Education Stat for Players
by Janothar

	I was looking over the hackmaster player's handbook searching out ways 
to trap my players for min/maxing and found that with the inclusion of 
ONE ADDITIONAL STATISTIC it becomes very difficult for them to be 
GM-proofed.  The statistic I speak of I call Education.  No, it is not the 
same thing as intelligence or wisdom, they merely provide potential.  By 
incorporating education(EDU) into a campaign, you can be assured to 
play the level of education against the players.  If your group spends 
nothing on the choices that affect education, then place them in an 
enlightened city(Fangarie is a good place) where the uneducated aren't held 
in high regard.  If they ARE educated, shove them into the wilderness on 
the orkin border...book learning won't do much good there.

	The actual calculations for EDU must wait until character creation is 
finished.  I suggest waiting until the characters are all rolled up and 
then springing this on the players so that they had no idea that they 
had to plan this...that way their first character's education is based 
on the character and they did not mold their character to fit the range 
of education that they wished to obtain.  Also, maximum education is 
limited double the combined INT and WIS scores of the PC.

	The following tables include modifiers for the stat as well as base 
scores.

Race		Base Dice	Class*		Bonus Dice
Dwarf		d8		Cleric		+1d8
Elf		2d6		Fighter		+1d4
Gnome		2d4		Mage		+1d10
Gnomeling	d6		Thief		+1d6
Half-Elf	d6		Barbarian	+1d2
Human		d6		Cavalier	+1d6
Halfling	d6		Paladin		+1d6
Half-Orc	d4		Dark Knight	+1d6
Half-Ogre	d3		Monk		+1d8
Pixie-Faerie	2d8

*Includes all subclasses unless otherwise specified

Starting INT and WIS will affect EDU the same way that CHA affects 
COM(ie, the second to last column on the CHA chart)

Class
SLC	-5
LLC	-4
MLC	-3
ULC	-2
LMC	-1
MMC	+0
UMC	+1
LUC	+2
MUC	+3
UUC	+4

For each time a PC buys an Arcane Skill, an Academic skill, or a 
language past the native tongue, add 1 point to EDU

The talent Photographic Memory gives a +2 to the EDU stat

EDU cannot be increased through 2-to-1 nor BPs, as it is calculated 
after character generation.  It can, however, be increased whenever INT or 
WIS increases and the modifying value changes, whenever a new skill is 
purchased(within the above categories), when a character goes up a 
level(by 1), or by spending a week of time training without level or skill 
advancement while appropriate Honor penalties and monetary costs are 
applied.

Now, a chart with the values associated with EDU, up to when a PC has 
25 INT and 25 WIs and can thus reach 100 EDU

EDU=% chance of a character knowing something that cannot be learned 
through intuition.

(Note, values are qualitative, so the GM can decide exactly what each 
range constitutes in his/her game)

EDU		Affects
0-10		Character is virtually uneducated
11-20		Character has a basic education which supplies basic details of 
the world
21-30		Character has an education that will include politics and other 
advanced 		topics
31-40		Character has effectively completed college
41-50		Character has effectively completed graduate school and can act 
as a sage in 		up to two areas of study
51-60		Character is a master of knowledge and can act as a sage on as 
many as 3 		areas of knowledge
61-70		Character knows all nontrivial things and a large amount of 
trivia.  In 		addition to the normal 3 sage categories, the character may 
also add an 		additional honor die to each of his academic skills he has 
used by the end 		of each adventure
71-80		Character knows too much.  The PC may become wanted for having 
too much 		knowledge and thus have a price on his head.
81-90		Character is among the most knowledgable in the nation.  5 sage 
categories
91-99		Character is among the most knowledgable in the world.  6 sage 
categories
100		Character knows virtually all things.

For Example
Da'kar is a Drow Battlemage.
His INT is 16 and is WIS is 8.  His max EDU is thus (16+8)*2, which is 
48.  He is of the Middle-Upper Class and bought Arcane Lore once, 
Spellcraft once and no other Academic, Arcane or Language skill.  He also 
has a photographic memory.

As an elf, he has 2d6 points of EDU, as a mage he gets an additional 
1d10.
His INT gives him a +2 to his EDU, as a 16 CHA would give a +2 to COM, 
also, his 8 WIS gives him a -1 to EDU for the same reason.
He gets a +2 because of his skills and a +2 from the Photographic 
Memory Talent
He is level 1, so he gets no bonus from level, but when(if) he reaches 
level two, his EDU increases by 1, and then increases again if he 
trains in Academic skills, Arcane skills, or Languages, or just trains to 
increase his EDU.

Now, the 2d6 roll comes out as a 7, the d10 roll is a 9, so his base 
EDU is 16.
16+2(INT)-1(WIS)+2(Photographic Memory)+2(skills)
16+2-1+2+2=21
Thus, Da'kar has a 21 Education, which means that he has the basic 
understanding of advanced subjects, enough that if no skill check is 
needed, he would not be able to even receive a check if something were to 
require one.