Non-supported skills

Gamer asks about the current state of ‘unsupported skills’:

…”It would be beneficial for BioWare to include ALL 3e skills, regardless of whether they actually implement code for it in the engine. This
is for two reasons:
1. Some PCs will want to have the skill for roleplaying purposes in defining their character.
2. Any decent DM will be able make the characters skill apply to some effect from a roleplaying standpoint – even the Climbing skill (which will NOT be
implemented), by simply “picking up and dropping” a character to the point where his Climbing skill may take him”

And here Rob’s reply:

“I remember the discussion. No final decisions have been made at this point but, personally, I would have one concern with what you’re proposing.
You’d know what was going on and I’d know what was going on. However, the *vast* majority of people buying the game (or reviewing it, for that matter) would be very confused when that super-cool climbing skill they just spent all their skill points on doesn’t actually *do* anything in most games (including the official campaign). Chances are, they’ll think it’s a bug or, worse yet, a half-implemented feature. Either one makes BioWare look bad and will mean decreased sales, returned games, and some very unhappy fans.
One possible solution might be to simply leave some of your skill points undistributed and work out with your DM what they’re actually for. Another option would be to apply them to a skill you don’t actually want and don’t intend to make use of. Or the DM could remove the necessary amount of skill points from your character manually. All of these approaches should be available for those that need them without confusing or upsetting the average player.

Does that sound like an okay compromise?”

All I can say is NO! That doesn’t sound like an “okay compromise”! Please someone tell me they aren’t serious about that or have changed their mind about it meanwhile! Wydraz’ suggestion is just great, actually I just came here to propose the same, but then I took a look at the UKB again.

I say screw the “average player”. Is nobody thinking of the poor DMs that will have to keep track of who has what skill and who hasn’t? Not mentioning huge persistent server networks with lots of players, where DMs would be busy all day with taking away skill points and the other stuff Rob proposed in his “okay compromise”. I think it would be a much better compromise to simply make the “average player” AWARE of the fact he is picking a skill that might be useless in many modules. Give them a different color, make dialog boxes pop up to warn them if they pick them, mention it in the handbook, whatever… just give us those damn skills… PLEASE!

And I’m all for placeholder skills for script hooks, I thought it was an absolutely *brilliant* concept when it was first posted on the old boards (though in all fairness, since I was the one that posted, I may be a bit biased ;-)).

However, beyond all the other concerns there is also the fact that NWN will be rebalanced to compensate for the skills/feats/spells/etc, that aren’t making it into the initial release. That means building in an easy way around their loss also builds in an easy way to royally screw up that rebalancing ;-). Remember that every pebble in the pond creates ripples….

“We’ve worked hard and made a great game, now let’s enable them to break it in five easy steps….”

Cord Grimwinder-8d
Interplaygames.com Moderator