Maximum skill level by TL

[Stormcrow]

Originally Posted by cosmicfish

For example, take Diagnosis/TL - at TL3, the sheer limitations on available knowledge means that even someone with a skill of 25 is going to draw a blank or else grab the leeches and cow dung. Even at TL8 there are significant limits on what we can diagnose, so it seems that there should be a "maximum effective skill level" for many technological skills.

Your example is problematical. Diagnosis doesn't tell you how to treat a sickness or injury; it just tells you what the sickness or injury is. So no matter what your TL in the skill, a success lets you identify the sickness or injury as far as the TL understands it. Given a patient experiencing seizures, a Diagnosis/TL3 roll may reveal that these symptoms typically mean the patient has been possessed by a demon; a Diagnosis/TL8 roll may reveal that the seizures are caused by meningitis. Both answers are correct answers in the respective cultures; that doesn't mean either culture's medical knowledge is right. The diagnosis-maker simply applied their training in Diagnosis correctly.

Physician, meanwhile, is the skill for treating the sick and the injured, and it doesn't even exist below TL4 most of the time. If it does—say, in a scientifically minded but technologically primitive culture—it's still the skill of treatment, not the skill of restoring hit points. If the culture's medical knowledge is wrong about the diagnosis or the treatment, the physician can treat the sickness or injury successfully, but not actually heal the patient.

Skills aren't about effects; they're about your ability to apply training. Thus Low TL doesn't affect maximum skill level. If the low TL prevents or limits certain effects, this should be applied to the effect itself, not the skill roll's chances. For instance, the natural healing table in Campaigns depends on TL, but the chances of a healing roll succeeding depend on the healer's skill, not TL.

Please note that this does not apply to ALL technological skills, just those where the skill attempts to answer absolute right/wrong questions. Engineering (Combat)/TL3 25 means that the character can make fantastic castles even though reinforced concrete is beyond them, and Boating (Unpowered)/TL1 21 produces a master of the dugout canoe

If the combat engineer can design TL4 castles in a TL3 culture, then he has Engineering (Combat)/TL4. If a TL8 outdoorsman can use a TL1 canoe and its accessories, he has Boating (Unpowered)/TL1. The only adjustment to skill necessary is the one for unfamiliar tech level.