Monday, August 15, 2005

Skill Focus/Forte?

So, I started going through the Spycraft book last night, working on my hacker character. I can't find a good description of this skill focus/forte business, though. What the hell is that?
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1 comment:

Randy Lander said...

The clearest rundown of focus/forte is on page 98. Basically, there are some skills where they're too wide for you to just have the skill (like Profession or Science), so the focus is more or less the actual skill, and the skill is a grouping.

Example: If you take Science, you have a choice of focus in Chemistry, Economics, Engineering, etc. (full list on page 149). You have to take a focus on Drive, Science, Profession and Cultures.

A forte is when you put another skill slot into a focus you already have. Think of it like weapons specialization in D&D. If you already have Science (Economics) and you put another skill slot into it, you gain a forte with it, which translates to getting a +1 on all your rolls with that skill.

The focus/forte is also used for weapon proficiencies. This is laid out on page 28, under Proficiencies. Basically, a forte in a weapon proficiency is *exactly* like the Weapon Focus feat in D&D, in that it gives you a +1 to attack with a class of weapons.

By the way, speaking of Proficiencies, I would suggest that everyone take Unarmed as one of their proficiencies. It represents martial combat training, and allows you to 1d6 lethal damage unarmed instead of 1d3 subdual.

2:42 PM

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