Listen or Spot ? Which is the better skill ?

[Rashak Mani]

Not only in general terms... but in your campaigns which has been the most useful or necessary of these skills for the players ?

If you built a super character which would you choose: Super Spotter or Super Listener ?

(Notice that Barbarians have only the Listen skill... why ?)

 

[Quickbeam]

Thus far, I'd say that Spot has proven to be the more useful skill IMC by a very slender margin. Nonetheless, I personally prefer Listen and tend to make certain that all of my PCs take at least a few ranks. You can attempt a Listen check by choice in more situations than with Spot, and that's the difference maker IMO.

 

[Rashak Mani]

Unfortunately you either have to do listen checks all the time or at the right time in order for it to save you...

 

[Zerovoid]

Isn't Listen passive just like spot? You don't have to say you're making a listen check to determine if there's someone trying to move silently, or if the people up ahead trying to ambush you are making too much noise.

Does anyone else use skills besides these two to determine surprise? There have been several times when I'm used Sense Motive. If you are interacting with someone socially, and they suddenly attack you, I call for a Sense Motive check. I've also thought about using things like Knowledge( Undead) to check for surprise, if a wraith is going to come sliding through a wall, and the PC's have no other way of knowing this could happen, besides putting together clues and figuring out how the monster hunts.

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

I put down both are useful in different situations.

In my experience there are definitely more Spot than Listen checks. However Listen is used when someone is on the other side of the door or coming around a corner, so the DM calls for a Listen check to see who is active during the surprise round.

So Spot keeps you generally clued in, including some potential surprise situations. But Listen helps protect you from being flatfooted or even get the jump at the start of close-quarter fighting.

 

[mzsylver]

as Ridley's Cohort stated, you typically make a lot more Spot Checks so i would say that is more useful. and with forest ambushes, usually the creatures are standing still (no Listen Check) waiting so all you get is a Spot Check.

however Listen does have a lot of uses. i would say Spot is slightly better than Listen.

 

[Quickbeam]

Isn't Listen passive just like spot? You don't have to say you're making a listen check to determine if there's someone trying to move silently, or if the people up ahead trying to ambush you are making too much noise.

Does anyone else use skills besides these two to determine surprise? There have been several times when I'm used Sense Motive. If you are interacting with someone socially, and they suddenly attack you, I call for a Sense Motive check. I've also thought about using things like Knowledge( Undead) to check for surprise, if a wraith is going to come sliding through a wall, and the PC's have no other way of knowing this could happen, besides putting together clues and figuring out how the monster hunts.

Yes, Listen is also a passive skill. My point was that you can more frequently ASK to make a Listen check to augment the situations where it may have failed you in a passive sense.

I've also used Sense Motive as you describe above, but I can't recall using any other skills to avoid surprise -- special abilities and feats, but not other skills.

 

[Rashak Mani]

Has anyone seen a specialized character with high numbers in Listen or Spot ? How did they fare ? Eventually the DM gets tired of having all ambushes detected... or not ?

 

[Cor Azer]

Has anyone seen a specialized character with high numbers in Listen or Spot ? How did they fare ? Eventually the DM gets tired of having all ambushes detected... or not ?

After having played in several Living Greyhawk parties that got TPKed, my most recent LG character (ranger/rogue) maxed Spot and Listen, had Alertness, and I'm seriously considering picking up Skill Focus in Spot or Listen when next had gets the chance.

I found that he didn't detect every ambush, but it gave the party a mcuh better chance of survival, which is always a good thing.

 

[Black Omega]

Both are important. I think listen gets neglected a little, though. It doesn't get used as much for checks, but it lets you hear invisible people, or people just out of sight. To me that makes it a little better and more versatile.