Skill bumps. What does this mean?

[Dresan]

Assuming skills range from 0 to 100 ( just for argument sake) visually represented by:
Novice--------(25)--------Apprentice--------(25)----------Journeyman-----(25)------Advanced-----(25)-----Master

Well then what does this actually mean?

Skill bumps will give players the option to bump starting skills one 'level' of mastery per CGP spent (though this 'translation' isn't accurate for all skills, as some skills have different levels of scaling)

In the case of a skill above a level of mastery would be roughly 25%, wouldn't it? I'm just curious what different levels of scaling mean for the actual skill.

[MeTekillot]

Master parry might be 65% while master woodworking might be 95%

[Nathvaan]

Master parry might be 65% while master woodworking might be 95%

Correct.  Not all skills are scaled the same.  So all that really needs to be said is that each skill bump goes one level closer to mastery regardless of the actual skill number.

[Dresan]

Awesome. Thanks for the replies.

[MeTekillot]

You're welcome.

[Synthesis]

The word descriptors are based on set percentages of the skill's global (PC?) maximum, as far as I can tell.  So 0-20% of the max is novice, 21-40% of the max is apprentice, 41-60% is journeyman, 61-80% is advanced, 81%+ is master.

So if you're getting a skill bump to a skill that has a global PC maximum (not the maximum for whatever guild you're playing) of 50, bumping from novice to apprentice might get you +15% on a percent basis, but it might be only 7.5 points on an absolute basis, whereas you'd get 15 absolute points for a skill capped at 100.

There aren't really any good ways to tell which skills have those low global caps, though, unless you have direct access to the code or have one of the old cheat sheets.

This can be pretty frustrating if you're a newb, because blowing a skill bump on an easily-trained, low-cap skill (e.g. lumberjacking?) theoretically spends the same CGP as using it on a high-cap, difficult-to-train skill (e.g weapon skills).  Further, if you aren't familiar with the starting level bonuses for guilds and locations, it can be frustrating  (e.g. getting a bump to journeyman slashing could be either one or two CGP, depending on where you start).

But...meh...it seems like people, for the most part, figure it out eventually.  I've never actually requested a skill bump, personally...but I think I've only rolled 2 PCs since the CGP system was implemented.