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Most and Least Powerful Skills
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<blockquote data-quote="Steverooo" data-source="post: 548573" data-attributes="member: 9410"><p><strong>Skills</strong></p><p></p><p>The single most useful Skill is probably Bluff. It is useful in innumerable situations, and is the single best Synergy Skill.</p><p></p><p>The absolute worst Skill is Intuit Direction. Not because having an intuitive sense of direction isn't useful, but because the Skill, as written, is too restricted, and of extremely limited use within the game!</p><p></p><p>FIRST of all, it is my opinion that Intuit Direction should be a General Feat, requiring a WIS of +1 (Wisdom of 12 or 13), and should then function automatically, 100% of the time, without fail (the optional fumble rule might apply).</p><p></p><p>The Skill, as written, is usable only once/day. For the skill to be even minorly useful, that restriction must be removed. Also, as originally written when it was introduced as a 2e Non-Weapon Proficiency, anyone could take it. 3e should allow the same. As it stands now, only Rangers and Rogues can take it.</p><p></p><p>Next, the DC is too high, at 15. Success only gives you the direction to within 45 degrees (N, NE, E, SE, S, SW, W, NW). Obviously, the chances of GUESSING that well are one-in-eight, or 12.5%. Being kind, that's an unskilled check with a DC of 17... Now for a Rogue with no WIS bonus and one Rank of Intuit Direction, he will need to roll a 14+ to succeed! For an average Ranger with +2 WIS and one Rank of skill, he'll need an 11+... So in other words, both will FAIL more often than they succeed!</p><p></p><p>Now if they max out the skill (4 Ranks at first level), the Rogue with an average Wisdom can (ONCE/day) determine direction (only to the nearest 45 degrees!) on an 11+, and the Ranger slightly better than half the time, on a roll of 9+.</p><p></p><p>So how often is this useful? Once/day vs. a Teleport trap underground, basically, and then only if you are a Ranger/Rogue and have the skill maxed out. To add insult to injury, the Druid has a Zero-level Orison that finds direction 100% of the time... A Ranger, of course, can use a DC 15 Wilderness Lore check to AVOID getting lost, in the first place! Since most Rangers will have WL maxed out, for Tracking, Intuit Direction probably won't be taken much.</p><p></p><p>Besides, compasses were in common use throughout Europe by 1300, at the latest, and in the Orient a few centuries earlier. By the era of plate armor, they were commonplace (and lodestones and sunstones were common even in the Viking era).</p><p></p><p>Nope, Intuit Direction has too little in-game use to be worth the Skill Points required...</p><p></p><p>"Okay, you come to the fork in the tunnel, with passages going ahead and right... Mazar uses his Intuit Direction to find the way back to the entrace, which was North..." (GM makes roll.) "Mazar thinks North, to the nearest 45 degrees, is this way..." (points directly between the two passages. The players groan.)</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Steverooo, post: 548573, member: 9410"] [b]Skills[/b] The single most useful Skill is probably Bluff. It is useful in innumerable situations, and is the single best Synergy Skill. The absolute worst Skill is Intuit Direction. Not because having an intuitive sense of direction isn't useful, but because the Skill, as written, is too restricted, and of extremely limited use within the game! FIRST of all, it is my opinion that Intuit Direction should be a General Feat, requiring a WIS of +1 (Wisdom of 12 or 13), and should then function automatically, 100% of the time, without fail (the optional fumble rule might apply). The Skill, as written, is usable only once/day. For the skill to be even minorly useful, that restriction must be removed. Also, as originally written when it was introduced as a 2e Non-Weapon Proficiency, anyone could take it. 3e should allow the same. As it stands now, only Rangers and Rogues can take it. Next, the DC is too high, at 15. Success only gives you the direction to within 45 degrees (N, NE, E, SE, S, SW, W, NW). Obviously, the chances of GUESSING that well are one-in-eight, or 12.5%. Being kind, that's an unskilled check with a DC of 17... Now for a Rogue with no WIS bonus and one Rank of Intuit Direction, he will need to roll a 14+ to succeed! For an average Ranger with +2 WIS and one Rank of skill, he'll need an 11+... So in other words, both will FAIL more often than they succeed! Now if they max out the skill (4 Ranks at first level), the Rogue with an average Wisdom can (ONCE/day) determine direction (only to the nearest 45 degrees!) on an 11+, and the Ranger slightly better than half the time, on a roll of 9+. So how often is this useful? Once/day vs. a Teleport trap underground, basically, and then only if you are a Ranger/Rogue and have the skill maxed out. To add insult to injury, the Druid has a Zero-level Orison that finds direction 100% of the time... A Ranger, of course, can use a DC 15 Wilderness Lore check to AVOID getting lost, in the first place! Since most Rangers will have WL maxed out, for Tracking, Intuit Direction probably won't be taken much. Besides, compasses were in common use throughout Europe by 1300, at the latest, and in the Orient a few centuries earlier. By the era of plate armor, they were commonplace (and lodestones and sunstones were common even in the Viking era). Nope, Intuit Direction has too little in-game use to be worth the Skill Points required... "Okay, you come to the fork in the tunnel, with passages going ahead and right... Mazar uses his Intuit Direction to find the way back to the entrace, which was North..." (GM makes roll.) "Mazar thinks North, to the nearest 45 degrees, is this way..." (points directly between the two passages. The players groan.) [/QUOTE]
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