Some game systems are fairly lenient
on what skill set you can select for a given character. Others are much more ridged. For the purposes of this article I’ll focus
on Dungeons and Dragons. Both 4th
and 3rd editions have caused me more headaches, both as a player and
DM, when it came to skill selection than other systems.
What head
ache you ask? The question of players
wanting their character to have a certain skill or ability but it’s a “cross
class skill” or is comes from another class. The first thing to understand about published game systems and modules is that skill and ability selection have been played and tested so that they are, hopefully, balanced with the rest of the game classes, monsters, and encounters.
Story Trumps Rules
Let us say a fighter, as a young
person, worked as an apprentice in a print shop and learned the ins and outs of
printing, pressing, and creating documents but was then fired because they were
using this knowledge to create fake invitations to royal parties, or writes of
property. Then, after being fired the
fighter ends up on the street and becomes a thug really learning a tough life,
thus earning the class of fighter.
However, part of what the fighter did to make ends meet, was to take
this knowledge of printing and forgery to work as a doorman at certain events
catching people that were using forged invites, writes and the like in the same
schemes he was facilitating as a youth.
Does it really seem like Forgery would not be in this characters skill
set? Or a cross class skill at that?
And there in lies the rub. From a GM stand point, if a player offers a plausible
portion of back story for their character and is willing to spend their meager
supply of skill points in the case of a fighter on something that isn’t
normally in a fighters skill set Why
should they be penalized for that?
Something to take into consideration
as both a DM and a Player you do need to is balance. Ultimately it’s the responsibility of the one
running the game to make the determination about a change being requested. Is
it within the balance of the game system? With the rest of the group? With monsters or enemies that they might
encounter? Skills within the D&D realm are pretty easy to swap out without out too many concerns for balance. If a character would like a skill as a class skill that would not normally be it is easy to trade with one that is. However, when swapping out things like Class abilities it may get a little tricky. This is when you should ask a few questions both before making the selection or allowing it as a DM.
1. Is the Ability
within the same ability level of the character?
2. What is the
player giving up in order for their character to have this new ability?
This can help with the first question a bit. Usually when a
player would like their character to have an ability that is normally associated
with another class they will have to give up something their class would
normally have at the same level.
3. Where does it come from?
Even if another class gains ability at the same level there
may be other things that class does not have to compensate for the power
associated with a given ability it.
Spell casting, Turning undead, Back Stabbing, Free Feats. All have different levels of usefulness and
balance issues that come with them. So
as the GM make sure you understand the full extent of the requested ability
before agreeing to a character having it.
4. Will it need limited?
Say a rogue wants to Have Turn Undead in exchange for their
backstab ability? Assuming the player
has a plausible and well thought out story reason for this of course. Since the rogue does not have ranks in cleric the ability
will be limited to begin with. So do you
leave it at the weaker form or, like the ability it’s being
traded for, will it become stronger as the character levels up?
In the end, the biggest piece of advice I can offer when
allowing characters to swap abilities or skills in any game system is: Be
familiar enough with the system enough that you can recognize balance issues and address them.
