This book came across my DM table from one of my players, who suggested that "skill tricks" were a particularly interesting mechanic. I read the book in a week and jotted down some thoughts. This will not be as comprehensive as my normal review, since I didn't read the book as thoroughly as I normally would before writing a review.
Skill tricks are new ways of using skills. This is a mechanic introduced in this book. They are sort of like feats (having prerequisites), but you must pay to purchase them with skill points, and you can only have as many skill tricks as 1/2 your character level. You invest 2 skill points to learn a skill trick. Here is an example:
Back on your Feet [movement]
Prerequisite: Tumble 12 ranks.
Benefit: If you fall prone for any reason, you can stand up as an immediate action without provoking attacks of opportunity.
1) All of these "skill tricks" could be accomplished just as easily by simply providing a skill DC or adding a modifier to the DC of an existing check. Basically, it would be using the existing mechanic to do things a creative DM would probably allow with a skill check anyway, rather than introducing new mechanics. I don't know why WoTC thinks the skill set is sacrosanct and does not allow new creative uses for existing skills.
2) many of the skill tricks are not well balanced with existing rules. In the example above, back on your feet, the success is AUTOMATIC, and does not have any built in checks and balances. It is just as easy for a character under the influence of cat's grace and heroism to stand after being tripped, up as it is if that character suffered the same attack while standing on an a greased slope while suffering massive dexterity damage. To summarize, the game already has several elements and conditions that modify a given tumble check--the "skill trick" mechanic introduced here typically ignores those conditions and grants 100% success.
There is a feat Nimble Charge that says "you can run or charge across a difficult surface without needing to make a balance check"...
Imagine that there is an iced over rope bridge across a chasm being blown by high winds. The DM might declare that this is a DC30 balance check. There is no way your character could make it with his measly 5 ranks of balance... but if he decides to RUN across the bridge it is now automatic success?!
3) Many of the suggested skill tricks are used to shore up rules that I considered to be deficient in the first place. There is a skill trick to give you +5 bonus on identifying monsters with knowledge checks. (This is a core rule that many people, including the Monster Manual 4, have already "fixed" by basing knowledge checks on monster CR rather than HD). There are 3 tricks dealing with avoiding AoO while prone (back on your feet, nimble stand, tumbling crawl). It seems like multiple tricks are devoted to the problem of prone defenders being very vulnerable and trying to mitigate that problem.
4) Some of the skill tricks are just plain silly. Mosquito's Bite lets you attack a flat-footed person and deal full sneak-attack damage without them realizing they've been damaged?! "Say, old chap, how are you doing. I haven't seen you in some time."
*mosquito's bite, 32 pts damage* "By the way, is that my liver on the ground there? I don't know how I dropped it." In a game in which HP are not known by the player, this possibly makes sense, but in a game in which HP are an abstract of health, an important component to a player making risk/reward analysis in a given situation, it makes no sense to keep HP secret. The one redeeming value of this feat might be the amusement at delivering a "mosquito's bite" via a vorpal weapon. You've just beheaded someone, but they haven't realized that they are dead yet. The old "chicken with its head cut off" gag is always good for a laugh.
Conceal Spellcasting lets you cast spells without revealing it and thus leaving you free from AoO to interrupt the spell. "Look, that guy is waving his arms, pulling bat guano out of a bag, and reciting some weird incantation... but he certainly couldn't be casting a spell... it doesn't look like it!" If you were going to allow this "skill trick" at all, it looks like the kind of thing that anyone with a sufficient bluff/sleight of hand should be able to do without needing an investment in a specific skill trick. It looks like exactly the kind of thing those core skills were meant to accomplish.
5) Some skill tricks look open to abuse by specific classes. One trick is Spot the weak point. If you study a creature you can make a spot check vs. its AC to see if you can make your next attack a touch attack. This seems like it would be crucial for an assassin, who would study the opponent and just keep using this skill trick to assure that he delivers his death attack as a touch attack. Hell, if he has power attack he can probably max out his power attack as well.
One trick is Healing hands that lets you heal 1d6 damage every time you successfully stabilize someone. The prerequisite is 5 ranks in Heal. At the point that you have 5 ranks of heal, you can take 10 to stabilize someone (automatic). If someone ever has less than 5 HP, you simply injure them until they are at -1, and then stabilize them and heal them 1d6 HP. Eventually, they get up to 5 HP. If someone is at -9, you stabilize them, then injure them again and re-stabilize them, etcetera. It is a ridiculous rule, and totally unnecessary. If someone needs to be healed, use a frigging potion or a spell. That's what you have magic for. This is a rule that deserves to be errata'd.
