Nexus Skills

From Nexus D20 Wiki

Nexus D20 Skills and Feats

This system is centered around the skill system. It takes some ideas from Saga edition Star Wars and goes a few steps further. Instead of having a bunch of skill points to assign and a list of skills with numbers that don't mean very much to you it is replaced with skill ranks. The system allows you to focus on whatever your character is interested in and you will never run out of interesting feats to take.

Major Skill List

Academics (Int) +1 Arcane (Wit) Athletics (Dex) [Reflex Save] +1 Beastcraft (Wit) Computers (Int) Crafting (Wit) Drive (Dex) Engineering (Int)

Martial Arts (Dex) +1 Medicine (Int) Melee (Dex) +1 Operations (Int) Perception (Wit) [Initiative] Persuasion (Pre) +1 Pilot (Dex) Ranged (Wit)

Resistance (Con) [Fort Save] +1 Science (Int) +1 Stealth (Wit) +1 Streetwise (Wit) Survival (Wit) +1 Tactics (Int) +1 Willpower (Pre) [Will Save] +1

Making a skill check:

1d20 + skill rank + attribute + class bonus + misc mods

If you are using a skill untrained it is a -2. If you are Trained in that skill then add +4, Focused +8, Mastery +12.

Everyman Skills

You get a certain set of everyman skills at Basic. This includes the Savings Throws skills as well as perception. You also get your Int (or Wit) +2 in additional basic skills. At any time you can spend a Feat to gain a new basic skill.

Depending on the tech level you will also start with the following skills at basic:

Low Tech – Beastmastery, Melee, Survival

Moderate Tech – Ranged, Survival

High Tech – Academics, Computers, Drive

Extreme Tech – Academics, Computers, Drive

Savings Throws

Savings throws are based on certain skills instead of rising independently with level. Reflex save is based on Athletics, Fortitude save is based on Resistance, and Will save is based on Willpower. It will go up with your class bonus as you level but only slowly. If you want it to go up then you have to spend an upgrade on it.

Reflex save = Athletics + 10, Fortitude save = Resistance +10, Will save = Willpower +10.

Your class will have at least one Savings Throw skill starting at Trained.

Skill Upgrades

Skill Upgrades allow you to change a skill from a basic rank to trained, or trained to focused, or focused to mastery. They are uncommon and very useful. You only get a certain number of upgrades to start with based on your character class and you get one upgrade each even level after that. They replace the concept of skill points and they make increases in skill more uncommon and valued.

With each upgrade you get a free feat at that new level, so if you upgrade a skill from basic to trained you get a trained feat in that skill.

Each class has one savings throw at Trained and three other skills at Trained. These other Trained skills can include the other Savings Throw skills.

Threats and Errors

Much of the skill system here is taken from Spycraft 2.0. Unlike standard d20, there are threats and error ranges on skills.

A Natural 20 is not always a success. A threat means that you add +5 to your roll. If that is not enough to make the DC you don't actually get a success but you don't get a failure either. Basically you don't make things better or worse, but you have possibly delayed a problem. Skills have a Threat Range like weapons. If you roll your threat range with that skill, this could be 20 or 18-20, then you get to add the +5. DCs can be out of range for lower level characters. Older characters can accomplish things that younger can not. You don't have to confirm the critical.

Skills have an Error Range as well. This is called a Botch. This is usually natural 1 but more difficult or dangerous skill checks, like demolitions, can have a much higher Error Range. Untrained skills have a 1-4 error range. This can go up or down depending on the circumstances and equipment.

A Botch is not just a failure. It is something else bad happening. It is a backfire or some other bad complication. They can really hurt you or nearly lead to your death. They are needed for the drama and stress of the action.

Criticals

Criticals work a little differently in Nexus. They are based on Margin of Success instead of Natural 20. This means that higher level characters will get Criticals more frequently then against other higher level characters. A Critical is a bonus effect that you can decide on after the roll instead of before hand as in most games. Basically your character was on the ball more then you were. You can spend a Critical for Hit Location effects, Ignore Armor, Trick Shot, etc. Each 5 points of MoS can be spent as a Critical. Most Skills will have a Critical Effect listed. The GM can allow for others. Some skills have Feats that expand possible uses for Criticals.

Primary Skills

Players choose three of their Trained Major Skills that they start with as Primary Skills. These Skills are supposed to define your character in place of a Character Class. These three skills work a little differently. Unlike other major skills you can upgrade these three skills to Mastery at Class level 10. Otherwise you have to wait until level 20. You get a +2 bonus on skills rolls with Primary Skills.

Ordinarily you can't spend a Hero Point to reroll a botch but in Primary Skills you can.

Minor Skills

Minor Skills are simpler then Major skills. They don't have any feats attached to them. They are useful but not as useful as Major Skills. They cover things like interests, professions, specific languages, crafts, etc. They are not listed on the character sheet because there are so many possibilities. Just wrte in any secondary skills at the bottom of the skill list.

