Multiclassing question, re: brand new skills and abilities.

[Spectator]

Ok, so I am a statting a character from HBO's series 'Rome.'

He is a definite soldier for quite a few levels, however I want to add thief levels. Now when I, arbitrarily, stop giving him 8 levels of soldier and want to add several levels of thief, does he get the initial skill points of (8+Int bonus) x four, or just the 8 plus Int bonus?

 

[are]

The latter: 8 + int bonus.

 

[Clovenhoof]

As we're about it:
do you allow players to save up skill points to spend on a later level (taking a different class for different Class skills)?

 

[are]

The rules doesn't support that option and neither would I. I reckon, if they want to take skills from a class without those skills being crossclass skill they should take a level in that class.

 

[Clovenhoof]

Yes, that's the idea. I don't know about Conan, but I once learned that in D&D the situation was/is unclear. It seems to say "you _may_ spend skill points..." which was interpreted by some that you don't have to do it.
In the Neverwinter Nights game, it was common practice to save up skill points when taking fighter-type levels, and then later on take a level of Rogue and dump the saved skill points into skills like Tumble, Persuade, etc.
Which of course resulted in massive numbercrunching.

 

[Oly]

As we're about it:
do you allow players to save up skill points to spend on a later level (taking a different class for different Class skills)?

I don't allow players to do that. I'm not sure if the rules are meant to allow it but it just doesn't "feel" right to me.

 

[are]

In the Neverwinter Nights game, it was common practice to save up skill points when taking fighter-type levels, and then later on take a level of Rogue and dump the saved skill points into skills like Tumble, Persuade, etc.

D&D never says you are allowed to save skill points either. That this is possible in a computer game based on D&D does not prove anything, I remember the first D&D computer game "Pools of Radiance" where the only way to cure madness was to kill the mad person, use "animate dead" on him, kill the resulting zombie and the use "raise dead" on the inanimate corpse. Well, ingame monsters had to do the actual killing, but you get the point - some features in computer games are actually bugs.

 

[Clovenhoof]

Well, concerning NWN, saving skill points was certainly designed as a feature, but I'll give you that it doesn't have to apply to D&D all the same. After all, there are plenty of other mechanic changes, like Tumble giving a bonus to AC, to name only one.

Since my players are all new to the game, it should be taking quite a while before the first attempts of numbercrunching are going to occur.

Thanks for the PoR reference, that's really funny.