foxroe wrote:

They're generally just for fluff, IMO, and are meant as a springboard for off-the-cuff rulings.

Example: The party manages to capture a giant ferret that's been plaguing Farmer Eustace's cockatrice coop. One of the characters has Animal Handler, so the player of that character announces that they wish to train the giant ferret as a side-kick. The DM then decides that if the character spends 100g.p. and one week per HD of animal, the trainer has a 4:6 chance of success.

At least that's how it worked in AD&D...
 

This is how I play it, too, and have a greatly expanded list of Secondary Skills (which are really more like backgrounds). I also factor in race and class for determining the Non-standard skill roll (e.g., my group's Cleric of Apollo can do first aid/healing at 5:6 most times).

Grimmshade wrote:

Sorry if this has been discussed. I did a search but didn't come up with anything.

How does everyone use the Secondary Skills? To inform what Characters can do? Do you use any sort of roll? 

My wife will be making a Beastmaster (which doesn't exist as a class, but I'll just go with Ranger and give her a war dog or wild cat of some type.) She'll take Animal Handler, and I'm just trying to think of how to incorporate it.

I come from the days of oD&D, but my old school GM skills have gotten rusty in the mire of modern RPG's that I've just emerged from.

Welcome to the boards, Grimmshade! Methinks your wife will like the new Huntsman subclass, coming soon to a hardcover near you.

DMPrata wrote:

Methinks your wife will like the new Huntsman subclass, coming soon to a hardcover near you.

Sweet.

Last edited by foxroe (8/19/2017 8:10 pm)

That's cool.
I'm thinking of adding a Hero point system to my game, because I also want characters to be slightly more heroic, or at least slightly less fragile. I'm going to be using AS&SH for Conan style RP.
I think I'll also use First Aid to heal a few HP.

That sounds pretty good.
I probably haven't quite reached the healing/wound recovery rules in my reading yet.
I definitely don't want super quick full recovery like 4e/5e.

Cool, that Shaman ability is a nice measuring stick.