Linking to skills?

[kirbwarrior]

After some research I found you can link and follow-up to physical attacks (such as weapons). Can this be done to any tool use?

Can you link more directly to skill use itself? For instance, lets say I built Healing to use First Aid for use. Can I buy Link so I can use both Healing and the mundane effects of First Aid on the target at the same time? Healing could even be limited to take longer and the power overall could be a form of 'cinematic first aid'. I could do the same with Mind Control and Intimidation, letting me scare them into doing what I want them to do in two ways simultaneously. Or maybe switch the skills, letting me heal someone through intimidation or or Mind Control someone by giving them First Aid.

EDIT: I don't want to put Link on the skill itself, I know modifiers mostly don't work on skills, so it would only go on the advantage.

[kirbwarrior]

Bump. I'm thinking that if the skill takes a long time to use, that this might even work as a feature if the advantage takes as long.

[DangerousThing]

I don't think there is a way to link skills and advantages that way. However, there was a Pyramid article that discussed converting skills to advantages.

[Anaraxes]

How about Healing (Requires Skill Roll (First Aid))?

Might have to sweet-talk the GM into letting the skill roll do something useful in addition to being the skill for the ability. But then, you could always volunteer to exchange the discount for RSR for the privilege.

Link's an advantage because it saves the activation time for one of the abilities, normally one second. In combat, getting two abilities activated in one second instead of two seconds is a pretty big deal. If the two abilities have differing activation times, presumably you use the longer one. First Aid takes at least one minute (bandaging and tourniquets), with the usual time being 10-30 minutes. Adding an extra second to that to activate Healing is a trivial different when you're in narrative time. And even the short bandaging time of one minute is far too long to be useful in combat. So I'm not really sure what the extra benefit is expected to be.

[roguebfl]

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

How about Healing (Requires Skill Roll (First Aid))?

Yep, it is +0% to swap an attribute roll for a skill based on that attribute .

If the existing roll is the wrong Stat, then Change attribute. Roll enhancement will solve that. If it doesn't already have a tool the Required (attribute) roll limitation will supply it.

[DangerousThing]

Originally Posted by roguebfl

Yep, it is +0% to swap an attribute roll for a skill based on that attribute .

If the existing roll is the wrong Stat, then Change attribute. Roll enhancement will solve that. If it doesn't already have a tool the Required (attribute) roll limitation will supply it.

It seems too cheap to change an attributes roll for a skill roll. As a user I wouldn't use this enhancement unless my character had a decent roll.

[roguebfl]

Originally Posted by DangerousThing

It seems too cheap to change an attributes roll for a skill roll. As a user I wouldn't use this enhancement unless my character had a decent roll.

See GURPS Powers p. 162 Skills for Everyone.

[DangerousThing]

Originally Posted by roguebfl

See GURPS Powers p. 162 Skills for Everyone.

Now I understand. As long as it's a new skill, that makes sense. I was thinking of being able to set this to a skill the character already had at a high level.

[Anaraxes]

The other RAW requirement is that it be a Hard skill (or VH). Makes it a little more expensive... (but not enough to really matter, IMO).

Sometimes the ability skill is a newly-invented skill, just for the purpose. Psi Powers uses the Limitation extensively this way; PK wanted everything to have a trainable skill as well as power level. (It's nice to have both axes to model characters: strong but clumsy, precise but weak, young apprentice weak in both, master). But the skill doesn't have to be a unique skill, useful only for that one ability. GM's call as to what makes sense (as always).

[roguebfl]

Originally Posted by DangerousThing

Now I understand. As long as it's a new skill, that makes sense. I was thinking of being able to set this to a skill the character already had at a high level.

Originally Posted by Kromm

Skills for Everyone (Powers, p. 162) is also worth looking at here. To make a long story short, requiring a skill is often worth nothing as a limitation unless it's tacked onto an advantage that normally requires no roll at all.

And

Originally Posted by Kromm

The key realization, though, is that the utility of nearly all skills is open-ended, so adding one to "undefined" still leaves you at "undefined." The limit of (n+x)/x as x tends to infinity is 1 for any finite n. Generally, GURPS finds itself starting at some small n and quickly adding x >> n in a few short years.

This is by design. We encourage writers to use existing skills for new tasks that seem to fit, because that's easier and less cluttery than inventing a new skill. For combat skills in particular, we endorse new weapons, combat options, techniques, etc. all the time.

For instance, prior to Martial Arts, you couldn't use Knife skill with short batons, deer antlers, or straight razors – or broken bottles, credit cards, nail clippers, or scissors – because there were no rules for those weapons. You couldn't use Knife skill for a Tip Slash to give an impaling-only weapon a cutting attack, either. And you couldn't grapple using a knife via your Armed Grapple (Knife) default. With the introduction of those rules, you could suddenly use Knife for entirely new attacks with things that look little like knives.

And noncombat skills for powers aren't especially different in this regard. Skills Enhancing Abilities (Powers, p. 161) is all about encouraging players to come up with new skills that could be used to wield their abilities. The only criterion is that the skill would provide knowledge that could believably be used to wield the ability to better effect. Influence skills pretty obviously fit Mind Control, while Mind Probe actually suggests using Interrogation. Importantly, no combat vs. noncombat distinction is made.

Generally, GURPS doesn't give rules in a prescriptive, closed form. It gives suggestions with lots of "such as," "for example," and "etc." The idea is that gamers are smart enough to dream up their own additions. What additions pass in a given gaming group is a matter of negotiation for that group. GURPS doesn't attempt to take that control out of their hands and make everything canonical and graven in stone. It isn't as if there are official GURPS tournaments somewhere that require everybody to play the same way "or else."

Be hard is a little more import than being unique. But even the hard limit only aguis line as he not endorsed modifier for changin the skill level