Question about 3.x skills.

[jaerdaph]

Aquick point: the opposed skill to hide is spot. just wanted to throw in my last two coppers here.

Yes, if you are hiding just yourself. Nothing in the rules prevents you from matching up two skills for an opposed test if they make sense logically. If someone is going to go through a ship and look for hidden cargo, Search makes more sense then Spot does since it is the skill for finding hidden things, secret doors and compartments etc. Spot is really just to notice something that might otherwise go unperceived, like a person in the shadows - analogous to Listen, where you hear something like a whispered conversation. Since they are so similar, many newer d20 systems like True20 combine Spot and Listen into one skill, Notice.

And, IIRC, I believe the table that lists Opposed Tests even calls them Examples, which implies it is not all-inclusive.

 

[jaerdaph]

The Camouflage feat is what supposedly allows someone to hide big objects. However, even the feat itself knows it is stupid to need a feat for this, so it says that the DM may optionally allow this mechanism for everyone. I do. Sounds like you probably would, too.

That's pretty clever too, but I agree, it works better as an added use of Hide.

BTW, I love the Netbook of Feats where Camouflage is from - there are quite a few gems in there.

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

The rules aren't clear. For really effective hiding of large objects, the appropriate skill is probably:

Craft: Carpentry

or maybe profession: carpenter

You'll want boxes with false bottoms, secret compartments hidden in your ship, or both.

Depending upon how you are smuggling the items, you might even not need skill checks at all. If you have all your sailors swallow plastic (yeah, I know--probably doesn't exist in fantasy, but there may be a substance that has the same utility) bags filled with small and durable contraband just before landfall and pick it out later, there's no need for a skill check. The only way that the enemy would locate it is if they start to suspect something and then they are either patient enough to wait for the evidence to emerge or good enough at heal to discern that the people swallowed something indigestible. Likewise, if the items are watertight boxes strapped to the hull of your ship, anyone who looks is going to see them, but it is likely no-one will look. In that case, the relevant skill is going to be whatever you use to figure out that no-one is looking when you swim down and unload the cargo.

But for big items that you want to hide without special preparations? I would probably go with opposed search rolls. There might be a penalty to the roll of the guy hiding his items if he doesn't have the proper tools (boxes with false bottoms, etc as discussed above) or a bonus if the items in question are really small. Combining those two might work like this. The guy searching the ship makes his search check. If he beats the hide check he finds the contraband. However, if it was hidden in a specially crafted container, he would also need to beat the seach DC to find the hidden compartment. Thus, it is possible that a search check would find an item that was, for instance, hidden in a barrel of pickled fish but would miss that same item if it was hidden beneath the false bottom of that barrel of pickled fish--provided that the false bottom was well constructed.

 

[Urbannen]

In order to find a hidden object, a character must make a successful Search check. There is no skill that specifically allows a character to attempt to set the Search DC to hide a random item somewhere in the environment or inside a manufactured structure; therefore the DC is determined on a case-by-case basis by the DM.

Two skills - Sleight of Hand and Craft (Trapmaking) - have guidelines for setting Search DCs in specific cases, namely the hiding of small items on the body and the setting of Search DCs for traps. Otherwise the rules don't cover setting Search DCs (barring additional sourcebooks I'm not aware of), so it should be handled by the DM.

 

[ValhallaGH]

What skill would apply if a character were to try to smuggle something in a wagon or ship? In other words to hide something. Hide? Sleight of Hand?

Whichever skill is most relevant to the hiding place. Professions and Crafts would be the best (probably get a +2 or +4 on the hiding check for being the right ones), Knowledge or Search could work, or even plebian Hide could work if the character doesn't have any more appropriate skills.

Good luck.