View source for Condensed Skills (3.5e Variant Rule)

== The Problem ==

In general, the way skills have been assigned abilities in DnD is deeply unsatisfactory. Firstly, they are nothing like balanced with each other, with some skills being virtual must-haves, and others being relegated to the dumpster. Secondly, there are far too many of them, with some being strangely broad, while others are almost uselessly narrow (a fact which makes everyone very sad). Lastly, they don't scale well at all, being completely superseded by other abilities rapidly. As a result, the entire game suffers.

Skills in DnD have wildly divergent utility and specificity. You have skills which are usefully broad and helpful, you have skills which are too narrow and underpowered, and lastly, you have skills that are just completely, unusably broken. A good example of a skill in the first category is Spellcraft, in the second category is Heal, and the last category is Craft (no, seriously - have you actually tried ''making'' anything with that pile of fail?). As a result of this, skill point investments can become rather oddly distributed, often making one skill point spent on one skill give much more benefit than another skill point spent on a completely different skill. This is fairly unacceptable in and of itself.

Additionally, the number of skills relative how many skill points people get is ridiculously large. Classes which don't have Intelligence as a primary (or secondary, or tertiary) ability score that are seriously expected to get by on 2 + Int skill points per level totally exist, and even classes with piles of skill points to throw around often find that they run out very quickly just by buying essentials (anyone who's played a rogue can tell you that this is true). This means that people often neglect interesting, but not mechanically potent, skills, as well as those with a more narrow application. This is also highly undesirable, as it severely limits the kind of options that see play.

Lastly, skills become obviated far too rapidly. While some (like Tumble and Use Magic Device) remain useful for quite a while, skills like Heal are basically obviated by a ''wand'', and others, like Decipher Script, probably never get used at all. Climb and Swim become largely useless once ''fly'' and ''water breathing'' hit the table, and with certain divinations, Knowledge skills might as well not exist after a while.

While all of these have been better addressed [[Tome of Prowess (3.5e Sourcebook)|elsewhere]], not everyone wants to learn a whole new set of subsystems. This rule is designed to patch these holes, but without adding new subsystems. While it certainly doesn't do things perfectly (especially the third problem, which it barely touches on at all), for those who want a 'quick and dirty' solution, this is a suitable option which requires far less to be learned.
Article Balance	Unquantifiable +
Author	MisterSinister + and Ghostwheel +
Identifier	3.5e Variant Rule +
Rating	Unrated +
Title	Condensed Skills +