HYPERBOREA / Secondary Skills

**Posted by Grimmshade** 8/18/2017 9:55 pm

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.

**Posted by foxroe** 8/19/2017 3:38 am

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...

**Posted by rhialto** 8/19/2017 7:15 am

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).

**Posted by Grimmshade** 8/19/2017 8:22 am

Awesome guys, thanks! That's perfect. I'm really looking forward to this return to judgement calls and actual roleplay.

Rhialto - what do you allow First Aid to accomplish? Do you give some HP?

**Posted by DMPrata** 8/19/2017 8:49 am

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.

**Posted by Grimmshade** 8/19/2017 8:57 am

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

:O
That's awesome!

**Posted by foxroe** 8/19/2017 8:09 pm

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)

**Posted by rhialto** 8/20/2017 9:41 am

Grimmshade wrote:
Awesome guys, thanks! That's perfect. I'm really looking forward to this return to judgement calls and actual roleplay.

Rhialto - what do you allow First Aid to accomplish? Do you give some HP?

Yes, and I play a fairly different way overall, with all HP (which model grit, fatigue, etc.: not injuries) recovering overnight. Even 1st level characters in my games are heros, never zeros. First Aid, healing, etc. also allow one to heal "serious wounds", which are damage done directly to CON.

**Posted by Grimmshade** 8/20/2017 2:19 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.

**Posted by foxroe** 8/20/2017 9:13 pm

There are pretty extensive rules on wound recovery given on page 224 of the PM. I would allow First Aid to improve upon those rules (slightly) - I would also not allow it to "outshine" Healing/Curing spells and potions, or the Brink of Death spell (e.g. First Aid could stop the 1hp per round "Death's door" loss and maybe even recover a few HP's, but not bring the character back to 1 HP).

**Posted by Grimmshade** 8/21/2017 10:54 am

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.

**Posted by DMPrata** 8/21/2017 7:33 pm

I recommend that no secondary skill be allowed to eclipse the shaman's medicine man ability.

**Posted by Grimmshade** 8/22/2017 11:08 am

Cool, that Shaman ability is a nice measuring stick.