Goodman Games

Hi there,

I was looking over the really neat Castle Whiterock pregenerated characters earlier and had a question. These characters all seem to have skill ranks, that by my reading, exceed the limits of 1st level characters. On page 61 of the PH it says that you can only have as many ranks in a skill as 3+character level. Many of the PreGens have skill ranks that well exceed +4 for first level characters. Can someone tell me if I miss-read something? Thanks!

I don't have them right here, but could it be racial/class bonuses to skills, or bonuses due to feats?

Hyb'

Yeah, I don't have mine handy, but...

They were stripped down character sheets, weren't they? The numbers (IIRC) were the total bonus, not just the ranks. So they've got ability mods, racial stuff, feat stuff, etc in there, too.

Maybe.

GnomeBoy has the right of it. Those are total skill modifiers, not just ranks.

That said, it looks like they might be a little off in the skill point department. Err...sorry.

They look like pretty small mistakes, so you could still just run them "as is." It doesn't look like anything game-breaking is in there.

Definitely not game-breaking, I was just wondering if I had misread the skills information in the PH. I don't think it says that you can modify above the max of 3+level. If someone has a citation that suggests otherwise let me know as we have been sticking to a max of 4 for our first level characters (5 for second, etc). I was looking at them closely as I thought the PreGens have a great deal of character (no pun intended)!

It's true for the ranks, not for the skill total. It says in the skill chapter of the PHB (p 61, I almost quote from my french PHB, but I found my american one...) that the skill modifier = skill rank + ability modifier + miscellaneous modifiers, and that Skill ranks cannot be above 3+level.

Of course on CW CS, the skill modifiers are shown, not skill ranks.

Hyb'

Hybban has the right of it (as well he should since he's our newest Tournament Judge!)...

Skill ranks max out at [character level +3]

Then you add in ability modifiers, feats like Skill Focus or Alertness, racial modifiers, and whatever else you've got to get the total skill modifier, which pretty clearly goes above [character level +3].

The Castle Whiterock pregens are listed with their total skill modifiers...just saving the Lucky Owner a step in adding together all the little bits so they can jump right into playing!

Thank you!
And I must admit that I'm not a 3.5 fan nor a good judge for rule in that system (which is probably why I did good with 4th edition rules). Before, I used to play DCC with C&C, now it will be with DD4

Hyb'

Ahh, good stuff! Thanks

You're very welcome.

Hyb'