when these stat jumps hit and by how much they grow, this isn't really something we can plan around. And removing these stat jumps from the game entirely isn't a particularly workable solution for a large number of play styles. The best that can be done is to point out that we do not assume any large attribute boosts in our base DCs, because we don't want attribute boosters to be necessary to get reasonable use out of your skills at higher levels. Since that still leaves holes out there for some play styles, we have included several suggested solutions to the potential problem for use in your own games.

Option - Scale DCs
If you expect large attribute boosts and want to keep the skill abilities balanced such that characters are not overly successful with them when they acquire them, you can just scale up the DCs. In general, you should add 1 to every non-opposed DC for every 2 ranks greater than 4 are required to access the ability. You may need to adjust this rate if there are large jumps at level 9 or 10 (when players can chain-bind for wishes and boost all of their attributes by +5 at once), though the fact that there are fewer abilities gained after this point means you will probably be fine if you do not. As was mentioned before, there's a lot of variance in trying to account for these.

Option - Cap Attributes
If you don't want to scale the DCs but you also don't want to worry about players using higher level skill abilities more reliably than expected, you can simply put a cap on their attributes or the attribute bonuses that can be applied to skills. We recommend setting the limit at 20 + their racial attribute modifier for each attribute, and just using whatever that modifier is if you're going to cap skill adjustments and not attributes entirely. For races in the SRD, this gives a maximum range of 18 to 22 on attributes, or a +4 to +6 bonus. That gives players some room for growth, but since these numbers are within expected ranges they will work with the skill ability DCs over all levels of the game. It also pushes players to grow multiple attributes, as the combination of attribute boosters and attribute ceilings causes diminishing returns for continued attribute investment after a point.

Option - Do Nothing
If your games don't involve large, universal attribute boosts or you don't care if higher level attribute focused characters get better results more reliably on their shiny new high level abilities than they did when they got their lower level skill abilities, then you don't need to do anything at all. The DCs listed in the skills chapter should serve you just fine; you probably won't see major divergence from the expected success rates until higher levels anyway.

Converting to the Tome of Prowess
This work includes a fair bit of skill consolidation or re-characterization, so that the skills themselves remain relatively close to each other in terms of utility and value. The new class skills for core SRD class are listed here and conversions for some published works may be found in the appendix. Advice on converting published classes without an entry, as well as homebrew classes can be found after the SRD skill listings below.

Converting Other Classes
For non-SRD classes, the following advice should help you determine how many skill points and class skills are appropriate for a class, be it homebrew or published.

Class Skill Points
The point of these skills is to supplement class features and increase relevant options available to characters. One of the easiest ways to determine the relevant options of a class is to look at its balance level. Lower balance classes tend to have fewer options in the same power range as the new skill abilities, and should get more skill points to increase their utility. Higher balance classes tend to have more options in the same power range as the new skill abilities, and thus benefit less from additional skill points.

Any balance range referred to should be understood to exclude contributions from Use Magic Device or Use Psionic Device, as these skills can skew balance assignments. Most classes with one or both of these skills should be treated as one balance category lower for the purpose of determining how many skill points they should get.


 * Low and Moderate balance non-casting classes should get 10 skill points per level. Low and Moderate balance partial casting classes should get 8 skill points per level. Low and Moderate balance full casters should get 6 skill points per level.
 * Most High balance non-casting classes should get 8 skill points per level. Some non-casting classes in this range may have sufficiently useful non-combat options to need only 6 skill points per level, like the High balance partial casters should receive. High balance full casters should receive 4 skill points per level.
 * Very High balance non-casting classes and partial casting classes should receive 6 skill points per level. Very High balance full casters should receive 4 skill points per level.

This advice presumes you want to bring under-performing classes up and not worry too much about the over-performers. If you want a lower powered game, feel free to exclude higher balance classes entirely and reduce the skill points granted in general.

Class Skills List
Determining how much power a class needs to gain from skills is only a part of the conversion. How many skills they have to select from determines how varied their skills might be. In general, full casters get the fewest class skills as they have a wide pool of other effects to select from. Non-casters lack these ability pools, and gain a wider array of skills to help them compensate.


 * Classes with full spellcasting progressions should get 50% more class skills than they have skill points. For a VH class like the wizard, for example, they should have 6 class skills on which to spend their 4 skill points.
 * Classes with partial spellcasting progressions should get 50% more class skills than they have skill points or 9 class skills, whichever is greater.
 * Classes with no spellcasting progressions and largely combat class abilities should get 12 class skills. For High and Very High balance classes, this means that they will likely have almost twice as many class skills as they do skill points. Moderate and Low balance classes in this group should get an extra class skill, bringing them up to 13.

If you feel that a class needs more or less than this amount of class skills, remember that additional skills increase utility when given time to retrain as well as dilute the core of what the class is capable of. The opposite is also true, since fewer class skills reduces utility and tends to restrict character options. It's generally a bad idea to do those things.

Once the number of class skills has been determined, all that is left to do is assign the class skills. The easiest way to assign these class skills is to simply convert their original skills into the revised skills in this work. That will give you a base to work from, but probably won't leave the class skill list complete. After you have completed the initial skill conversion, you may need to remove some skills or add a few new ones. Some classes may need to give up a skill to remain within the guidelines. Alternately, some may already have all the appropriate skills and be left with acquiring class skills that might not fit with their common interpretation. More often than not, the best way forward in these circumstances is to embrace the chance to expand their repertoire and utility. As an example, the SRD fighter has gained access to a large number of utility abilities in the above conversion and is a more valued party contributor as a result.

Skill Updates
To assist with determining which skills a converted class would have access to if converted directly, each of the old skills is listed below along with a brief explanation of where you can find it now. It should help you determine a starting class skill list, which you can then modify as indicated above.