Swift Concentration allows you to keep two spells that require concentration going at the same time (or to cast other spells while freely maintaining concentration on one).
6) Some skill tricks don't even seem to be actual "tricks", but rather explicitly allow you to do things that most DMs would allow anyway. For example, the trick Point it out lets a character that has successfully spotted a hidden opponent tell other characters where the opponent was, thus giving them another chance to make their spot check. Personally, I've always allowed this without a special rule or trick. The player just says "My character points at the big oak tree and says 'there is a humanoid hiding behind that tree'". There is another trick called corner perch which lets you free up 2 hands while climbing, as long as you are in a chimney or bracing against a wall. I've never seen a rule that requires you to use 2 hands to hold on to a wall (after climbing)*, and I've always allowed players to have one hand free to attack or whatever, a long as they are not actually trying to climb at the same time. I require a climber to use two hands to climb. Thus, if a person was climbing a rope, they could stop half way up (when they get attacked by gargoyles), and hang on the rope with one hand while drawing a weapon and attacking with the other hand. There is a slight difference between the trick and what I allow anyway, but not enough that I could see anyone ever investing in this trick.
*Presumably, the ability to climb up to a point, then stop and have a hand or two free, is what allows a character to build a ladder of pitons pounded into a wall. Its certainly how it works in real life, and there is nothing in the rules that contradicts this understanding... well, nothing until this "trick" was added.
I earlier pointed out the 3 tricks related to avoiding an AoO while prone. I already have a house rule that tumbling while prone increases the DC by 5, and leave it at that... I think sage might have made a similar rule that tumbling up from prone is DC20... in any case, using a set DC for an existing skill already covers the same ground as these skill tricks. And in this case, almost every DM whose been doing their job for the past 2-3 years probably has some house-ruled mechanic for standing up that avoids AoO.
Hidden Blade lets you treat an opponent as flat-footed when you draw a hidden weapon as a move action. This is another way of doing a "feint" without requiring an opposed sense motive check, it only requires that you draw a hidden weapon before your attack. I think that the feint rules, and specifically "Improved Feint" feat are more than sufficient for this purpose.
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Overall, I thought that some of the text and examples for the new "skill tricks" were great ideas, but they would be more appropriately added as expansions of the existing d20 skill rules, rather than as a new mechanic halfway between feats and skills. I'll be house-ruling several of these in as new uses for existing skills, but I will not be using "skill tricks" at my table.
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So now that there is this new mechanic, the book goes on to create classes, prestige classes, and feats, all of which require or involve "skill tricks". Basically once you've added a mechanic, it creates a cascading effect where you can create all these additional rules to account for your new mechanic... (prestige classes that increase the maximum number of tricks... feats that give you bonuses based on your tricks, feats and classes that have skill tricks as prerequisites, etcetera). This is a great way to bloat a product and I've seen it time and time again by WoTC.
Leaving skill tricks, there are a lot of feats that have to do with modifying sneak attacks, skirmish attacks, bardic music, luck, and skirmish attacks. Nothing really exiting here that you couldn't come up with on your own.
Another vast number of feats have to do with making classes work together better. There is a feat that lets you stack levels of ninja and monk. There is a feat that let you stack levels of rogue and swashbuckler, there is a feat that lets you stack levels of fighter and swashbuckler, and so on.
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Out of the new classes, one class stands out as being very bizarre. The Combat Trapsmith is a class that builds temporary traps that have no cost and only last for 1 hour. Mechanically, this seems like a great thing to have on a computer RPG like Neverwinter Nights, or any other computer-based combat type game. As far as a pen-and-paper RPG they are really screwy. What are they made of? can the materials be re-used? can they be made permanent? It just asks far more questions than can be reasonably answered... but in a computer game, especially a PvP, it would be really entertaining... exactly like laying mines for opponents to trip on. I haven't played a 1st person shooter videogame in about 5 years, but I am guessing some of the popular WW2 games let you plant mines to blow up people with. This character class does exactly that.
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For a final word about this product: If you are a very creative DM that is pretty happy playing with the core rules suplemented with some personal house rules to fill in the gaps, then this product is only a 2 of 5. There is really nothing here you couldn't come up with on your own, and an extra mechanic that isn't necessary.
If you are a consumer that has purchased the rest of the complete series anyway, then go ahead and buy this. It is comperable with the other books in the series. I rate this a 3 of 5 for you.
