Skills that PC shouldn't get?

[dreaded_beast]

The reverse of a previous thread.

What skills do you think are pointless or useless for the particular campaign you play in?

For an old campaign I was in, where everyone always "roleplayed" encounters, diplomacy was next to useless.

 

[Quez The Lame]

I can't remember any use of the jump skill. Lots of characters had it, but noone ever jumped around.

 

[Kazuel]

reply

any skills I take never seem to come into play. (Cept for Tumble)

If I take Swim, we start in a desert.

If I take Escape artist, I'll never get captured.

If I take Jump, I might as well be rooted to the ground.



I'm not complaining, its just my luck is all.

 

[Ottergame]

Jump, Balance, Climb, and Swim are pretty close to worthless. Ride is a bad skill for everyone but the cavalier type. Spellcraft is sadly rarely used. Unless you have lots of downtime, Crafts are going to be largely useless. Forgery is not going to come up often. Profession is not going to be used much. Unless you've got a DM who knows what he's doing, skip Sense Motive, he'll just never let you use it. Use Rope is kinda a waste.

 

[Plane Sailing]

I very rarely see escape artist used - nobody gets captured, and in grapples the BAB route is much more effective for most people than escape artist.

In 3e I never saw intuit direction taken or used (big surprise), nor innuendo and read lips.

Balance doesn't get used much, but when it does it is tres cool (like when the rogue in our party ran along one of the ropes supporting a bridge duelling with a hanging drider at the same time)

Forgery is hardly ever used.

There could be campaigns were these were all vital skills, but it would be a much more political-roguish kind of campaign (and IMO the rewards for that kind of a campaign are less well spelt out compared to the dungeoneering "kill things and take their stuff" route which is central to the D&D books)

Cheers

 

[Plane Sailing]

Interestingly in the game I DM jump and climb come up quite a lot - mostly because of the interesting environments I put the PC's into. (One of the characters is highly jump optimised, and it gives her more of a chance to shine when she is able to use her jumping skills).

One of the downsides of jump, climb and balance is that as soon as flying becomes readily available to a party they become of much less value; this could be as soon as 6th/7th level if you have a sorcerer who knows fly and can get the whole party aloft...

 

[S'mon]

Use Rope, Forgery & Balance are some skills I don't think I've seen used in over 3 years of playing & running 3rd edition. Escape artist has never been used successfully that I can think of. I don't think Sleight of Hand has been used. OTOH IMC Spellcraft is a vital skill and the casters are all maxed out on it.

 

[Zappo]

Let me think... I have never seen Forgery used. I have seen Escape Artist used maybe twice. Balance once. Use Rope twice. Decipher Script never (really, comprehend languages is 1st level...). Sleight of Hand pretty regularly, but only because I have a player who enjoys playing the kleptomaniac halfling.

Swim several times, but always in conditions where a 10 Strength and taking 10 was enough. Jump and Climb I use fairly often.

 

[Mytholder]

I'm increasingly of the opinion that Jump could be folded into Tumble in a lot of games, to create some sort of acrobatics skill.

 

[Li Shenron]

Forgery and Appraise.