Hacking 2e: Skills and the Nonweapon Proficiency System – Part 2 (Background and Knowledge)

Last time I opined about the varied skills systems in AD&D 2e and discussed how to bundle them into a single system. The takeaway was that every check outside of Ability Checks and Saving Throws could be considered a Skill Check, broken up into universal skills, class/demihuman skills, and selectable skills. The latter will be my focus for this post, as I work to modify the Nonweapon Proficiencies to function properly in this hack.

 They’re going to require some changes in order to remove feat-like entries, smooth out the massive gulf between no-brainer choices and utterly useless options, and ensure that each skill can work with and without the need to roll for success.

There are 65 of these things, so it may be unwise to deal with each individual NWP’s bespoke mechanics. Instead, I’ll chop them up into groups and deal with them as generally as possible.

 

1. Background

NWP	Slots	Ability	Modifier	Category
Agriculture	1	Intelligence	0	General
Armorer	2	Intelligence	–2	Warrior
Blacksmithing	1	Strength	0	General
Bowyer/Fletcher	1	Dexterity	–1	General
Brewing	1	Intelligence	0	General
Carpentry	1	Strength	0	General
Cobbling	1	Dexterity	0	General
Cooking	1	Intelligence	0	General
Engineering	2	Intelligence	–3	Priest, Wizard
Gem Cutting	2	Dexterity	–2	Rogue, Wizard
Leatherworking	1	Intelligence	0	General
Mining	2	Wisdom	–3	General
Pottery	1	Dexterity	–2	General
Seamanship	1	Dexterity	+1	General
Seamstress/Tailor	1	Dexterity	–1	General
Stonemasonry	1	Strength	–2	General
Weaponsmithing	3	Intelligence	–3	Warrior
Weaving	1	Intelligence	–1	General

 

A little over a quarter of all nonweapon proficiencies are based on jobs or trade skills. These are great background material, though as far as skills go, they’re firmly in the camp of downtime tools. Some, like Armorer and Weaponsmithing, have a bit of rules baked in with obvious in-game benefits, but for the most part these NWPs get one or two sentences of detail, and the rest is up to you. As designed, they seem much more geared toward NPCs.

I don’t think they go here. It feels like they took the 1e Secondary Skills (which are also detailed as a different optional system in 2e) and just smashed them into the NWP list. I like the idea that your character may have a background that contributes to some useful skills outside of swinging a sword, but with other more immediately useful NWPs in the list, these are likely to be ignored when filling slots. At least, that’s what the players in my game did.

Still, they’re worth holding on to. I think they’d have more impact and see more use if we just used the Secondary Skills rules and made that a part of the skill system, and call the whole thing ‘Background’. After all, why have a separate skill system do a job that’s already being accomplished by a similar system? It can be optionally used on its own, but would also be a default free skill as a part of the larger optional ruleset.

They’ll need a score to roll against. Using an Ability Score for this number doesn’t gel for me. All of these skills infer some level of study and experience, so they all could be Int or Wis based. Why is Mining the only NWP to use Wisdom? Why is Blacksmithing based on Strength, but Armorer is Intelligence? It feels arbitrary.

My proposal would be to use a single score for all backgrounds. It should be a bit above the average score, so I’m leaning towards 14. That’d give any PC a 70% shot at succeeding at any knowledge, crafting, or clever use that pertains to the background.

Technically, any of the skills we're going to cover here could be a background in and of themselves. As such, a Background should be swappable with another skill, using its Ability Score, as long as that skill is narratively considered to be the character's background. In this way, the Background feature is just a free skill slot that you can use to either be a rather competent tradesperson or to get an extra skill that defines the history of your character. Both are good results.

I think this works for now. It avoids the skill tax of 3e’s Craft skill, but provides its brevity and organization. We’ll use it as a placeholder until a better idea or a devastating playtest changes the plan.