Personally, the week I spent with the book was sufficient, and I will not be purchasing it.
Skill tricks are new ways of using skills. This is a mechanic introduced in this book. They are sort of like feats (having prerequisites), but you must pay to purchase them with skill points, and you can only have as many skill tricks as 1/2 your character level. You invest 2 skill points to learn a skill trick. Here is an example:
Back on your Feet [movement]
Prerequisite: Tumble 12 ranks.
Benefit: If you fall prone for any reason, you can stand up as an immediate action without provoking attacks of opportunity.
1) All of these "skill tricks" could be accomplished just as easily by simply providing a skill DC or adding a modifier to the DC of an existing check. Basically, it would be using the existing mechanic to do things a creative DM would probably allow with a skill check anyway, rather than introducing new mechanics. I don't know why WoTC thinks the skill set is sacrosanct and does not allow new creative uses for existing skills.
2) many of the skill tricks are not well balanced with existing rules. In the example above, back on your feet, the success is AUTOMATIC, and does not have any built in checks and balances. It is just as easy for a character under the influence of cat's grace and heroism to stand after being tripped, up as it is if that character suffered the same attack while standing on an a greased slope while suffering massive dexterity damage. To summarize, the game already has several elements and conditions that modify a given tumble check--the "skill trick" mechanic introduced here typically ignores those conditions and grants 100% success.
There is a feat Nimble Charge that says "you can run or charge across a difficult surface without needing to make a balance check"...
Imagine that there is an iced over rope bridge across a chasm being blown by high winds. The DM might declare that this is a DC30 balance check. There is no way your character could make it with his measly 5 ranks of balance... but if he decides to RUN across the bridge it is now automatic success?!
3) Many of the suggested skill tricks are used to shore up rules that I considered to be deficient in the first place. There is a skill trick to give you +5 bonus on identifying monsters with knowledge checks. (This is a core rule that many people, including the Monster Manual 4, have already "fixed" by basing knowledge checks on monster CR rather than HD). There are 3 tricks dealing with avoiding AoO while prone (back on your feet, nimble stand, tumbling crawl). It seems like multiple tricks are devoted to the problem of prone defenders being very vulnerable and trying to mitigate that problem.
4) Some of the skill tricks are just plain silly. Mosquito's Bite lets you attack a flat-footed person and deal full sneak-attack damage without them realizing they've been damaged?! "Say, old chap, how are you doing. I haven't seen you in some time."
*mosquito's bite, 32 pts damage* "By the way, is that my liver on the ground there? I don't know how I dropped it." In a game in which HP are not known by the player, this possibly makes sense, but in a game in which HP are an abstract of health, an important component to a player making risk/reward analysis in a given situation, it makes no sense to keep HP secret. The one redeeming value of this feat might be the amusement at delivering a "mosquito's bite" via a vorpal weapon. You've just beheaded someone, but they haven't realized that they are dead yet. The old "chicken with its head cut off" gag is always good for a laugh.
Conceal Spellcasting lets you cast spells without revealing it and thus leaving you free from AoO to interrupt the spell. "Look, that guy is waving his arms, pulling bat guano out of a bag, and reciting some weird incantation... but he certainly couldn't be casting a spell... it doesn't look like it!" If you were going to allow this "skill trick" at all, it looks like the kind of thing that anyone with a sufficient bluff/sleight of hand should be able to do without needing an investment in a specific skill trick. It looks like exactly the kind of thing those core skills were meant to accomplish.
5) Some skill tricks look open to abuse by specific classes. One trick is Spot the weak point. If you study a creature you can make a spot check vs. its AC to see if you can make your next attack a touch attack. This seems like it would be crucial for an assassin, who would study the opponent and just keep using this skill trick to assure that he delivers his death attack as a touch attack. Hell, if he has power attack he can probably max out his power attack as well.
One trick is Healing hands that lets you heal 1d6 damage every time you successfully stabilize someone. The prerequisite is 5 ranks in Heal. At the point that you have 5 ranks of heal, you can take 10 to stabilize someone (automatic). If someone ever has less than 5 HP, you simply injure them until they are at -1, and then stabilize them and heal them 1d6 HP. Eventually, they get up to 5 HP. If someone is at -9, you stabilize them, then injure them again and re-stabilize them, etcetera. It is a ridiculous rule, and totally unnecessary. If someone needs to be healed, use a frigging potion or a spell. That's what you have magic for. This is a rule that deserves to be errata'd.
