Other Skills
Listen and Spot are pretty useful, but not as much so if the DM has read the (accursed!) DMG... Having to succeed by 10+ to get direction, and 20+ to get direction and distance makes them fairly useless for characters below 7th level... (Never understood how someone is supposed to be "aware" of an invisible opponent beyond 30' range WITHOUT being aware of their DIRECTION! ;-p Oh well, guess I'm just not as smart as the average bear...)
Read Lips has proven useful, to me, especially at first level, for scouting and spying... When Listening at a window, the DC to overhear normal conversation is 10 (for the intervening wall) if the window is closed. If you fail but can Read Lips (especially with a high INT), then you get another chance. Also, when first introduced as a 2e Non-Weapon Proficiency in "The Complete Thief", it was open to all classes, basically as a Cross-class Skill. This should be opened back up (pity the poor Spellcaster who goes deaf, now; permanently doomed to. what is it? -4 Initiative and a 20% chance of Spell Failure?)
Innuendo also isn't that bad, as a single Rank allows the passage of simple messages at DC 10, and five Ranks of Bluff and Sense Motive will give you a +2 Synergy Bonus when Sending and Receiving messages, respectively. Allow PCs who rehearse a set of signals ahead of time a +@ Circumstance Bonus for whatever signs they put together. "Danger!" and "Liar!" are both popular, as are such things as "Halt!", "Get down/take cover!", and "Spread out!".
Both Balance and Climb are very important to my characters, who spend a lot of time negotiating bluffs and moving about in trees, through ruins, and across unsafe terrain. Five Ranks of Balance also allows you to maintain your DEX bonus to AC when fighting off-balance, on a tightrope (!), etc. That is a considerable bonus. The DC 15 check to keep from falling on icy terrain (see the DMG under "Weather") is also considerable. Simply moving across a pile of rubble can require a DC 10 check, DC 15 if angled or wet, DC 20 if both!
"Pick Pockets" (more aptly "Slight of Hand"), as already mentioned, allows palming small items. I saw an interesting use of this on an old episode of "Mission: Impossible", where the "arrested" agent grabbed the guard's shoulder, begging for his cigarettes, and hid something under the man's epaullettes (those thingies you use to keep braids on your shoulders - common on military uniforms). The guard pushed him away, they searched him, then he lifted it back off the guard, afterwards, thus passing it through security, and into the prison!
I have to agree on Intimidate. It needs better mechanics. High CHA helps you intimidate, and low CHA HURTS your chances? Where is the relative level modifier? (A 20th level character should be able to intimidate a first-level one most of the time, eh)?
Crafts, as written, are pretty useless (not to mention wrong). Someone stranded on a desert island can't use Craft (Boatmaking) because they can't BUY the required materials? The materials price modifier need to be completely removed. A Ranger in the wilderness, with bowmaking tools, can't make arrows? A Druid in the woods with a dead animal and cobbler's tools can't make a pair of boots? As long as the raw materials are present, the price shouldn't matter, except for the time required to make them.
For the most part, I have to agree that professions aren't particularly useful. Profession (Herbalist) has a +2 Synergy Bonus to Heal that I always take advantage of (once I've acquired five Ranks), and I could see adding the same for Profession (Locksmith)/Open Locks, or Profession (Sailor) with Balance, Climb, Rope Use, etc., maybe Profession (Guide)/Wilderness Lore, etc.
The problem I see with Professions, though, is that requiring Ranks in these "Skills" generally gives no bonuses to the PC, and actually REDUCES their playability... Can you see a Ranger NOT being able to get hired as a Guide in his home terrain because he has no Ranks in Profession (Guide)? How about a Rogue skilled in Balance, Climb, and Rope Use not being able to get hired on as a Sailor? Seems kinda dumb, to me. It actually DECREASES the number of adventure possibilities (always a bad thing).
So, I suggest using Craft, Knowledge, Profession (Whatever) as a way to reward good RPing... Give the Halflings some Profession (Cook). It is harmless enough, and fits their background. Dwarves can have some Knowledge (Nature) for caving and/or some Craft (something metal or stone). Elves some Knowledge (Nature), yadda, yadda, yadda... If the Elf in the party (with a high DEX) gets them off the desert island by using an unskilled Craft (Shipwright) check and a slash-and-burn method using his knife and a handaxe (-2 Circumstance Modifier), then the GM can reward him with a rank of Craft (Shipwright) for the accomplishment.
Information Gathering is always useful, especially if you do two things: 1) make the amount of info gained dependant upon how high the total is (1-9 = No info, 10-12 = Basic info, 13-15 = All of the above plus location, 16-19 = above, plus a hint as to importance, 20-24 = Importance, plus all the above, 25-29 = Major Clue, 30+ = All the info), and 2) Make it apply to library and record research, as well as talking to people on the streets. (Does the Kingdom have a Planning & Zoning Commission? Do they keep plans of castles and their dungeons? If so, do they have maps to the party's current objectives?) Etc. Finding the local Bard (or the old man with the highest Knowledge (Local) skill in the area) can be an Info-Gathering task.
