I wouldn't limit strength or agility--I'd just limit the total bonus to the PL cap. If you have Acrobatics or Athletics at 12, and the active ability is at 10, your total bonus is +20.FuzzyBoots wrote: ↑Sat Apr 14, 2018 5:46 pm The chief problem is PL caps. If you have an athletic guy with the proposed merged skill, say at 12 ranks at PL 10, are his Strength and Agility limited to a maximum of 8, since both now possibly factor into the total?
I'd actually go further than just dual-stat skills, myself. Falling from a height and need to catch something to save yourself? Roll Acrobatics + Dexterity. Meet another athlete and try to get on their good side through your shared knowledge and appreciation of the sport? Athletics + Presence. Trying to recognize the name of a great circus performer? Acrobatics + Intellect. Need to catch somebody cheating? Athletics + Awareness.
There's another d20 game I'm a big fan of, called 13th Age, that drops the 3.x skill system entirely in favor of what it calls Backgrounds. Instead of a lawyer taking Expertise (Law) and Persuasion and Insight, for example, they'd take a background like "lawyer," and whenever they needed to do something they'd have experience with as a lawyer, they'd add that background to whatever ability check was relevant. I'm very, very tempted to steal the background system for the next time I run an M&M game. The increased versatility would probably make them more expensive than skills, though, and I'm not sure yet how much I'd charge for ranks in backgrounds.