User:Zhenra-Khal/Zhen's Variant Level-Dependent Benefits (5e Variant Rule)

Author: Zhenra-Khal (talk) Date Created: 2/5/2021 Status: First Draft Editing: Clarity edits only please

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Zhen's Variant Level-Dependent Benefits

In 5e, level-dependent benefits are a little restrictive, in my opinion. Getting all the ability scores, feats, skills, tools and etc. to make your character feel like you imagined them to be the day you created them and planned out what you wanted them to be and do, is... Difficult. This is somewhat intentional; After all, if everything was easy to get, it wouldn't be a challenge.

However, I am a person that vastly enjoys customization, and so, I've created my own system of rules for characters in my campaigns, and I decided to share it here. Use it if you want, or not.

But, it all starts with this table:

Table: Proficiency Bonus and Benefits by Character Level

Character Level	Proficiency Bonus By Rank				Special Benefit
	Rank 1 (Familiar)	Rank 2 (Competent)	Rank 3 (Professional)	Rank 4 (Master)
1st	+1	+2	+3	+4	Bonus Feat
2nd	+1	+2	+3	+4	Bonus Aptitude
3rd	+1	+2	+3	+5	-
4th	+1	+2	+4	+5	Ability Score Improvement
5th	+1	+3	+4	+6	-
6th	+1	+3	+4	+6	Bonus Aptitude
7th	+2	+3	+5	+7	-
8th	+2	+3	+5	+7	Ability Score Improvement
9th	+2	+4	+5	+8	-
10th	+2	+4	+6	+8	Bonus Feat
11th	+2	+4	+6	+9	-
12th	+2	+4	+6	+9	Ability Score Improvement
13th	+2	+5	+7	+10	-
14th	+2	+5	+7	+10	Bonus Aptitude
15th	+3	+5	+7	+11	-
16th	+3	+5	+8	+11	Ability Score Improvement
17th	+3	+6	+8	+12	-
18th	+3	+6	+8	+12	Bonus Aptitude
19th	+3	+6	+9	+12	Ability Score Improvement
20th	+3	+6	+9	+12	Bonus Feat

Proficiencies and Aptitude

As you see on the table above, there are four different "ranks" to proficiency. You still get better at each particular thing as you gain experience, but the higher your proficiency rank in an area, the faster you improve and the more deeply you can master it, representing your focus and effort towards that particular talent.

At first level, each character is Competent (Rank 2) with the two skills granted to them by their background, as well as any tools granted to them by their background, and with any skills granted to them by their race. When they choose their class at 1st level, they choose the same number of skills and tools as listed in that class's proficiencies, and they are considered Familiar (Rank 1) with these skills and tools. All features that mention your Proficiency Bonus utilize the Competent bonus as well.

Afterwards, they gain a number of special points, called Aptitude Points (AP), which can be spent to increase the proficiency rank of any of their skill or tool proficiencies, or to learn new languages. The number of points they gain is equal to the combined number of skill proficiencies and tool proficiencies granted by their class, plus their Intelligence modifier (Min 1). Thus, a Rogue with an Intelligence score of 14 would possess 7 Aptitude Points (4 from class skills, 1 from class tools, and 2 from Intelligence); Meanwhile, a Barbarian with an Intelligence score of 7 would only have 1 AP (2 from class skills, -2 from Intelligence, minimum of 1). This has the side benefit of making Intelligence a more useful ability score for all classes.

Increasing the proficiency rank of a Skills and tools that are not among the list you could choose from at level 1 - Called a Cross-Class Proficiency - Are more difficult to master, due to lack of exposure to those proficiencies, and thus increasing their proficiency costs more AP than it would if the proficiency was a Class Proficiency for you. Proficiencies granted by background, race or feat are always considered Class Proficiencies.

The cost of increasing a skill or tool's proficiency by 1 rank is shown on the table below; Costs of each individual rank are cumulative - A Fighter would have to spend a total of 5 AP to become Competent in the Arcana skill (2 to increase rank from 0 to 1, 3 to increase it from 1 to 2), but would only have to spend 3 AP to become Competent with Survival, for example. Learning a new language costs 1 AP if it is a common language, or 2 AP if it is an exotic language.

Proficiency Rank	Aptitude Cost
	Class	Cross-Class
Familiar	1	2
Competent	2	3
Professional	3	4
Master	4	5

At the levels listed on the table (2nd, 6th, 14th and 18th), as well as any time your character's Intelligence modifier permanently increases, you gain an additional Aptitude Point to spend, which you may either spend right away, or spend any time you gain a new level.

