How did I not see a beholder?

[Imban]

I think the "class skill" problem is not that there are class skills, but that (a) the Fighter does not get Spot and Listen as class skills, and (b) cross-class skills cost twice as much, not simply that they're limited to half as many ranks as class skills.

On a, I totally agree. I mean, what the f---, even Commoners have those skills.
On b, I think it's a combination of the two. If cross-class skills were limited to half the ranks but still cost 1/1, you'd have less trouble with the PHB2 retraining rules and dipping in cross-class skills would be more common, but a lot of skills that call for opposed rolls would still be pretty worthless to take. If cross-class skills were not limited, but still kept their cost, you'd see people more freely cherry-picking one if it was important, but only one, since it'd be all they could afford.

 

[knightofround]

Yeah I counted 15 and saw the gorilla. But then again, I'm a pretty good visual learner and a fairly poor audio learner.

I was actually expecting some passes between black and white to screw things up, so I didn't tunnel on the whites alone. It made the gorilla pretty obvious.

 

[mmadsen]

If cross-class skills were limited to half the ranks but still cost 1/1, you'd have less trouble with the PHB2 retraining rules and dipping in cross-class skills would be more common, but a lot of skills that call for opposed rolls would still be pretty worthless to take.

I think it's fine that an Nth-level Fighter won't spot an Nth-level Rogue, as long as he can easily spot the goblin ambush up ahead. Not every challenge should be exactly challenging enough for the party specialist.

 

[DrunkonDuty]

mmadsen wrote:
I think the "class skill" problem is not that there are class skills, but that (a) the Fighter does not get Spot and Listen as class skills, and (b) cross-class skills cost twice as much, not simply that they're limited to half as many ranks as class skills.

It is a problem with the basic rules. My group has been playing modified skill rules for years now. More or less since the start of 3.0 in fact. Basically: more skill points for everybody, cross class does not cost double but are limited to half the number of ranks that a class skill are. It gets a little complex with multi classing but it works. Someone who specialises will still be better than someone who doesn't. And it means characters get enough skill points to put some into non-combat related things. Fighters with Knowledge: Ancient Suloise Literature? No worries.

I was always bothered by thieves not having ride skill. What, no horse thieves? Silliness.

But maybe I should fork this into the 3.5 house rules forum.

 

[dammitbiscuit]

Ha! I saw it and figured it was just there to distract me from my counting!

I was under the suspicion that he had surreptitiously made or intercepted a pass to throw me off at some point.

Yeah I counted 15 and saw the gorilla. But then again, I'm a pretty good visual learner and a fairly poor audio learner.

I was actually expecting some passes between black and white to screw things up, so I didn't tunnel on the whites alone. It made the gorilla pretty obvious.

That may have been what helped me; I was debating that possibility while I watched, though still focused on the whites.

 

[dammitbiscuit]

So is the answer 14?

And yes, I saw the gorilla...

As an aside, I had my wife do it, and she counted 10. And said "What gorilla?"...

Gruns

Aye, 14!

 

[Harr]

I was expecting some kind of shell-game with the ball so I focused almost exclusively on it.. at the end I couldn't have even told you how many people in white there were but yeah 14 passes.

All I got of the gorilla was the impression that there was one guy in black that was curiously bigger than the rest.

 

[blargney the second]

I got 28 passes from people wearing white, a gorilla, and some S's on the wall.
-blarg

 

[blargney the second]

ps - Is it cheating to take 20 on that spot check?

 

[jdrakeh]

The student-created test is a little less busy than the tests for The Mentalist promos are:

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eL68a2cODlU]YouTube - The Mentalist - Cards Awareness Test[/ame]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miM07KV0wKE&feature=channel]YouTube - The Mentalist - Guards Awareness Test[/ame]