Racial Bonus - Skill to start on a d6

[XP105]

Hey all.

I'm VERY new to this tool, and have figured out various things from reading documentation etc (adding to total skill points, using bootstraps, adding skills to races) but my current problem has been tackled with little success. I would like to have a race that starts with a d6 level in Psionics. This is to be the minimum level for skill. So far I've found ways to add a +2 to the skill, and also have the race starting with that skill, but I can't seem to get it up to d6.

Also, I see another problem on the horizon. I need this to be a free skill. Although this would not usually be a problem, as usually you can just add a skill point to compensate, the problem is that as this skill will be at d6, it could cost either 2 or 3 skill points, depending on the Smarts of the character. Is there a way to make this skill free? Or a way to make the person lose a skill point if they raise their Smarts to d6 or above? Either option would solve the problem, but I don't know how to do either.

I expect this won't be the last time I'll be asking for help on here.
Thanks in advance,
XP105

[XP105]

Okay, I used #traitcreation[skPsionics] += 1 and added a bootstrap for the Psionics skill to the character, and added an extra skill point. This has solved the problem, technically. However, is there a way to add the skill without using bootstrap? It would save me having to work around it by adding a skill point. It's more for the sake of being neat than anything else.

[rob]

I'm pretty sure that you're striving to achieve the same net effect as the poster over in the thread below. It sounds like the same solution should apply here.
http://forums.wolflair.com/showthread.php?t=13038

The bootstrap mechanism is the proper way of solving this. The only way to add something to a character automatically when something else is selected is via a bootstrap. The bootstrap establishes a domino effect, where the first thing is added, and it bootstraps the next thing, and that new thing can bootstrap something else. This allows you to keep each of the things distinct and able to be re-used, so a particular thing can be bootstrapped for various different purposes.

[XP105]

I didn't mean not using a bootstrap at all. What I meant was, was there a way to add the skill to the character without directly bootstrapping the skill (i.e. adding the skill via a Racial Ability). It's no serious problem if you can't, as adding a skill point does the job. It's just that 0 of 15 would look neater than 1 of 16.

[tatteredking]

I've been trying to find a 'neat' way to do this and haven;'t found it yet. What I've done is create a Racial Ability with the following Eval Script

perform #traitadjust[skKnow,+,1,"Clan Trained"]

#resmax[resSkill] += 1

You get the Knowledge skill at d6 automatically, but yes, you get the '1 of 16' skill point warning.

If we figure out how to do it better, we'll make an announcement.

[CapedCrusader]

I'm curious how that works against just 1 Knowledge skill, and not all of them... I've tested it, and it does work just against the one Knowledge skill, but I wonder why it doesn't affect all Knowledge skills. Do you know, tatteredking?

[rob]

I didn't mean not using a bootstrap at all. What I meant was, was there a way to add the skill to the character without directly bootstrapping the skill (i.e. adding the skill via a Racial Ability). It's no serious problem if you can't, as adding a skill point does the job. It's just that 0 of 15 would look neater than 1 of 16.

Hmm. Good point. There's no way to solve this via changes to the new racial ability. The proper solution to this would be to modify the internals a bit. When tallying up the total number of skill points, any skill that is bootstrapped would not add the extra +1 to the tally. I'll put this on the todo list.

If you want, you could solve this by creating a Mechanics thing that essentially undoes the +1 that I describe above. The thing would iterate through all skills and then subtract one from the tally of skill points used for any skill that is bootstrapped instead of user-added. The timing would need to be done shortly after the current tally is done internally.

[rob]

I'm curious how that works against just 1 Knowledge skill, and not all of them... I've tested it, and it does work just against the one Knowledge skill, but I wonder why it doesn't affect all Knowledge skills. Do you know, tatteredking?

Each Knowledge skill is added/tracked separately. The bootstrapped Knowledge skill is distinct from any other Knowledge skill that is added. So the racial ability only needs to apply the adjustment for the one it added.

[rob]

I didn't mean not using a bootstrap at all. What I meant was, was there a way to add the skill to the character without directly bootstrapping the skill (i.e. adding the skill via a Racial Ability). It's no serious problem if you can't, as adding a skill point does the job. It's just that 0 of 15 would look neater than 1 of 16.

OK, after giving it a bit more thought, I think there's actually a way you can do this, provided you're willing to accept a different type of weirdness (instead of the "1 to 16" display). Replace the "#resmax" statement with the one below.


perform #resspent[resSkill,-,1,field[name].text]


This will cause the skill slot to APPEAR NOT to be spent, since the total shown will be (0 of 15). The gotcha with this approach is that any use of the "history" mechanism that shows what adjustments were involved in calculating the total will now show both the normal +1 for the skill and a -1 for the racial ability. That's probably better than the current solution you're using, but it's still not ideal.

The ideal solution would be as I outlined above, wherein bootstrapped skills should simply not tally up the extra +1 in the first place.

[XP105]

If such an ideal solution arises in the next version of hero lab, I'd appreciate a heads-up. Also, I don't particularly mind if the history is a bit more messy, as it is rarely checked and hardly noticeable. Thanks for, yet another, work around solution :P.