Making untrained checks in trained only skills

[Dandu]

Kraken's Bracelet (Dragon) costs 8,000 gp and lets you make knowledge checks as if you were trained. Also gives a +2 bonus to Int checks.

 

[Morrow]

The question that comes to mind is: Why would you like to do that? Allowing the roll I mean.

I can see sense in having the players explain how they solve a certain issue, and from that derive some generic roll if needed. But otherwise, why the focus on a roll?

(not to be rude or anything, just being curious)

I'm coming at this as a player. It doesn't matter how well balanced are party is, we always seem to be short a skill we need:

"Anybody got Use Magic Device?"
"I'm not that kind of rogue."
"Anybody got Sense Motive?"
"I'm not that kind of bard."
"Anybody got Knowledge (Nobility and Royalty)?"
"You're kidding, right?"

Spells like Divine Insight and Improvisation, that can give you a hefty bonus to a single roll, are a big help when you really need to make a diplomacy check. They don't help at all if you really need Knowledge (architecture and engineering). So I'm looking to add the ability to make untrained checks to trained only skills to the mix. It isn't necessary, I just think it would be fun to turn my low Int warforged favored soul into an idiot savant.

 

[Corsair]

"Anybody got Use Magic Device?"
"I'm not that kind of rogue."
"Anybody got Sense Motive?"
"I'm not that kind of bard."
"Anybody got Knowledge (Nobility and Royalty)?"
"You're kidding, right?"

This is one nuisance about the 3E skill system: no one ever has enough skill points to round out a character. The only exception seems to be druids and know-it-all wizards (6 skill points and the only core high-int character. No one plays bards, so they don't count. ).

I've tinkered with the idea of a house rule in any future games I run that all PCs get 2 extra skill points per level, but they can only be put into skills that have less than half max ranks in them (calculated if they were class skills. So a "capped" cross-class skill would be considered half max ranks). I hope this would allow characters to round themselves out more.

Also Stream: I dig the dwarf cleric knowledge devotion idea. It'd be nice to find some more skill points to sink though.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

Also Stream: I dig the dwarf cleric knowledge devotion idea. It'd be nice to find some more skill points to sink though.

Thanks, he was a fun character. He did go into Church Inquisitor, I think that gives 4+ int skill points. I would have made him a cloistered cleric, but book worm was only part of his character. His specialty was demons, and the reason he knew so much about them was to better kill them. He also had some weapon and armor smithing ranks (with an apprentice to help, you really don't need that many as a dwarf) and Craft Magic Arms and Armor. He forged his own gear, studied up on demons, and then too kthe fight straight to them. If he were less martially inclined (or if you wanted to make a knowledge cleric), Cloistered would work well. When I later ran a gestalt game where the PCs were all evil, I turned him into an NPC gestalt Crusader/Cloistered Cleric to be the main antagonist for them.

Really, though, skill points are tight doing that kind of build. He only put 5 ranks in a few knowledges, many had 1 or 0, only Knowledge the planes was kept near max. I just couldn't spread out all the skills I needed, and with the Ancestral Knowledge and Lore of the Gods, he was packing a great untrained mod anyway. Only real reason to bother training in knowledges mechanically was so that he could use Collector of Stories skill trick with it.