Optional Specialties?

[PK]

Okay, I've looked at all of the modifiers for skills and I may just be missing something, but I can't figure out an easy way to do an optional specialty. Example: A PC wants to know Organic Chemistry. Since Chemistry is an IQ/H skill, Chemistry (Organic) should be an IQ/A skill.

Is there a way to do this, short of using the Full Edit window and manually changing the difficulty of the skill?

[ericbsmith]

Not currently. Eventually there will be an option (checkbox or something) but currently there isn't. You also have to be careful with defaults since any skill that defaults from an Optional Specialty needs to do so at an extra -2 penalty.

[PK]

Okay, I've tried every convoluted @formula and other fix to make this work on my own, but I'm giving up. Armin, I hope you've got this on your plate, because optional specializations are a core 4th Edition rule and I know that my players take a LOT of them to better match their character concepts.

(And no, I'm not trying to rush you -- just making sure that it's on The List.)

[Armin]

Originally Posted by Rev_Pee_Kitty

Okay, I've tried every convoluted @formula and other fix to make this work on my own, but I'm giving up. Armin, I hope you've got this on your plate, because optional specializations are a core 4th Edition rule and I know that my players take a LOT of them to better match their character concepts.

(And no, I'm not trying to rush you -- just making sure that it's on The List.)

Yes, it's on the list. I'm going to try and get that into the next big update.

Armin

[Ragabash Moon]

Originally Posted by Rev_Pee_Kitty

Okay, I've tried every convoluted @formula and other fix to make this work on my own, but I'm giving up. Armin, I hope you've got this on your plate, because optional specializations are a core 4th Edition rule and I know that my players take a LOT of them to better match their character concepts.

(And no, I'm not trying to rush you -- just making sure that it's on The List.)

Agreed, and one thing to be sure to do (even if it's a "later" fix) is to somehow allow ANY skill to be specialized, because my friends and I do a house rule that (pending GM permission for the speciality of course) you are not limited to Mental only (still has to be at least A diff)... So you can take say Erotic Art (Tantric) and it's easy, but then when you try it with someone that's wanting or using Kama Sutra techniques... you're a a disadvantage. Unless I guess we could just do it the current way for our house rule and manually modify the skill difficulty lol

[sir_pudding]

Okay, how exactly do I enter an optional speciality in manually? Is there any way to get the default for the general skill to work correctly (short of modding the datafile)? I've tried changing the Default in Full Edit but it doesn't seem to work.

[PK]

The only change you can make to the skill itself is to change its difficulty, which can be done in the Full Edit Window.

However, that does not change any defaults, because defaults are a feature of the other skills which default to it! So there's nothing you can do to your Detect Lies skill to change how Body Language defaults off of it, as that's a part of the Body Language writeup.

The only possible way I've found to make defaults work and still get your specialization bonus is to increase the difficulty of the skill by one level, so you're buying it at one level lower than you'd have to, and then to add a conditional() note that you get +2 for your specialization. Obviously, this doesn't work for VH skills, which is a huge drawback, but otherwise, it's close.

We really need this addressed in the program itself.

[Armin]

Originally Posted by Rev_Pee_Kitty

We really need this addressed in the program itself.

Yesterday, I implemented a means of having GCA create an optional specialty based on an existing skill, or a simple check box in the Simple Edit window to turn any skill into an Optional Specialty. I also added code so that if a skill is marked as an optional specialty, GCA will take an additional -2 off of the level when other skills try to default from it.

Assuming these changes pass muster in beta, we should see this in the next update.

Armin

[sir_pudding]

Cool beans.

[PK]

Originally Posted by Armin

Assuming these changes pass muster in beta, we should see this in the next update.

Wow, that was faster than I expected! Thanks for addressing that, Armin!