Skills you can take 20 on...

Do I have this right?

The list to follow is based on the assumption that you're not in combat, threatened, under a time crunch, or distracted:

Take 20 Skills:
* Decipher script (20 minutes)
* Escape Artist (takes 20 minutes to escape bonds, can't take 20 to avoid grappling)
* Gather Information (takes 20d4+20 hours and you draw attention to yourself)
* Handle Animals (not for rearing animals though)
* Listen (to an ongoing sound lasting over 2 minutes)
* Open Locks (2 minutes)
* Search (2 minutes per 5' square, can't take 20 to look for traps)
* Sense Motive (20 minutes, can't take 20 on opposed rolls or to discern secret messages)
* Sleight of Hand (when you have 2 minutes to hide something on your body, for example)
* Spellcraft (2 minutes: to determine school of magic from aura while using detect magic, and to identify materials created or shaped by magic by looking at them normally; 20 days: decipher written spell without using read magic)
* Spot (if you have 2 minutes to look for something you can't search)
* Use Rope (not for use with setting your grappling hook)

I think you can take 20 to search for traps - it's disable device on traps you can't safely retry. With decipher script you only get one chance, so no taking 20 on that.

Agreed on the note about NOT taking 20 on Decipher Script.

Also, can't one take 20 on a hide check, as when setting an ambush?

Can't take 20 on Sense Motive.

Can't be tried again, except against each bluff attempt.

Escape Artist.

You can only try again after a failed attempt "if you're squeezing through a tight space, making multiple checks".

Sleight of Hand - I'd say you can't take 20 because if you try again after a failed attempt the DC goes up 10 (hence a penalty is involved on a failed check).

Use Rope - I don't think you can take 20 since you don't even make your attempt until someone tries to escape. Hence you don't know you've failed until you have and since a successful escape artist (or Str) check means that they have escaped - well it is too late to "try again".

nittanytbone said:

Also, can't one take 20 on a hide check, as when setting an ambush?

Click to expand...

This was the subject of a long discussion.

Basically the rules say no you can't.

Taking 20 means that you have at least 1 failure in your attempt - if you have been spotted then you can't not attempt to hide again. While I think you should be able to take 20 in this case the rules do not support it basically because of the auto-failur aspect of taking 20 and that a failure means you have been spotted and if you have been spotted you can't attempt to hide.

So... we're down to:

Take 20 Skills:
* Gather Information (takes 20d4+20 hours and you draw attention to yourself)
* Handle Animals (not for rearing animals though)
* Listen (to an ongoing sound lasting over 2 minutes)
* Open Locks (2 minutes)
* Search (2 minutes per 5' square, can't take 20 to look for traps)
* Sleight of Hand (when you have 2 minutes to hide something on your body, for example)
* Spellcraft (2 minutes: to determine school of magic from aura while using detect magic, and to identify materials created or shaped by magic by looking at them normally; 20 days: decipher written spell without using read magic)
* Spot (if you have 2 minutes to look for something you can't search)

Why isn't there a table for the 8 skills you can Take 20 on in either the PhB or the DMG?

roguerouge said:

Why isn't there a table for the 8 skills you can Take 20 on in either the PhB or the DMG?

Click to expand...

I think because if you come up with a new use for a skill on the spur of the moment, it may actually be possible to take 20 on it. It's a general rule which you can use, not a specific one. Likewise if more new uses are defined in new supplements, e.g. the epic level book.

roguerouge said:

... can't take 20 to look for traps ...

Click to expand...

Also, I still think you can take 20 when searching for traps - if you've got the time, of course.

avr said:

Also, I still think you can take 20 when searching for traps - if you've got the time, of course.

Click to expand...

I would strongly agree to that.

irdeggman said:

This was the subject of a long discussion.

Basically the rules say no you can't.

Taking 20 means that you have at least 1 failure in your attempt - if you have been spotted then you can't not attempt to hide again. While I think you should be able to take 20 in this case the rules do not support it basically because of the auto-failur aspect of taking 20 and that a failure means you have been spotted and if you have been spotted you can't attempt to hide.

Click to expand...

Sorry, but a skill roll doesn't have automatic failures, that is only for attack rolls and saving throws. If you have sufficient ranks in a particular skill, there is no way to fail it anymore, besides a DM that changes the standard DC for the attempt. That's one of the reasons I hate the psionic skill autohypnosis: if you put enough ranks in it it gives you 6(!) different things to auto-succeed. One of my DM's hate Concentration for it: auto-succeed on casting defensively.

From the SRD: "Taking 20 means you are trying until you get it right, and it assumes that you fail many times before succeeding. Taking 20 takes twenty times as long as making a single check would take."