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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 381036" data-attributes="member: 4937">Well, Elder Basalisk got here before me with some very good advice, but I'll try to add a little bit.Appraise: Let me restress what EB said.  This is one of the most essential skills in the game and I'm surprised to find it on this list.  If you don't succeed in this skill, you don't know the value of anything you are looking at.  Sometimes, appraise checks are so easy that a reasonably intelligent person would never fail them - say telling a glass bead from a jewel (DC 0), but if there is a chance make them roll.    Without this skill you cannot tell a masterwork sword from a non-masterwork one (and thus don't know whether the merchant has sold you a good quality sword) until after you have used it a while (and thus made several checks).  And I might add, that the merchant himself can occassionaly fail at his appraise check and misappraise items - in which case detect lie isn't going to help you (in fact quite the contrary).  PC's should be searching for merchants that they can trust, and these merchants become reoccuring NPC's that form relationships with the party.  They are valuable hooks and should not be neglected.      Appraise can also occasionally be used to penetrate disguises and so forth.  Just because you spot that the 'beggar' has a pair of valuable boots doesn't mean you truly appreciate the significance without an appraise check.Balance: This is another one that I call for all the time, and am surprised to see on this list.  Any time the surface is uneven or sloped during combat or other critical activity balance checks are called for.  In fact, the balance of the average cleric (or tank fighter) can be so bad in plate mail or other heavy armor (or when totting the treasure out of the dungeon) that even asking for DC 0 balance checks is a useful means of retaining realism.  Once you do this a while, PC's are probably going to realize that altough carrying 100 lbs of equipment may be useful, it has a price too.Decipher Script: Practically everything in my campaign is written on.  My dungeons tend to be modeled after Mayan or Eygptian architecture, and runes on stone are more common than words on paper.  Plus I have a 10,000 year history, so the average locale has about 3 prior extinct cultures leaving ruins behind.  Comprehend languages is nice if you don't have a rogue, but if you do, it is nice to have him able to save the spell casters one or more spell slots.Escape Artist: Admittedly, limited utility.  This is primarily going to get calls when players are grappled, or effectively grappled, as by nets, webs, whips, snare traps, or tar or quicksand or other goo in situations that I don't really feel a swim check is called for (say it is only hip deep).  However, since being grappled is such a bad thing, and since a good DM (IMO) uses it often, I'd still expect people with access to this skill to put points in it.Forgery:  Very limited utility.  Primarily an NPC skill, I can see it only being picked up as part of a highly political intrigue sort of game.  If you want to have more calls for it, make sure that the PC's have to keep legal papers as part of your standard way you run the campaign - that is to say proof of citizenship, letters of marquise, legal rights to bear arms, proofs of knighthood, legal rights to leave the lands of thier liege, visas, etc.Handle Animal: What EB said.  In my campaign, one of the most common usages of this skill is the care and feeding of beasts that the players have captured and plan to sell.  That is to say, without a successful Handle Animal check, the Griffin eggs do not make it back to town in a viable state and they recieve little or no money for them.Innuendo: Very limited utility, since innuendo is most easily accomplished by simply role playing.  Intimidate: Extremely powerful 'diplomatic' tool, in fact, too powerful and needs ammending.  Open Locks: What?  Everything isn't locked in your campaigns?  The key to making this skill useful is making sure that frequently, bashing down doors attracts more unfriendlies quicker than simply opening the door.Pick Pockets: Very limited utility, mostly an NPC skill.  Usually picked up by PC's only as part of a RP concept. If you want to encourage this skill, try to make what is palmed useful.  If you get a purse of copper every time you filch something, no one is going to care for long.  Also, allow characters with this skill to filch unattended weapons (sheathed) from flat footed opponents.Ride: What EB said.  Mobility is power.  If alot of your game occurs out doors, then this skill will rise in importance.Scry: Of no importance at low level, this restricted skill becomes quite important at high levels.Swim: If you can't swim, you drown.  If your characters aren't taking this into account, your world is probably too dry or deliberately dry. (Although I had a character nearly drown on Tatooine once.)Use Rope: Limited utility after the first few levels.  Make sure that your dungeons have vertical elements if you want this skill to come up frequently.  More powerful parties typically have better ways around obstacles than simply climbing a rope.</blockquote>

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