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Skill Utilities and Their Impact on Play
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<blockquote data-quote="Manbearcat" data-source="post: 7044767" data-attributes="member: 6696971"><p>Alright, Soaring Falcon it is!</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Going to change the format a little bit:</p><p></p><p><strong><em>Power Source/Keywords</em></strong>: Primal Power Source so you're drawing on the spirits of nature that pervade the world (my favorite power source!).</p><p></p><p><strong><em>Refresh</em></strong>: Daily. So this should (a) pack some punch and (b) have a breadth of application. Scene based flight (at level 12), don't lose shape availability if you Wild Shape out of it, large bonus vs OA, +5 untyped bonus to Perception (so it stacks with the level 16 PB bonus for +10 total). Pretty dang good in terms of both (a) and (b).</p><p></p><p><em><strong>Archetype Enablement</strong></em>: The Primal Beast is one of the most ancient of the Elder Spirits and the most feared. A predator from the dawn era, it hunted Gods and Primordials alike. It has no love for mortals. Being a Sky Hunter means that you are a savage, unforgiving predator always on the wing. Aberrations, the vassals of Gods and Primordials, and those mortals who would befoul the natural order of the hunt (such as herding livestock) will hear your diving screech too late...as your talons tear their eyes from the sockets.</p><p></p><p>So...yeah, this Utility Power does the trick!</p><p></p><p><strong><em>Noncombat scene resolution (the Skill Challenge)</em></strong>:</p><p></p><p>A reckless human taps into alien power he cannot control. The fabric of reality rips around his lair, tucked away in remote, inhospitable mountains. Where it does, creatures of unspeakable origin pour into this world, subverting the natural order. He must be stopped and his "Unfathomables" put down. DCs @ level 12 = 14, 20, 28. Complexity 2 SC @ Level (6 success, 2 secondary skills, 5 moderate, 1 hard DCs). Two contributions for the Sky Hunter here.</p><p></p><p>a1) Intent on scouting out potential hostiles and the best course up the mountain for the group, the Druid changes into a falcon. In my game this is handled straight-forwardly. Mechanically, this is 2 auto-successes. In terms of changing the fiction, I would handle this one of two ways; (i) I would describe 2-3 options for travel up the mountain replete with time component, topography, and potential obstacles/hostiles or (ii) I would describe 1 or 2 and ask the player to describe a 3rd option. The players then mull their course.</p><p></p><p>a2) The group has picked their course. As time is of the essence (otherworldly monstrosities are pouring into this world from the Far Realm, rending the sanity from the settlers beneath, turning them into zombie hordes), the straightest, track up the mountain was chosen. A scree-covered, fully exposed, 60 degree slope that threatens a treacherous fall onto razor rock with every step.</p><p></p><p>The Druid mans the skies to alert the group of any hostiles, and maybe attempt to head them off himself, as they make their ascent. The level 12 Druid would probably have a +21ish Perception without Soaring Falcon, which would mean she auto-passes the Medium DC. However, if I'm deploying one of my single Hard DC for this, that means that the Druid can now pass it with a meager roll of 2.</p><p></p><p>a1 + a2 = basically 3 auto-successes (out of 6 necessary) and the 1 hard DC tackled.</p><p></p><p><strong><em>Combat Stunting</em></strong>:</p><p></p><p>And we get to our first dud with stunting. I would say my tables Check Prerequisite % for Combat Stunting probably breaks out to something like:</p><p></p><table style='width: 100%'><tr><td>Acrobatics</td><td>5 %</td></tr><tr><td>Arcana</td><td>20 %</td></tr><tr><td>Athletics</td><td>30 %</td></tr><tr><td>Bluff</td><td>< 5 %</td></tr><tr><td>Dungeoneering</td><td>5 %</td></tr><tr><td>History</td><td>5 %</td></tr><tr><td>Nature</td><td>20 %</td></tr><tr><td>Religion</td><td>5 %</td></tr><tr><td>Streetwise</td><td>5 %</td></tr><tr><td>Thievery</td><td>< 5 %</td></tr></table><p></p><p>As you can see, Perception is not on that list.</p><p></p><p>However...while the Perception doesn't have much use, the Flight certainly does! Maybe a micro-failure yields a nested combat with a whole gang of Minions and a few Swarms. How about flying to the top of a ridge overlooking the band of Aberrations that are about to turn into a problem for you climbing allies? Turn into a human and call upon the primal spirits of the wind to loose the small boulders there to cascade an avalanche down upon them! Maybe you slide the swarms into Razor Rock Hindering Terrain for good measure!</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><strong><em>Combat Application</em></strong>:</p><p></p><p>Quite a bit of utility/intangilbles:</p><p></p><p>* At-will Flight for the encounter. Just due to this, you can bypass blocking (and other) terrain/hazards/traps, access Y-axis protected Artillery/Controllers/Leaders, get out of bad spots and reorient yourself somewhere where melee can't get you.</p><p>* +4 AC vs OAs.</p><p>* Retain access to your other forms without losing this one.</p><p>* Buffed PP if we need to check Surprise (in my games this is basically just to determine surprise when a failure in an SC triggers an ambush). And if you have Uncanny Instincts Skill Power (the Druid in my last game did! The utility of that power was force-multiplied by the fact that the game featured only 3 PCs...and corresponding Encounter Budgets), you and a buddy automatically get a 36 Initiative once per day (you go first)!