Do you fold multiple skills into one?

[victorysaber]

Like, for instance, the more famous Spot + Listen and Move Silently + Hide skills. I know quite a few people fold them together into one single skill.

But how about other skills? Do you all fold, for instance, Open Lock + Disable Device + Sleight of Hand into one skill, Use Magic Device + Use Psionic Device, Spellcraft + Psicraft + Martial Lore, Bluff + Diplomacy + Intimidate, Ride + Handle Animal, Decipher Script + Forgery, and so on?

How are the results?

 

[awayfarer]

I've been thinking of folding gather information into diplomacy for my upcoming Eberron campaign. From the sound of GI, you basically schmooze until someone tells you something you can use. I imagine some folks who think diplomacy is overpowered will not like this.

I can see use rope and sleight of hand being combined. Both require a bit of manual dexterity and use rope is pretty limited in scope.

 

[molonel]

I fold Open Locks and Disable Device into one skill in my D&D games. d20 Modern does the same thing.

Balance and Tumble = one skill in my D&D games.

The Intimidation skill does not exist in my games. The mechanics are silly.

I leave Bluff and Diplomacy as separate skills, but I use Rich Burlew's homebrewed mechanics for Diplomacy:

http://www.giantitp.com/Func0010.html

I might use your suggestions here, but I leave Hide and Move Silently, and Spot and Listen, as separate skills.

 

[was]

We do that some times...particularly using the profession skill

 

[ThirdWizard]

I've been thinking of using the Iron Heroes system in my next D&D game (whenever that is going to be), where each class gets access to Skill Groups which have multiple skills in them. So, if your class has, for example, Agility, and you spend 4 ranks in Agility, you gain 4 ranks in Balance, Escape Artist, and Tumble. If you don't, then you have to purchase each one individually.

 

[Telsar]

In my game, I fold the following:

Open Locks is a function of Disable Device
Sleight of Hand is a function of Bluff
Use Rope is a function of Survival
Balance+Tumble = Acrobatics
Climb+Jump = Athletics
Listen+Spot = Notice, but only applies to reactively perceiving things.
Search is used for seeing and hearing, whenever you're intentionally perceiving things
Hide+Move Silently = Stealth
Use Magic Device+Use Psionic Device = Use Device (also works on technology, which is found in my fantasy game)

It gives PCs less things to spend points on, and hence, makes them more skilled. Hasn't seemed unbalanced at all. Let's everyone have a few points left over for less common skills, like knowledge skills and profession.

I wouldn't combine Bluff, Diplomacy, or Intimidate with anything. They're all too useful on their own, plus most character concepts make one over the others the best choice for that character.

 

[delericho]

I prefer to keep my list of house rules fairly small, and skill combinations never seem to make the cut, so no. The only thing I do with skills is to re-assign Martial Lore as Knowledge(martial lore), which has a fairly minimal impact.

I do think that Psicraft and Spellcraft should be the same skill and that Use Magic Device and Use Psionic Device should likewise be combined. Other combinations I can see going either way, but as long as the game is using Magic/Psionics Transparency, I can't see any justification for these being separate.

 

[Mathew Lankard]

This is something I've been considering doing for awhile. The suggestions here all look pretty solid. Anyone have any experience with removing the cross class skill cap?

 

[Droogie]

I've thrown out Knowledge(local) entirely. Who wants a skill that becomes useless when you travel away from the area of your expertise? I make due with gather info, Kn(geography) and basic Intelligence checks.


I'd love to role spot+listen+sense motive+search into a catch-all "perception" skill, but I suppose it would be a wee-bit unbalanced.

 

[WayneLigon]

Right now, I'm using Hide + Move Silent as Sneak, and Listen + Spot + Search as Notice. Racial or Feat adders to those skills give +3 to the combined skill.