 

2. Knowledge

NWP	Slots	Ability	Modifier	Category
Ancient History	1	Intelligence	-1	Priest, Rogue, Wizard
Appraising	1	Intelligence	0	Rogue
Etiquette	1	Charisma	0	General
Heraldry	1	Intelligence	0	General
Languages, Ancient	1	Intelligence	0	Priest, Wizard
Languages, Modern	1	Intelligence	0	General
Local History	1	Charisma	0	Priest, Rogue
Reading/Writing	1	Intelligence	+1	Priest, Wizard
Religion	1	Wisdom	0	Priest, Wizard
Spellcraft	1	Intelligence	-2	Priest, Wizard

 

About a sixth of the NWPs are knowledge skills.

 

2.1. Language and Literacy

We can toss three of these immediately: Languages, Ancient; Languages, Modern; and Reading/Writing. These are already covered by the language column from the hacked Intelligence table. Learning a living language and learning a dead language are very different types of study, but if you’re swapping out knowing Orc to learn Ancient Carcosan, that’s a commitment to the character that shouldn’t require a skill tax.

Reading/Writing is a similar skill tax. Having to choose between an interesting addition to your character’s abilities and not being illiterate is a strange choice. For my own players, they (for the most part) took this NWP as soon as they realized the implication of not taking it; even in a pseudo-medieval implied setting, no one really wants to be the protagonist that can’t read. Also, since it’s only in two class groups, Warriors and Rogues need two slots in order to read! This is a lame requirement; I’ll let the Intelligence score do the work instead. If I really wanted to tie literacy to skills, I’d rather offer the player an option to become illiterate in exchange for an additional skill slot.

 

2.2. Knowledge Skills

For almost everything else, this is just ‘stuff you know’. 3e had the right idea by just making this a single skill called “Knowledge” and allowing the player to choose from a few examples, but specifically calling out that you could make your own (with DM approval). This helps to unclutter the list while also expanding the possibilities available.

You could argue that all skills are knowledge skills, since they derive from a character’s experience and study of any particular task, but we do need to draw a line somewhere between ‘person who knows how to survive in the woods’ and ‘person who knows the history of these woods’.

From the 2e NWP list, those ‘example’ skills are: Ancient History, Appraising, Etiquette, Heraldry, Local History, and Spellcraft. Let’s pare that down.

Ancient History and Local History can just be History. The whole ‘local’ thing was continued in 3e but scrapped by 4e, and I think for good reason. Restricting history checks to any one time period or location seems a bit limiting for this skill, even if it is realistic that one might not have knowledge of local legends just because they know the history of the kingdom. If the goal is realism, why not subdivide it further into discrete time periods? The better option is to open the skill and simplify it, thereby giving the player more options. Admittedly, I may be biased. I’ve always invested into this skill in 4e and 5e, and found it to be a great tool for my characters.

Etiquette and Heraldry seem like two sides of the same coin; both deal with information known by someone experienced with upper class concerns. I’d argue that this can be smashed into a single skill. Cribbing again from 3e, I’ll just call it Nobility.

Appraising and Spellcraft seem to do what they say on the tin. I think we can leave these as is. I could rename Spellcraft as ‘Arcana’, as all later editions did, but I like this odd name, so it stays.

 

2.3. Religion

I left Religion out of the Knowledge skill. It fits, and it was buried in this same skill in 3e, but I think there are reasons to keep it separate. First, Knowledge will be an Intelligence derived skill, but Religion should absolutely be Wisdom, to better align it with the Cleric. Second, Religion encompasses a bit more than just knowing the tenets and dogma of a religion; it can represent commitment to a faith, ability to work with and within the hierarchy of one’s church, for proselytizing and conversion of the unbeliever, and to determine how one is viewed by the adherents of the religion.

 

3. Hacked Knowledge Skills

That leaves us with two skills from the original group of ten: Knowledge and Religion. Knowledge being subcategorized into History, Nobility, Spellcraft, Appraising, and whatever else fits. Adding ‘Nature’ to the example list is an easy choice, and one that would be familiar for incoming players of later editions. While 3.5e increased this list to include Architecture, Dungeoneering, Geography, and so on, I don’t think that’s necessary here. Five is enough for a list to get the imagination firing.

 

4. Intermission

That was a lot of text, but I’ve knocked out 40% of the NWPs, and managed to turn them into two skills and a background feature. Unfortunately, those were pretty easy ones. Next time, we’ll move on to animal-based skills, art and performance, and the feat-like skills. The latter I expect to really throw me, so wish me luck.