Skills That Should be Handy for an Adventurer...But Aren't in Actual Play.

[Felon]

So, I keep trying to think of ways to encourage/reward players who invest ranks in skills that seem like they'd be pretty handy for an adventurer to have. Climb and swim, for instance, seem like essential skills for a dungeoneer. But in practice, the lofty precepts of good dungeon design dictates that an adventure not require a certain skill for characters to progress. If players can only reach a certain place by climbing or swimming, I have to be mindful of all the characters that won't be able to make the trip. They might have some spell or magic item to compensate, but likely as not someone won't.

So, I thought a thread about addressing this issue might be revealing. The poll is to pin down the most common skills that suffer from lack of opportunities. The thread can be used to discuss some innovative ways to provide opportunities that reward players who invest ranks in those skills without penalizing those who don't.

Of course, some skills aren't useful simply because of awkward rules (Appraise), and some aren't because they're outclassed by spells (Heal). Those are ripe topics for discussion as well.

 

[TheNovaLord]

Agree on the climb topic. Party is 6th level and though the ranger and scout can climb well, the two paladins and cleric dont have a hope! Does seem silly for an adventurer. Plus the 3 divines are hopeless at spotting and listening for enemies even after all they have been through. They do all ride pretty well though

JohnD

 

[Voadam]

You could have things that only require one pc to do it so the swimmer gets to shine. For instance killing an NPC on a barge and having him tumble overboard with cool loot would reward the swimmer who can recover the loot. Not necessary for the party to swim, they just then don't get the loot.

 

[lukelightning]

I've seen houserules combining skills such as jump, climb, and swim into one skill "athletics"

Balance is another of these skills; I think balance needs to be removed and replaced with reflex saves.

The knowledge skills need to be further condensed; history and geography and nobility could be combined, for example.

Appraise is worthless. It's more trouble to implement than it's worth. Yeah, people always chime in and say it's useful, blah blah blah, but even a rogue with all those skill points can't really spare any for appraise.

Picking locks and disabling devices should be combined.

Search and spot should be combined, and possibly combined with listen into one skill "notice" or "perception." This would have the benefit of being a skill that applies to any sense, so you can use it in situations where someone with the scent ability is trying to detect a subtle scent or sniff out an invisible person (I hate the fact that they can automatically do it).

 

[el-remmen]

Personally, whether one or more people in the group cannot climb or swim or balance or whatever very well or at all does not stop me from creating encounters/goals that include that kind of thing.

Sometimes it is fun to not be good at something and have to do it anyway. . . Sometimes it leads to innovative ways to deal with problems and encourages teamwork.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Heal. It's only useful for stabilizing bleeders.

The long-term care option only works (by RAW) if the injured character takes a full day's worth of rest. Adventurers can't do that.

Knowledge - need a little help here!

Intimidate - I've yet to see decent rules for this skill, but I'm trying to work on something like the alternate Diplomacy rules in my sig. Even so, it'll probably still be too easy to pull off.

 

[pawsplay]

Disguise - This seems like it should be cool, but how often do you interact with things you could plausibly disguise yourself as? Superceded by relatively low level spells.

Escape Artist - It seems like it should be great, but in actuality, mainly used by Small characters with lots of skill points to avoid grapples. Basically, PCs just don't get tied up very often.

Speak Language - Should be awesome, but since there is no guarantee of any particular character speaking a specific language, adventures rarely feature speaking a language as a necessary or even useful trait. At higher levels, various spells supercede this (often expensive) skill. Even wizards tend to get by on their bonus languages.

 

[el-remmen]

Heal. It's only useful for stabilizing bleeders.

The long-term care option only works (by RAW) if the injured character takes a full day's worth of rest. Adventurers can't do that.

Just goes to show that different campaigns are different. PCs in my games do the long-term healing thing all the time.

Also, it does not take a full day - there are two "levels' - rest 8 hours and full day's rest.

 

[MerricB]

Knowledge - need a little help here!

Knowledge got a big boost in 3.5e; MM3 and related tomes make it even better.

Cheers!

 

[heirodule]

I voted Appraise, Concentration, and Survival

Concentration should be given more uses than just for wizards (and psionicists). Why do monks even get this as a class skill? What do they really use it for?

Survival needs to have the DCs tweaked to make it more interesting. Water should be harded to find in a desert.

Use Rope could get picked, but it doesn't seem useful to start.