Epic Skills: Broken but HILARIOUS

[Quasqueton]

Fortunately, my suspension of disbelief breaks down at character level 30 anyway. Since none of those skill checks can be made at less than ~50+, they don't even register to me.

I think it's funny that someone complains about a DC 100 skill check, without complaining about the absurdity of a character reaching beyond 50th level in the first place.

Quasqueton

 

[Testament]

Implanting a suggestion to swim in a pool of acid because it'd be refreshing gives the opposing Sense Motive check +50.

You can scale perfectly smooth ceilings Spider-Man style with a DC 100 Climb check.

You can turn hostile enemies into suicidal fanatics with a DC 150 Diplomacy check.

Using Disable Device as a free action gives the Disable Device DC +100. It's the Fonz effect.

Perfectly training an animal in one minute gives the Handle Animal DC +100.

You can swim up a waterfall with a DC 80 Swim check.

Here is the funniest and most inane of them all:

You could jump out of a plane at 30,000 feet and land on your feet without getting hurt in any way (not even a scratch) with a DC 100 Tumble check.

Squeeze through a Wall of Force: Escape Artist DC 100
Balance on a cloud: Balance DC 120
Intimidate someone into running away: Can't be done.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Intimidate someone into running away: Can't be done.

Well, you can do it if there are two of you...

-Hyp.

 

[Denaes]

Intimidate someone into running away: Can't be done.

My groups have been breaking the rules of the game then... We use intimidate to prevent & end fights all the time. Of course there are modifiers based on things like numbers, who's taken a whooping, who's smart/stupid, etc.

Sometimes if something seems odd and not quite right, you might need to alter it for your games.

 

[FireLance]

A lot of the stuff that you're talking about doesn't happen in the Lord of the Rings, but it does happen in the ancient tales that also provide inspiration for D&D. Heck, it happens in crouching tiger, hidden dragon.

It's my personal thesis that a lot of what a person finds to be logical, reasonable and believable depends very much on the types of fantasy they were exposed to as a child. Growing up as I did in Singapore, I watched many Chinese martial arts (wuxia) television serials, so I became used to the idea that highly skilled individuals could do many incredible stunts, like fly through the air, land on a leaf floating on water and jump off again (or do so on nothing but the surface of the water itself), blast energy from their hands, decapitate an opponent at a distance with the infamous flying guillotine (a weapon that looked like a bag on the end of a chain), etc. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is actually quite tame when it comes to what its heroes are capable of doing. Even that scene in Hero where Nameless deflects hundreds and thousands of arrows is rather old hat. With this kind of background, I guess my approach to fantasy is "Nothing is impossible, given sufficient skill and training."

On the other hand, someone whose primary fantasy influences are Conan and The Lord of the Rings might have an approach to fantasy that puts more severe limitations on what is humanly possible.

 

[Jack Simth]

Well, you can do it if there are two of you...

-Hyp.

Or if you can find a way to squeeze two standard actions in before the condition expires....

Hmm.... your familiar has your ranks in a skill.... and acts on your turn.... as do any intelligent items you might carry.... but that's using magic....

 

[Saeviomagy]

I've said it before, and I'll say it again:

Epic skill uses all either
1) Don't go far enough
As a real good example: The DC for balance is 40 to walk on something 1 inch wide. I'm pretty sure that I've not got a +20 bonus on balance, and I've managed that for 6 second bursts. Intimidate is another good example - you can't even make someone stay shaken for 2 rounds... I want intimidate to have crowds of low-level thugs running for their lives like undead flee the cleric. Even the regular uses of some skills out-do epic skills. Decipher script for instance requires a DC of 55 to read a scroll that spellcraft of +11 can do with a take 10. They're both skills - why is one so much ridiculously more difficult than the other? I want to see a 20th level rogue (and fighter etc etc) the equal of his wizard buddy. Part of that is in changing spells (so that knock gives a +20 bonus to open locks for instance, and arcane lock has an open lock DC), but part of it is in assuming that the same skill level required to alter reality can have similarly powerful (although more specialised) effects when directed towards swim or climb or balance. Simply put - a 10th level character is a powerful person indeed. A 20th level character should be that much more powerful. That doesn't work if you really think that olympic jumpers are the scale that you're measuring jump to.

2) Go in the wrong direction
The problem is there are too many unopposed skills. Suddenly every foe the party meets is their friend at the first full-round action the bard gets - no save, no opposition. The rogue is stripping people almost bare as a free action - no save, no opposed check to stop him - he just does it and you stand and look dumb - even though you can SEE him stealing the stuff.

 

[Krelios]

The game was designed for "the normal human" to be first-level in an NPC class. By the time you're 5th or 6th level you can do things impossible for a normal human. By the time you're 20th level you are at least on par with mythical characters like Hercules. To think that 100th level characters should even remotely resemble humans is just silly. The entire game breaks down past 20th (and arguably before) anyway; not to mention that if you have a +100 modifier to something, there's really no need to roll dice, a d20 isn't going to matter.

 

[Lamoni]

Skill doesn't allow you defy the laws of physics. A Level 100 with 103 ranks of Tumble is GUARANTEED not to have even a scracth, and land on his feet, even if he rolls a 1 on the skill check!

I know this thread is already old. I just had to respond. Have you read the book Dieties and Demigods recently? If you were at level 100, you would be many more times powerful than the greatest diety. If you expect a diety to get hurt from falling from a plane, then why would you expect someone even more powerful to get hurt? For your information most gods have about 40 levels... or course they also have a few diety characteristics you can't get from class levels, but anyone at level 100 would be considered a greater diety in any campaign I ran. At those levels you shouldn't expect to treat them like mere mortals... even if they don't cast any magic spells. At diety levels, they can create their own magic that isn't subject to anti-magic fields and grant spells to their mortal followers.

 

[Macbrea]

You could jump out of a plane at 30,000 feet and land on your feet without getting hurt in any way (not even a scratch) with a DC 100 Tumble check.

You have issues with this one? Ok, lets do the math on this one:

Feat Skill focus Tumble              +3
Sinergy bonus from balance            +2
Dex 40                                 +15
Magic slippers to help tumble          +5
62 level rogue for 65 ranks tumble   +55
Skill mastery Tumble              takes 10
                                 --------
                                      100

So, you have a problem with the 62 level rogue tumbling from 30,000 feet and taking no damage? But that same Rogue has an average of 343 hps. On that same fall diving head first into concrete he averages 70 pts of damage. This won't kill him unless he fails a saving throw on a 1.

I am sorry.. it's a fantasy game.