I agree with both of these. I thought the trade with those changes to skin was that you had the possibility of skinning more protective materials earlier. I'm not sure the benefit is at the right cost gain ratio. Can anyone verify if I'm dreaming up that part of it?

Achernar, does that mean you will look into the to those two things?

I'd like to make a suggestion on this, since it's something that keeps creeping back on me every time I see an old discussion about the subject. I thought it had already been addressed, so I left it, but since it's being brought up again, here we go:

How about a tool-based system for skin? Specifics.

1. Scout skill plays the primary effect on whether successed or not.
2. Scout may only skin with a "tool" used for skinning.
3. This tool must be made of the same substance they are trying to skin, and will incrase in cost/scarcity depending on the might-value of the substance attempting to be skinned. Some tools might be so scarce you could only acquire them through quests, exorbitant sums of money or tracking down someone who has one.
4. This tool will have a ascending rate of breakage depending on the substance. Or perhaps not breakage, but "charges", similar to wands.

Ultimately, this allows the player to practice with lower and inexpensive tools to increase their skill. Once they have the skill, (skill failure should not break the tool), they will have no problem with a skin, so long as the tool itself keeps its integrity. This will limit the amount of items they can produce with a single powerful tool, while not making the skill itself suck.

Thoughts?