Any time you would've normally been granted a new proficiency by a class feature (Such as Artificer's Tool Proficiency, granted by its subclasses, or Barbarian's optional Primal Knowledge feature) or by multiclassing (Such as gaining a level in the Bard, Ranger or Rogue classes), you are considered Familiar with that proficiency, that proficiency is considered a Class Proficiency for you, and you gain an additional AP to spend.

This system allows you to fully customize your character's skills and tools without relying solely on your background to do so, and returns the idea, that was present in 3.5e, of learning skills outside of the norm for your class.

Aptitude, Class Features and Feats

Several class features - Expertise, Jack of All Trades, Tool Expertise, etc. - And more than a few feats, change the way you apply your proficiency bonus to various skills and tools. With this variant rule, the following changes are needed.

Expertise

At your 1st and 6th levels in the Rogue class, and your 3rd and 10th levels in the Bard class, you gain the Expertise ability. Upon making a skill check or tool check you are at least Familiar with, you can choose to activate this ability to treat your proficiency rank as having increased by 2, to a maximum of Master, for the purposes of that check. You can activate Expertise in this manner a number of times equal to your Competence proficiency bonus, and you regain all expended uses upon finishing a Short or Long Rest.

Additionally, each time you gain the Expertise class feature, you gain 2 additional Aptitude Points.

Jack of All Trades

Upon gaining this ability at your 2nd level in the Bard class, you are considered Familiar with all skills in which you do not possess a higher proficiency rank. You also gain 2 additional AP.

Tool Expertise

Upon gaining your 6th level in the Artificer class, you are considered Familiar with all tools with which you do not possess a higher proficiency rank. Additionally, upon making a tool check, you can choose to activate this ability to treat your proficiency rank as having increased by 2, to a maximum of Master, for the purposes of that check. You can activate Tool Expertise in this manner a number of times equal to your Competence proficiency bonus, and you regain all expended uses upon finishing a Short or Long Rest. Finally, you gain 2 additional AP.

Ability Score Improvements

With this variant rule, ASIs are no longer tied to your level in any specific class, but are instead gained at specific character levels. They can still be used to gain feats as normal, and additional ASIs are still granted to Rogue at class level 10, and to Fighter at class levels 6 and 14, but you no longer have to multiclass in multiples of 4 in order to improve your ability scores.

Bonus Feats

At 1st, 10th and 20th levels, every character also gains a Bonus Feat. The character must meet the prerequisites, if any, for the feat. This is in addition to the bonus feat granted to the Variant Human race at 1st level.

Additional Skills

I felt the list of skills in 5e has a couple holes, so I applied a couple fixes.

Confrontation (Charisma)

Confrontation represents your ability to control a hostile situation, either by intimidation or provoking your opponent. This is functionally identical to the Intimidation skill, and in fact replaces it, with the added functionality of being able to taunt and provoke enemies, since we don't have a skill for that and it's too niche a use to warrant its own skill. Confrontation is available to anyone that previously had access to Intimidation, and all game rules that affected Intimidation now affect Confrontation.

Ciphering (Intelligence)

3.5e had a wide array of skills that were condensed in 5e. Climb and Swim, along with the grappling mechanics, were turned into Athletics; Jump, Tumble and Escape Artist became Acrobatics; Hide and Move Silently became Stealth; Spot and Listen became Perception, and so on. However, two skills that weren't always used for what their name suggests - Open Lock and Disable Device - Were lost in the abyss known as Thieves' Tools. No longer can they be used as the stand-in "puzzle-cracking" skill, and thus, I created Ciphering. Ciphering is used specifically for puzzles, such as a Rubik's cube or puzzle box, a sliding tile puzzle, making your way through a maze, cracking a secret code, unraveling a riddle, and the like - It represents a combination of the character's knowledge of such obstacles, and their cunning and creativity to overcome them.

The Ciphering skill is not an end-all, be-all when it comes to puzzles, riddles and codes, however - The player can't just roll a Ciphering check instead of attempting to solve a problem themselves; It is merely there as a means of allowing a proficient character to make a check in order to gain a clue as to how the riddle might me solved. For example, the riddle "What has 4 legs in the morning, 2 legs at noon, and 3 legs in the evening" would not simply be solved with a single check, but a good enough Ciphering roll could allow the player the hint that morning, noon and evening refer to stages of life. A character with a high passive Ciphering score might automatically understand secret code upon reading it or hearing it spoken, or crack simple puzzles, like combination locks, with relative ease.

Ciphering is available, by default, to Artificers, Bards, Rangers, Rogues and Wizards.

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