bonus skill point from high Intelligence

[ansiaaa]

in the Purchasing Skill paragraph (pag.74 Atlantean Edition) of the core manual it says : "If you buy other classes' skills (cross-class skills) with the skill points you gain from your class, as opposed to your bonus points from a a high Intelligence, then you get 1/2 rank per skill point."

My problem is... I can't find where in the manual it talks about these 'bonus points from a high Intelligence'. How do I calculate them?

and

Once I know how many they are: will it be 1 rank of cross class skill = 1 of these bonus points? (as it seems from the sentence i copyed from the book) or will it be 1/2 rank of cross class skill = 1 of these bonus points? (even if it doesn't make sense, otherwise they wouldn't haven even mentioned the bonus skill points)

thanks if you'll solve those cryptical problems of mine

 

[urdinaran]

The way I understand it is this:

If your character receives bonus skill points due to an INT modifier, you can spend those bonus skill points on cross-class skills at no penalty. Your regular skill points still work the same way.

Example: Lets say your character normally receives 4 skill points per level, and has an INT of 12 (+1). He could spend 4 points on class skills and the 5th one on any skill he wants (with no penalty).

This really helps out characters w/ high INT as it helps expand their set of skills without penalizing them. A soldier with a high INT could take a little Survival for example. Makes for interesting characters.

 

[Brass Jester]

The formula in the rule book is not correct, which adds to the confusion. For example, under Pirate it says 'Skill Points (4+Int Mod) x 4. So with an Int Mod of +1 you'd think you'd get (4+1) x 4 = 20 skill points. Wrong! What you actually get is 4 x 4 skill points to spend on class skills and 1 x 4 skill points to spend on anything. The total is the same but the potential application is way different.

 

[urdinaran]

Well, it is right in that you get 20 skill points. It just happens that 4 of those skill points can be used to cross-class into anything.

 

[ansiaaa]

The formula in the rule book is not correct, which adds to the confusion. For example, under Pirate it says 'Skill Points (4+Int Mod) x 4. So with an Int Mod of +1 you'd think you'd get (4+1) x 4 = 20 skill points. Wrong! What you actually get is 4 x 4 skill points to spend on class skills and 1 x 4 skill points to spend on anything. The total is the same but the potential application is way different.

(I'll go on using the Pirate example)
Infact I used the (4+1) * 4 formula for the class skill points and I couldn't find any bonus cross-class skill points anywhere!

The formula then should be 4*4 + 4*INT.MOD. (with the 4*I.M. as bonus skill points usable for any skills withouth penality)

Thanks for your replies! (I hoped all these "little" problems were fixed in the Atlantean Edition...)

 

[Sutek]

It is, but it's not defined in the form of an equation or anything.

Look on page 74-75 of Conan:AE, Purchasing Skills. The first sentance speaks to buying Class Skills at a 1:1 ratio. The second sentance is a bit long, and the parentheses may be the confusing factor, but it still states the difference in expendature between Skill Points gained by INT bonus versus those gained otherwise.

"If you buy other classes' skills (cross-class skills) with the skill points you gain from your class, as opposed to your bonus skill points from a high intelligence, then you get [half] rank per skill point."


It's a bad sentance, but it still states it clearly. The equations for each class and the skill points they get each level are correct; that Pirate mentioned above would have 20 skill points to spend. But, because of that sentance expressing the difference between Skill Points gained by class rather than those gained by INT bonus, it ends up being better (especially if you plan to create characters at a higher experience level than first) to calculate the available skill points separately, just to be clear which ones are class-skill only points and which ones can be spent anywhere.

I would have worded it this way:

"If you want to put ranks in a Cross-Class Skill, this results in [half] rank per skill point spent. Skill points gained from INT bonus don't work this way and can be spent on any skill you want, regardless of being spent on a cross-class or class skill."

 

[ansiaaa]

I agree with you, but since they didn't define the difference between those generic skill points and bonus skill points, i thought that the generic skill points formula was the one printed there the (4+int)*4, and that there was somewhere else another formula just for the bonus skill points and i just couldnt find it

I wouldn't ever think that it was like you guys explained, because of that formula.
thanks god we have the internet, this forum and some nice people to solve problems like that

thanks again.

 

[Sutek]

Any time.

Only reason I know is because the same question was raised in a regular D&D game and the resolution was the same. Now, we just calculate then points separately each level.

8)

 

[FailedSpotCheck]

Hello.
104 posts in and I am a royal dumba$$.
*grimmaces*
I freaked out when I reread the section on interpreting the formulae for calculating skill points.
When I see an equation as (4+INTmod)*4, I think that this is to create one solution.
But reading the text (p. 74a) two solutions are discussed, which means that the formula is not written correctly.
Citing the above equation, let INTmod=3, thus
(4+3)*4
(7)*4=28
However this is not what is arrived at and discussed in the text.
We see two numbers (16 and 12) mentioned in p. 74, column a.
The only way we can arrive at those two numbers is with the equation
4(4, 3)
yielding
(16, 12)
and that is what is discussed.

It appears that I have all this time been calculating skill pts the way the formula is written in the book.
I am alarmed by this, but I was making assumptions about the way the math is explicitly written. *sound of pulling hair and sobbing*
RPG I guess uses formulae very differently--and misleadingly.
Am I right in my new understanding of things?
So…

The "official" formulae for calculating skill pts at first level should be

4(4, i) Barbarian, Borderer, Noble, Nomad, Pirate
4(8, i) Scholar, Thief
4(2, i) Soldier

and let i=Intelligence modifier (INTmod)

E.g.

A Barbarian has an INT of 14 (+2), so…
4(4, 2)
yielding
(16, 8 )

The first number of the set can be spend on skills at a 1:1 basis for class skills but 1:0.5 for cross-class, while the second number of the set can be spend at 1:1 for ANY skills whether class or cross-class.

 

[Sutek]

It's eye-opening, isn't it. (lol)

Yeah, just calculate them separately.