Mnemonic enhancer, Free skills? Options

[tisoz]

Those who can't teach, run gym class.

[Shockwave_IIc]

Basically you don't need to be an artiste to be an art critic

[Cain]

Incidentally, when it comes to language points-- Don't forget, you can drop knowledge points into languages; and if you have to, you can dot he same with Active skill points. The average Int 3 human has 15 knowledge skill points and 4 language skill points. I tend to assume most people drop some of those knowledge points into their native language, so they have an easy 4+ in their native tongue.

For that Int 1 troll, he pretty much has to do this-- his 5 Knowledge points plus his 1 language point generally means he has his native language at 3+.

[Crusher Bob]

Of course, the problem here being that a Int 1 troll is a troll with average intelligence for a troll. This means most trolls have a very poor grasp of their native language, and know next to nothing of the world around them. This is, in part, why massive modifiers to mental stats is usually a bad game design decision.

[Ryu]

This is one reason why I consider the band from 3 to 6 (before racial mods) average, and 1-2 like 7-9 outside the norm. Works much better for PCs.

NPCs are not subject to the balance issues of character generation. Therefore we would have to rate their language skills based on upbringing and position in society, not based on intelligence alone (although it is much more appropiate here than with knowledge skills).