See Minor Skills for more information.

Skill Levels

You must have one level in order to get the next. You must be trained in a skill in order to become focused. The bonuses replace each other. So if you go from Trained to Focused you use the higher number. Don't add the +4 to the +8. Basically you are going up +4 each level.

Default / Untrained (-2)

You don't know what you are doing with this skill. You can't add your class bonus but you can add your attribute modifier. Error range is 1-4.

Basic (+0)

You have a passing knowledge of a skill, not enough to be considered trained, but enough to not kill yourself with it right off the bat. You get your attribute mod and class bonus. Your applications of the skill is more limited then normal use. You also can't get any feats based off of this. Error range is 1. You can spend a feat to make an untrained skill into a Basic skill but only into a Basic skill.

Trained (+4)

You are well trained in this skill. You gain a free feat in that skill at trained when you upgrade it from Basic. The threat range and error range is normal.

Focused (+8)

You have focused a great deal of time in this skill. You have at least three feats at Trained in this skill to increase it. Once you upgrade you get a free feat in this skill at focused. The threat range is now 19-20.

Mastery (+12)

You are a true Master with this skill. You must be 10th level to become a Master in a skill. You get one free feat at Mastery now. The threat range is 18-20.

Extended Actions

Some actions require more then a single skill check or take a long time. An extended skill check has a DC just like everything else. The interval is listed with the action. Take the DC and subtract your skill bonus. Divide by 5 rounding down. This is the number of checks you must succeed at. Any equipment bonus is added to the skill bonus as well. (Ex: DC 30 – skill bonus 11 = 19 /5 = 3 checks.)

Each one takes the interval time listed. If you fail then you take that much time as well and it doesn't count toward your total. So if your interval time is 5 minutes then it would take 20 minutes if you made every check. If you failed 2 checks then it would be 30 minutes.

If you roll 10 over the DC, or get a critical success, then it counts as 2 checks.

Cooperative Skill Checks

One character is declared the leader and makes the primary skill check. Other characters can improve this by making skill checks versus DC15. Each one will add +1 to the leader's check result. Each one that gets a critical success adds +3 instead. The GM may declare a maximum number of characters may work together because they would get in each others way. The bonuses can't do more then double the leader's result.

Craft Checks and Gear

If you want to build an object, write a program, or create a ritual then the DC is often based on the rating bonus that the object would give you. The basic formula for the rating bonus is your DC is 3x your bonus rating + 10. So if you want to construct a program that will give you a +3 for an action then your DC is 19.

Not all gear is available at every tech level. Some devices are only available during modern times or later. If it is starting to be available in modern times then it will usually only be available at trained levels, focused at cyberpunk and STL space, and at mastery at high tech. Often times the lower rating devices are only good because they reduce the interval type.

Skill DC Chart

Nexus Skills cover a huge variety of possible actions. The difficulty lie in figuring out what the DC should be for that type of action.

Default DC Chart

DCs	Easy	Moderate	Difficult
Basic	10	15	20
Trained	15	20	25
Focused	20	25	30
Mastery	25	30	40

A skill challenge is listed by what level the kind of action is and the level of difficulty. Hard level actions are nearly impossible for the next level down. They would require a natural 20 to do it. In fact what is easy for a Master requires a natural 20 for a beginner. If there is no reason to think that the action would be easier or harder then most of the time use the Moderate column.

If the action is something fairly quick then the rule of thumb is easy actions can be free actions, moderate actions are simple actions, and difficult actions are complex actions.

Hazard System

Hazards are rated the same way as gear. A level 1 hazard requires a savings throw of 13 to defeat it (rating x3 + 10). Some things reduce the difficulty of a hazard. They lower the DC by their rating. So if the character had a +4 versus disease then this would reduce the 13 to a 9.

Hazards are either active or passive depending on if the character can do anything to avoid the effects themselves. A disease is a passive save hazard. A poison that a person is aware of can be active if they know what to do about it (ie they vomit it up or something). Active threats can be rolled against.

The effect of the hazard is equal to the remaining rating of the hazard. So if you face a hazard of 4 which gives a DC of 22 and you have a save of 13 then you have a margin of 9. 9/3 = 3. Therefore you take a -3 for the duration of the illness.

The interval is mostly based on the level of medical treatment available. Each counts as if it was an injury but for the duration they will have the total penalty until the last interval in which they will recover. The number of intervals is the penalty level.

The other major factor is if the hazard is lethal or not. Basically it means that the damage is bashing or lethal. Once the bashing damage goes high enough then it will put the character unconscious or in a coma. If it is lethal then you have to treat it before very soon. If the setting is low tech then lethal poisons or hazards are just lethal. Only healing magic will stop it or a good herbalism roll. If it is modern then you need to get treatment within an hour or so. If it is really high tech then you just need to get the body there within a few days.