Rolling for skills

[MrGrendel]

Before starting, I really like the change that brings skill (and stat) rolls into a text format rather than number rolls. It flows much better in roleplay. I think it could be improved a little, too.

First of all, a minor thing. There is at least one place on the forums where (in line with source books) it's stated that 10 is considered an average human stat. However, rolling for a stat of 10 in-game comes up as "below average" I think.

That is a little disappointing to someone who makes their sheet based on forum info, expecting to at least be seen as average in a stat, and it would be nice if it the message could be tweaked to be consistent.

Secondly, untrained skills. Currently, even if you had 10 points in diplomacy, 20 charisma and +10 persuade worth of fancy gear for +17 total, if you are untrained in persuade, a roll will say only that you are untrained in it. I understand that not having training in a skill should be apparent, but presumably said example should also not be perceived as being on par with the dwarf with -2 persuade, even if neither have expressly trained this skill.

It would be nice if it instead went, say, "William Smith's persuade seems untrained, but gifted by other means to be above average." This way you could also distinguish technically skilled orators from raw charismatic speakers, and so on.

[SIZE="1"](Really, if it differentiated by how much skill you get from bonuses and used a similar format for anyone with more than half their skill from bonuses, that might be even better... gifted vs. skilled.)[/SIZE]

Thirdly, a question for discussion while we're on the general topic. In what situations would it make sense to roll diplomacy as an alternative to one of the "standard" social skills?

[Ebok]

Not a bad idea. Diplomacy, however, is never rolled from my understanding. It is one of the secondary skill sets designed only to show increased training in a real skill.

Persuade, in this case.