Leveling up skills

[Bill_in_IN]

Originally Posted by TippetsTX

That's pretty close to the cost model I adopted too.

My rules break talents into TAP-based 'tiers'. They retain fixed XP costs (continuing the LE model which requires characters to purchase talents directly w/ XP), but the costs for more potent skills and abilities get progressively higher. I removed the IQ dependency entirely which creates some nice opportunities that wouldn't exist otherwise (like a primitive IQ 8 woodsman). As the character advances and TAP increases, they gain access to higher 'tier' talents, but can always purchase the lower ones at their original XP cost. So CLIMBING, for example, costs the same (250 XP) if acquired early in the PC's career or much later.

What I noticed was that at even at 250 XP for the first two IQ Talent/Spell points used, there was still a reluctance to vary from bumping up attributes that were getting more expensive. It seems that there is still a natural tendency for PCs to progress toward 37 points before spending XP on talents/spells. Hopefully, the 250 XP cost per point as a flat cost should truly promote more broadening of PC talents. Each spell costing 250 XP will add quickly to a wizard's list of spells. There are lots of interesting talents that cost 1 IQ point. Spending 500 XP instead of 1,000 for most talents is and average of 5 or 6 game sessions. We aren't teenagers with all the time in the world to play this game. High XP costs prohibit PC development before many of us die of old age.