A house-rule idea for Skills
by Anarion_ElendiliHere is a house-rule that just popped into my head:
Skill level = Attribute/2 + Level/2
This would see those skills improve through the campaign, rather than a 1st level character being just as proficient as a 36th level character, if they have the same stat.
And once they breach value 20 in a skill, the excess could be a bonus to the roll (as in King Arthur Pendragon), and if you roll+bonus is >= 20 (except if you roll a 20, as per the rules for skill failure), then it is a critical success which means that you get double the bonus from the skill or some other nice thing to reward you for that.
Also, the GM can use positive skill modifiers to make things easier at the low levels ("Ah, there is an easy trail, roll Hunting with a +10 bonus to your skill.") and harder at the high levels ("Trying to find tracks of the assassin? Not that easy, they clearly were a pro, roll with -10 modifier to your skill level."). The Skill modifiers are already part of the skill system.
Oh, and the skill bonus for putting more picks on a single skill? It should be more than +1, which is insignificant next to the utility of having more skills. Instead, at least +2, although I could also see +3. Needs some more thought.
As for Deception, an easy fix would be to make it do the same as Muscle and Wrestling: it gives you an extra bonus to CHA when you are trying to deceive someone. But you'd still make a Reaction Roll or something, just with extra CHA bonuses.
As for Stealth, I think I would just give a Thief a Stealth skill in all terrains, using it to replace Move Silently completely. Sure, it is significantly higher than he would get at 1st level, but Thieves need more love, since those abilities suck at low levels and are hard to use in a group anyway. Alternative would be to give them like one terrain per 4 levels (i.e. whenever they get a skill point, they get an additional Stealth skill for free), and their Move Silently is the default for the terrains they don't have yet.
Any thoughts?