Swift Concentration allows you to keep two spells that require concentration going at the same time (or to cast other spells while freely maintaining concentration on one).
6) Some skill tricks don't even seem to be actual "tricks", but rather explicitly allow you to do things that most DMs would allow anyway. For example, the trick Point it out lets a character that has successfully spotted a hidden opponent tell other characters where the opponent was, thus giving them another chance to make their spot check. Personally, I've always allowed this without a special rule or trick. The player just says "My character points at the big oak tree and says 'there is a humanoid hiding behind that tree'". There is another trick called corner perch which lets you free up 2 hands while climbing, as long as you are in a chimney or bracing against a wall. I've never seen a rule that requires you to use 2 hands to hold on to a wall (after climbing)*, and I've always allowed players to have one hand free to attack or whatever, a long as they are not actually trying to climb at the same time. I require a climber to use two hands to climb. Thus, if a person was climbing a rope, they could stop half way up (when they get attacked by gargoyles), and hang on the rope with one hand while drawing a weapon and attacking with the other hand. There is a slight difference between the trick and what I allow anyway, but not enough that I could see anyone ever investing in this trick.
*Presumably, the ability to climb up to a point, then stop and have a hand or two free, is what allows a character to build a ladder of pitons pounded into a wall. Its certainly how it works in real life, and there is nothing in the rules that contradicts this understanding... well, nothing until this "trick" was added.
I earlier pointed out the 3 tricks related to avoiding an AoO while prone. I already have a house rule that tumbling while prone increases the DC by 5, and leave it at that... I think sage might have made a similar rule that tumbling up from prone is DC20... in any case, using a set DC for an existing skill already covers the same ground as these skill tricks. And in this case, almost every DM whose been doing their job for the past 2-3 years probably has some house-ruled mechanic for standing up that avoids AoO.
Hidden Blade lets you treat an opponent as flat-footed when you draw a hidden weapon as a move action. This is another way of doing a "feint" without requiring an opposed sense motive check, it only requires that you draw a hidden weapon before your attack. I think that the feint rules, and specifically "Improved Feint" feat are more than sufficient for this purpose.
-------------
Overall, I thought that some of the text and examples for the new "skill tricks" were great ideas, but they would be more appropriately added as expansions of the existing d20 skill rules, rather than as a new mechanic halfway between feats and skills. I'll be house-ruling several of these in as new uses for existing skills, but I will not be using "skill tricks" at my table.
-------------
So now that there is this new mechanic, the book goes on to create classes, prestige classes, and feats, all of which require or involve "skill tricks". Basically once you've added a mechanic, it creates a cascading effect where you can create all these additional rules to account for your new mechanic... (prestige classes that increase the maximum number of tricks... feats that give you bonuses based on your tricks, feats and classes that have skill tricks as prerequisites, etcetera). This is a great way to bloat a product and I've seen it time and time again by WoTC.
Leaving skill tricks, there are a lot of feats that have to do with modifying sneak attacks, skirmish attacks, bardic music, luck, and skirmish attacks. Nothing really exiting here that you couldn't come up with on your own.
Another vast number of feats have to do with making classes work together better. There is a feat that lets you stack levels of ninja and monk. There is a feat that let you stack levels of rogue and swashbuckler, there is a feat that lets you stack levels of fighter and swashbuckler, and so on.
-----------
Out of the new classes, one class stands out as being very bizarre. The Combat Trapsmith is a class that builds temporary traps that have no cost and only last for 1 hour. Mechanically, this seems like a great thing to have on a computer RPG like Neverwinter Nights, or any other computer-based combat type game. As far as a pen-and-paper RPG they are really screwy. What are they made of? can the materials be re-used? can they be made permanent? It just asks far more questions than can be reasonably answered... but in a computer game, especially a PvP, it would be really entertaining... exactly like laying mines for opponents to trip on. I haven't played a 1st person shooter videogame in about 5 years, but I am guessing some of the popular WW2 games let you plant mines to blow up people with. This character class does exactly that.
-----------
For a final word about this product: If you are a very creative DM that is pretty happy playing with the core rules suplemented with some personal house rules to fill in the gaps, then this product is only a 2 of 5. There is really nothing here you couldn't come up with on your own, and an extra mechanic that isn't necessary.
If you are a consumer that has purchased the rest of the complete series anyway, then go ahead and buy this. It is comperable with the other books in the series. I rate this a 3 of 5 for you.
Personally, the week I spent with the book was sufficient, and I will not be purchasing it.
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