Combining Listen/Spot and Hide/Move Silently?

[Pbartender]

Re: Its Been Done

What they suggest (on pages 55-56, if you want to skim it at the store) is that you caould combine hide and movesliently into one skill and call it "stealth". The players "stealth" score is the average of the two...i.e. 7 and 9 = 8. Now perception is done the same waycombineing listen and spot.

Precisely what my gaming group does, when circumstances permit, with both Hide/MS and Spot/Listen.

But I would not recommend completely combining them... As someone said, having to spend the skill points for two skills instead of one balances out the usefulness a bit. Plus, there are still situations when one skill is definitely being used without the other.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Another nice side-effect of averaging the skills for use is that it brings three potential groups out of the class list.

Top percievers (rogues and rangers) who get both spot and listen

Middling percievers (barbarians, monks, bards) who get listen alone

Poor percievers (all the rest) for whom both are cross-class skills.