Translating percentage based bonuses to skills...

[tsh77769]

Sometimes you see situations where a character might get a +5% or +10% or some other X% to a skill of choice or perhaps a skill of choice within a category.

For example something like"...advanced studies and intuition provide a +5% to 3 skills of choice." Or, "...intense training provides a +10% to 3 skills from the military or espionage categories.".

My question is...how do you deal with a situation where a bonus to a skill of choice is provided and the player wants to apply the bonus to a skill that does not have a %, such as W.P., or Sniper, or a few others?

My opinion would be that you would apply a level advancement to that skill based on the % bonus. For example, +5% would be one level advancement, +10% would be two level advancements. Thus, if the player received a +10% bonus to be divided among 2 skills of choice and my player wanted to apply the bonus to a W.P. or 2 I would say alright you can advance one W.P. by 2 levels or 2 W.P. by one level. The ratios or how much % equals how much level advancement can of course be adjusted and debated.

tsh77769

[Natasha]

+1 for 1D20 for every +5% is correct so I think it's reasonable to extend that to effective levels of experience (as most skills are +5% per level).

[drewkitty ~..~]

In canon there is no conversion between D20 bonuses and % bonuses. And if the bonus does note fit the type of skill then it is to be ignored.

The Math works out to ratio of 1-5, d20-% respectively.

In other words, leaving 'feelings' aside, the conversion rate Natasha presented is correct for using in house rules.

[eliakon]

I feel pretty confidant in saying that there is no bonus.
I say this because when we look at the hundreds of OCCs that have been printed and dozens of skill programs there are exactly two (that I am aware of) that have a listed bonus to a non-percentage skill listed. The numbers are so small as to be almost statistically non-existent (It is less than one tenth of one percent of all OCCs, Programs and MOSs grant this). If such bonuses were supposed to be "a thing" then one would think that you would see those bonuses all over the place. Especially since not a single NPC in any book is constructed in such a way that they have converted a +d100 bonus into a +20 bonus. Not one.

Now, sure if you feel that people are not powerful enough and want to make everyone even more powerful, sure whip out the Rule Zero wand and house rule away.

[Shark_Force]

iirc, the only % ==> d20 conversion of which i am aware is for perception, in RUE on page 368, regarding perception vs stealth & concealment skills. that rule is every 10% = +1 on an opposed d20 roll. it doesn't match the 5% = +1 ration mentioned earlier that math would suggest, but it is the only direct official example of converting % to a d20 roll bonus that i can recall.