</p><p>* The healthy majority of obscured/hidden Hazards/Traps are detected by Perception (and possibly another skill).</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Manbearcat, post: 7044767, member: 6696971"] Alright, Soaring Falcon it is! Going to change the format a little bit: [B][I]Power Source/Keywords[/I][/B]: Primal Power Source so you're drawing on the spirits of nature that pervade the world (my favorite power source!). [B][I]Refresh[/I][/B]: Daily. So this should (a) pack some punch and (b) have a breadth of application. Scene based flight (at level 12), don't lose shape availability if you Wild Shape out of it, large bonus vs OA, +5 untyped bonus to Perception (so it stacks with the level 16 PB bonus for +10 total). Pretty dang good in terms of both (a) and (b). [I][B]Archetype Enablement[/B][/I]: The Primal Beast is one of the most ancient of the Elder Spirits and the most feared. A predator from the dawn era, it hunted Gods and Primordials alike. It has no love for mortals. Being a Sky Hunter means that you are a savage, unforgiving predator always on the wing. Aberrations, the vassals of Gods and Primordials, and those mortals who would befoul the natural order of the hunt (such as herding livestock) will hear your diving screech too late...as your talons tear their eyes from the sockets. So...yeah, this Utility Power does the trick! [B][I]Noncombat scene resolution (the Skill Challenge)[/I][/B]: A reckless human taps into alien power he cannot control. The fabric of reality rips around his lair, tucked away in remote, inhospitable mountains. Where it does, creatures of unspeakable origin pour into this world, subverting the natural order. He must be stopped and his "Unfathomables" put down. DCs @ level 12 = 14, 20, 28. Complexity 2 SC @ Level (6 success, 2 secondary skills, 5 moderate, 1 hard DCs). Two contributions for the Sky Hunter here. a1) Intent on scouting out potential hostiles and the best course up the mountain for the group, the Druid changes into a falcon. In my game this is handled straight-forwardly. Mechanically, this is 2 auto-successes. In terms of changing the fiction, I would handle this one of two ways; (i) I would describe 2-3 options for travel up the mountain replete with time component, topography, and potential obstacles/hostiles or (ii) I would describe 1 or 2 and ask the player to describe a 3rd option. The players then mull their course. a2) The group has picked their course. As time is of the essence (otherworldly monstrosities are pouring into this world from the Far Realm, rending the sanity from the settlers beneath, turning them into zombie hordes), the straightest, track up the mountain was chosen. A scree-covered, fully exposed, 60 degree slope that threatens a treacherous fall onto razor rock with every step. The Druid mans the skies to alert the group of any hostiles, and maybe attempt to head them off himself, as they make their ascent. The level 12 Druid would probably have a +21ish Perception without Soaring Falcon, which would mean she auto-passes the Medium DC. However, if I'm deploying one of my single Hard DC for this, that means that the Druid can now pass it with a meager roll of 2. a1 + a2 = basically 3 auto-successes (out of 6 necessary) and the 1 hard DC tackled. [B][I]Combat Stunting[/I][/B]: And we get to our first dud with stunting. I would say my tables Check Prerequisite % for Combat Stunting probably breaks out to something like: [TABLE="width: 500"] [TR] [TD]Acrobatics[/TD] [TD]5 %[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Arcana[/TD] [TD]20 %[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Athletics[/TD] [TD]30 %[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Bluff[/TD] [TD]< 5 %[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Dungeoneering[/TD] [TD]5 %[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]History[/TD] [TD]5 %[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Nature[/TD] [TD]20 %[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Religion[/TD] [TD]5 %[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Streetwise[/TD] [TD]5 %[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Thievery[/TD] [TD]< 5 %[/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] As you can see, Perception is not on that list. However...while the Perception doesn't have much use, the Flight certainly does! Maybe a micro-failure yields a nested combat with a whole gang of Minions and a few Swarms. How about flying to the top of a ridge overlooking the band of Aberrations that are about to turn into a problem for you climbing allies? Turn into a human and call upon the primal spirits of the wind to loose the small boulders there to cascade an avalanche down upon them! Maybe you slide the swarms into Razor Rock Hindering Terrain for good measure! [B][I]Combat Application[/I][/B]: Quite a bit of utility/intangilbles: * At-will Flight for the encounter. Just due to this, you can bypass blocking (and other) terrain/hazards/traps, access Y-axis protected Artillery/Controllers/Leaders, get out of bad spots and reorient yourself somewhere where melee can't get you. * +4 AC vs OAs. * Retain access to your other forms without losing this one. * Buffed PP if we need to check Surprise (in my games this is basically just to determine surprise when a failure in an SC triggers an ambush). And if you have Uncanny Instincts Skill Power (the Druid in my last game did! The utility of that power was force-multiplied by the fact that the game featured only 3 PCs...and corresponding Encounter Budgets), you and a buddy automatically get a 36 Initiative once per day (you go first)! * The healthy majority of obscured/hidden Hazards/Traps are detected by Perception (and possibly another skill). [/QUOTE]
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