Use Rope (a class skill for Rangers and Rogues) is much more useful than most people realize, especially in low-magic campaigns. The DC for tying knots is too high, however, and there are no tasks (or bonuses) for things that ought to be there. It is used (with a +10 bonus, +12 with silk rope!) to tie up an opponent, and opposes his Escape Artist Skill. Rangers use it to tie together cut saplings/limbs to build all manner of things (such as towers, ladders, hitching posts), or logs to make stockades, pens, or rafts. Check out your little brother's Boy Scouts' Handbook, sometime, to see what can be done!
Also, when originally introduced as a 2e Non-Weapon Proficiency, it allowed a +2 bonus to lasso attacks... Nowadays, the lasso is no more a weapon, and you would probably need five Ranks to get that bonus.
Additionally, the DC to climb an unknotted rope when you're unable to brace your feet against a wall, is too high, but five Ranks of Rope Use will give you a +2 Synergy Bonus for that, as well as any Escape Artist checks to get out of ropes. The +2 Climb bonus also comes in handy when climbing a tree by wrapping a rope around it an "running up" it.
In all, Rope Use is a decent skill for anyone who has used it in real life. To make it better, allow the PC infallible knowledge of (say) three knots per Rank in this skill (beginning, say, with the Granny Knot, Square Knot, and Half-Hitch, at Rank 1), and require no rolls, for those knots. Reintroduce the lasso as a weapon (range: 60' or the length of the rope, whichever is less, damage equal none, unless dragging them with a mount (then 1D6/round), +2 to entangle/trip, as with a whip of spiked chain, and the ability to "hang" by the neck for 1D6/round) to make Rope Use a bit more powerful. Allow a Ranger with Wilderness Lore or Knowledge (Nature) to find sufficient natural fibers (DC 15), then use Rope Use (DC 15) to make 50 feet of rope. This (and Craft Skills) could be very useful in a wilderness survival adventure... or a "wrecked at sea" adventure... or a "curse scroll teleports you to a primitive world" adventure...
Decipher Script: Besides codes, it is easier and cheaper for a Rogue to develop this than it is to develop Spellcraft as a Cross-class skill, for reading scrolls. It is true that Comprehend Languages blows this away, but not everyone can have that spell, and many Wizards and Sorcerers won't take it. Again, this is more useful in a lower-magic campaign. It can also allow puzzling out Dwarvish if you have no Dwarf in the party, recognizing the Illithid's markings on the wall when no one in the party reads Illithid, knowing that those "worm tracks" on the old tree are Fey writings, etc. Besides, Comprehend Languages isn't always perfect. A group of PCs once found a scroll that translated as "Protection from That-which-is-cast-out-from-the-center", and never did figure out that it was nuclear radiation that was killing them... Sometimes, your civilization just doesn't have a word for the concept, yet! Still, it is not as useful as other skills.
Forgery, while of somewhat limited use, has such low DCs, and is opposed only by itself, that it takes relatively few Ranks to be very useful! All in all, it is a worthwhile skill for Rogues to develop.
Hidden among the aspects of the Handle Animal Skill is the ability to drive wagons, carts, chariots, etc. This is a little-known and oft-overlooked aspect of the skill. Fights aboard the stagecoach will require this, Balance, and Concentration (for spellcasters).
Heal is a worthwhile skill for any PC who has it as a Class Skill, especially as a Healer's Kit gives a +2 bonus, and this stacks with the +2 Synergy Bonus from Profession (Herbalist) 5+, which incidentally, allows you to earn a few coins each week, if you gather some herbs! Wounds are common, but this is also useful vs. poisons, diseases, and caltrop wounds which could slow the party down. Again, it is highly useful in a lower-magic campaign, but not useless even in a high-magic one! Healing just never goes out of style!
Most of the Knowledge Skills are only as useful as the GM allows... Since no DCs are given for various obvois tasks (what's the DC for recognizing a magic item with Knowledge (Arcana), for instance?), these skills are generally not too popular. The skill descriptions need some development!!!
Jump is useful, especially at lower levels, but the Jump spell does make it seem highly stacked against the poor PC who takes it... It would be more useful if the DCs were lowered, a bit, but oh well...
Perform should cost LESS, for anyone besides a Bard. It may be VERY SLIGHTLY useful, within the game, for raising money, but in general? It has too little application to the game to be worth using. Too high cost-to-benefits ratio (unless the GM introduces many more magical instruments usable by all).
Someone (can't remember who) said that Perform gave Synergy Bonuses out to wazoo... Funny, I've never seen one... Maybe they were confusing Perform with Bluff???
Swim is either a must-have, or useless skill, depending upon the situation... If you're trying to escape that desert island, again, it is almost a necessity. The "wrecked at Sea" scenario will be tough, without it.
Wilderness Lore is already pretty useful, but could be made more so, especially to non-Rangers. The ability to find plants useful in healing (aragorn's Athelas), useful for other things besides food (ropemaking, thread-making, woodworking, weapon-making using wood, stone, bone, horn, etc.), making clothing and gear from leather, tanning, weather prediction, etc. DCs for such tasks should be added. Yes, some of that falls under crafts, but so what? Quick: which Craft skill is used to make an obsidian knife? Weaponsmithing? Stoneworking? Both? Either?
