02-14-2020, 03:30 PM | #1 |
Join Date: Mar 2016
|
Dabbler and defaulting to another skill
If you take the Dabbler perk for a skill that has a better default to a skill than an attribute, can you use that default for this purpose? The text specifically says "+1 to the usual attribute default", but this seems like a pretty minor thing very unlikely to affect balance much.
For reference, the skill I'm currently thinking about is an alternate specialization of Survival compared to the one the character has points in. |
02-14-2020, 04:08 PM | #2 |
Join Date: Apr 2005
|
Re: Dabbler and defaulting to another skill
I'd say no, here's why:
Dabbler presupposes that you've spent some time learning the skills they cover, just not enough to merit a full character point/200 hours of study. You're a rank beginner still learning the very basics from the "bottom up." Defaults from related skills presuppose that the two skills have enough applications in common that you can use knowledge of one skill to replace the other. You're approaching the default skill "from the side" from the viewpoint of an expert in a different field using a mix of basic and more advanced knowledge that the two skills share. The Double Default rule in GURPS Basic says that default skill in one skill doesn't allow a default to a second skill. Logically, the same idea applies to Dabbler. If it only aids attribute defaults, then attribute defaults can't default to skill defaults. Of course, it seem fair to have a variant Dabbler perk for specialists which allow you to improve defaults to related skills when using a single base skill. For example, if you're a healer with Physician (Human) skill, and a "specialist dabbler" perk you could buy improved defaults from Physician (Human) to related skills like First-Aid (Human), Physician (Elf), and Physiology (Human). |
02-14-2020, 04:12 PM | #3 |
Join Date: Aug 2014
Location: Snoopy's basement
|
Re: Dabbler and defaulting to another skill
"+1 to the usual attribute default" [Emphasis added.]
A skill default is a different thing than an attribute default. |
02-14-2020, 04:31 PM | #4 | |
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Luxembourg
|
Re: Dabbler and defaulting to another skill
Quote:
I never tested it (and I use dabbler perk a lot) but it probably wouldn't break much to houserule that restriction away, as long as you remember that Dabbler cannot improve a skill to the level that one cp would buy, the maximum default level is -1 to the 1 cp level. Which would give strange result when you increase the primary skill level, as previously valid dabbler level would get useless. Assuming per 10 survival(land B) [default from per] - 5 survival(land B) [dabbler +1 from per default] - 6 survival(land B) [dabbler +2 from per default] - 7 survival(land B) [dabbler +3 from per default] - 8 survival(land B) [1] - 9 survival(land A) [1] - 9 survival(land B) [default from land A] - 6 survival(land B) [dabbler +1 from land A default] - 7 survival(land B) [dabbler +2 from land A default] - 8 survival(land B) [1] - 9 survival(land A) [2] - 10 survival(land B) [default from land A] - 7 survival(land B) [dabbler +1 from land A default] - 8 survival(land B) [1] - 9 survival(land A) [4] - 11 survival(land B) [default from land A] - 8 survival(land B) [1] - 9 There is also the matter of skill without attribute default, that cannot benefit from dabbler normally. Engineer for example. Last edited by Celjabba; 02-14-2020 at 04:36 PM. |
|
02-14-2020, 04:40 PM | #5 | |
Join Date: Mar 2016
|
Re: Dabbler and defaulting to another skill
Quote:
|
|
02-15-2020, 03:00 AM | #6 |
Night Watchman
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
|
Re: Dabbler and defaulting to another skill
There's an article about this kind of thing, with a couple of new perks, in issue #2 of The Path of Cunning, which should be out by Monday. It's unofficial, but pretty sensible. There's a link to the website in my signature.
__________________
The Path of Cunning. Indexes: DFRPG Characters, Advantage of the Week, Disadvantage of the Week, Skill of the Week, Techniques. |
02-21-2020, 08:28 AM | #7 | |
Join Date: Jun 2006
|
Re: Dabbler and defaulting to another skill
Quote:
Dabbler is best understood as "fractional points" in the skills it includes, and not as "increased defaults". I'm pretty sure it's phrased the way it is to avoid introducing actual fractional points into the rules, where it is would become a precedent for Munchkins insisting they no longer needed to round to whole numbers of points when using the Modifiers rules. People sometimes did argue over rounding rules about in 3e, which did allow 1/2 points in skills. Not that 4e actually fixed all the sloppy wordings that have provoked rounding debates, but it at least tried to clean them up and avoid adding new ones. If you think of Dabbler as having 8 skills with 1/8th of a point spent on them, then if you spend a point on one of them, you only need 7/8 of it to reach the 1 point level, leaving you with 1/8 of a point left over to spend on something to replace it in the Dabbler perk.
__________________
-- MA Lloyd |
|
02-21-2020, 10:23 AM | #8 | |
Join Date: Aug 2018
|
Re: Dabbler and defaulting to another skill
Quote:
Munchkinism is more like intentionally avoiding taking modifier combinations which would make you lose deci-points by the required rounding rules, and getting the best set of limitations that limit you the least for the most value. |
|
Tags |
dabbler, defaults |
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|