Skill Levels As Powers

[balo]

The fifth edition rules allow you to buy skills as powers, an consequentially apply modifiers to those skills. Is it possible to purchase skill levels as a power without purchasing the base skill? If so, does such a power have to have some form of limitation that says the user must possess the base skill to benefit from the power or is this inherent in the fact that skill levels were purchased. By way of example, I would be thinking of a pair of gloves that provided bonuses to lock picking and sleight of hand but only if the character had those skills in the first place, those without the skills would get no benefit.

[Steve Long]

Yes, you can buy Skill Levels as Powers; there are even some rules for that under the description of Skill Levels (i.e., the minimum value of the Levels before you can apply Limitations to them).

The Skill Levels are meaningless, though, if the character doesn't have the Skill to apply them to in the first place. If you also want to give someone the base Skill, you'd have to buy that as a Power, too -- the Skill Usable By Others. Keep in mind, though, that a Skill bought through a Focus starts with a Characteristic of 0, giving it a roll of 9-.

So, for example:

Gloves Of Lockpicking: +5 to Lockpicking and Security Systems (15 Active Points); OIF (-1/2). Total cost: 10 points.

Gloves Of Thievery: Lockpicking 14- (13 Active Points); OIF (-1/2 (total cost: 9 points) plus Security Systems 14- (13 Active Points); OIF (-1/2 (total cost: 9 points). Total cost: 18 points.

The former item simply provides a bonus to two Skills, and thus requires the user to have those Skills. The latter item gives the characters two Skills at a base 9- roll, with +5 to each roll, and thus works even for a character who doesn't normally have those Skills.