[CF-Devel] New Skill System (Draft)

[Johnny Shelley]

Unfortunately, the ad hoc committee for skill restructuring has been
unable to reach full consensus on a proposed new skill system.

The main problem is in how to deal with the magic system and schools. I
will post one system as a follow up to this thread and Tim will post a
second view. We leave it to the list members to decide on which method
is the preferred route.

What follows is what we have been able to agree on minus the
implementation details. The basic idea is that a character will start
with no skills (barring a few awarded by race) and buy them w/ an as yet
undetermined number of 'skill points' during character creation (or pick
a pre-designed class). As characters progress in level, they will be
awarded with additional skill points and may buy new skills or advance
already known skills. A rough estimate here is 1 skill point per level
attained.

By advancing a skill, players gain two benefits: they earn experience
with that skill faster and they can reach a higher level in it.

Skill advances are bought incrementally such that they increase in cost
to advance every level. This reflects the increased effectiveness of
skills fairly well, although probably not perfectly. The biggest
contribution it makes is encouraging character differentiation as
players choose skills that they really find useful to advance.

Certainly if this system is adopted, the costs will need to be adjusted,
but we think this is a reasonable starting point.

Skill cost breakdown:

Skills
------
All currently existing skills (except bargaining)

level 1 = 1x base cost, level 10, 33% experience
level 2 = 2x base cost, level 30, 66% experience
level 3 = 3x base cost, level 70, 100% experience
level 4 = 4x base cost, no level limit, 115% experience

Non-improvable (bought at minimum level)
--
mountaineer - base cost 2
meditation - base cost 15
jumping - base cost 3
sense magic - base cost 2 /* these give small experience, but do not improve */
sense curse - base cost 2

base cost 1 (non combat - single purpose)
--
hiding
literacy
disarm traps
lockpicking (start at level 2, skill object gives level 1)
inscription ""              ""                        ""
singing
oratory
find traps

base cost 1
--
use magic item (will award experience but will not scale)

base cost 2 (non-combat identification and item creation)
--
bowyer
woodsman
smithery
jeweler
alchemy
thaumaturgy

base cost 1 (sissy fighting)
--
throwing
punching

base cost 2 (weak physical combat)
--
karate
flame touch	/* fireborn start w/ this.. dont let anyone else have it */
missile weapons

base cost 3 (weaker melee weapons)
--
bludgeoning (hammers, maces, quarterstaffs)
piercing (spears, polearms, daggers(?))

base cost 4 (most powerful artifacts / common weapons)
--
slashing (swords, axes, katanas)

Ways to start with extra skill points
-------------------------

Maiming - 5 points for any body part (that the race actually has)
Lowered max stat - 1 for 2
lowered resistances - 2 points for -10%, 5 points for -30%, 10 points for -100%
	(only a few common attack types.. no reason to allow characters to say
	'ok, i'll take -100 to half a dozen very rare types'. Only one level of
	lowered resistance may be chosen per attack type)

Racial Improvements
-------------------
Increased max stat - 2 for 1
Increased resistance - 4 points for +10%, 10 points for +30%
	(as above regarding limited number of attack types. Only one level of
	raised resistance may be chosen per attack type)

johnny

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