Most and Least Powerful Skills

[Stalker0]

I've found pickpocket fairly useful, for the concealing weapons at any rate.

IMC, I really tried to make intuit direction useful, but wilderness lore can do preety much exactly what it can and more.

I noticed a lot of people seem to really agree on the overused skills, but not really on the underused ones.

What do you guys think of use rope or escape artist, not really sure about those.

I think Gather info might be a good bench skill: I find that my players use it often when they get into town, but its not usually gamebreaking.

 

[demon_jr]

I think Gather info might be a good bench skill: I find that my players use it often when they get into town, but its not usually gamebreaking.

Well, in our campaign, sometimes Gather Information is not as useful. Before the game starts the DM usually gives us a recap of past events along with current ones. In addition we have an NPC bard that fufills the role of Gathering Information quite nicely. Usually, when in a city, he will disappear, and then relay what information he has learned when he returns. In addition, if the DM wants us to know something, an encounter will occur where we discover said information. However, a high enough gather information roll in our campaign may provide cryptic information at best, foreshadowing of events to come. Lower or average rolls usually result in information the party would have discovered anyway.

 

[bret]

Innuendo as written is no use unless there are two rogues who want to communicate secretly in public. Pretty rare and specific circumstances for that in almost every campaign

Actually, as I read the skill it only takes on person with the skill.

They say something that seems harmless enough, but for the target person it takes on new meaning. Someone other than the target has trouble understanding the real message, thus the Eavesdropping rules.

It isn't clear, but I think this is the way the skill is intended.

 

[Pielorinho]

Well, in our campaign, sometimes Gather Information is not as useful. ... Lower or average rolls usually result in information the party would have discovered anyway.

Actually, this is an interesting point. As often as not, I have certain information as a DM that I need the players to get before the game can advance. We usually don't use the Gather Information skill at all, preferring to roleplay through the process -- but if we did, I'd need someone to succeed at their roll in order to get the most basic information. So if nobody in the party has gather information as a skill, I'll need to set the DCs awful low, or else completely rewrite the adventure.

This is different from, for example, the tumble skill, where if nobody has a point in the skill, then nobody is gonna be bouncing around the battlefield like a six-year-old on a sugar buzz.

Daniel

 

[Stalker0]

I see people's point on gather info. I too, would use preety low dcs to get them the basic info. But I've also worked with it, to get them very good info wtih good checks. Basically, I think its a skill that has good uses at put low and high skill points.

I mean sure I want them to find this guy Grievias, so the check for that is really low. But with a 20 they might find out, he has a penchant for drinking. 30 and they might find out that although he's the dirtiest thieving bastard in the west, he loves his sister very much, and protects her.

Also I've thought about intuit direction, to beef it up a little.

How about with the skill you can also:

1) Tell exactly which way an arrow was fired.
2) Tell the location of a invisible creature after you use a listen check to know there's one there?
3) Very high check. Able to remove 10% concealment from a creature for their position with a ranged weapon.

Any more responses would be useful, with a few more posts I'll probably put up my lists of powerful and least powerful skills based on what people wrote.

 

[Spatula]

Least:
Decipher Script (a 1st level Comprehend Languages spell trumps this one)

Untrue, comp lang cannot decipher codes and the skill can.

 

[Endur]

Spot
Listen
Sense Motive
are the three most important in my opinion. In my usual campaign, the NPCs always lie to us so Sense Motive is very important.

Search is good for finding treasure and traps.

Diplomacy, Bluff, and Gather Info are also useful for interacting with NPCs.

Beyond those, it depends. The Sneaky types like Hide, Move Silently, and Tumble. The Mounted types like Ride.

Appraise depends on your campaign. If the GM tells you what everything is, the skill is useless. If the GM doesn't tell you anything at all, the skill might be more useful. Even if it is useful, I can't see having more than one rank in Appraise.

Intuit Direction, Rope Use, Forgery, Innuendo, and some other wierd skills are only really useful in certain specialized campaigns (on the 7 seas, for instance).

Use Magic Device isn't very useful unless your characters are 10th level or above (or at least 5th level and willing to take a major risk of failure).

 

[pogre]

1. Spot
2. Search
3. Listen
4. Gather Information
5. Appraise
I use this a lot with gems and jewelry and other trade goods. If the PC misses the appraise they tend to get ripped off.

Least used (useful)
1. heal
2. decipher script
3. read lips
4. forgery
5. innuendo
Ver campaign specific - we just have not used these skills. Always lots of Clerics on hand with magic.

 

[Hypersmurf]

In my usual campaign, the NPCs always lie to us so Sense Motive is very important.

If the NPCs always lie, Sense Motive is unnecessary.

If the NPCs sometimes lie, it's important.

-Hyp.

 

[Li Shenron]

5. Appraise
I use this a lot with gems and jewelry and other trade goods. If the PC misses the appraise they tend to get ripped off.

Well, I guess that a DM may completely hide treasures' values and let the players use Appraise to guess each item's price (or overall treasure value): but there's going to be very very many dicerolls, and for a small advantage on the long term.

In all the games I have played, everyone can simply open the PHB (or DMG if he has it) and read the correct price. Appraise was used only for occasional exotic/unknown items (that is, not in the corebooks) on sale, but guessing the right value doesn't necessary mean you make a merchant grant you a discount (but it may suggest you to try a Diplomacy check to get it). Another occasion was a quick guess on which were a treasure's most valuable items when the party was not able to carry everything out of the dungeon.

Still I have seen very few Appraise checks until now. But if your DM makes Appraise useful, tell he's definitely a good DM