What are the least-used skills in D&D?

[lior_shapira]

I never got to use Knowledge skills until we started an Eberron campaign recently, I now play a Kalashtar psion academic who has knowledge in most areas, and the DM actually lets me use it Combined with the Research feat its really come in handy

 

[Malin Genie]

Appraise (I've taken it for a character with a merchant background, but I've never seen it used either as a player or a GM)
Decipher Script (not when a 1st level comprehend languages gets you any language without a chance of being misled!)
Forgery

 

[Zappo]

I broadly have had the same experience as jeffh, so I'd quote him and point the differences.

Used every session (or nearly so):
Concentration
Listen
Search
Spot

Right. Though while Search gets used once or twice per session, the other three tend to get used multiple times per session, regularly.

Used fairly regularly:
Bluff
Climb
Disable Device
Hide
Knowledge (Arcana)
Open Lock
Sense Motive
Survival
Tumble

I think you wanted to include Move Silently here. We don't use Survival, Disable Device and Open Lock much, and I'd rank them as "occasionally".

Used occasionally:
Appraise
Balance
Diplomacy
Heal
Intimidate
Jump
Knowledge (most others)
Perform
Ride
Sleight of Hand
Spellcraft
Swim
Use Magic Device

We use Appraise about as much as Disable Device or Open Locks. Diplomacy I'd place up into "fairly regularly". All Knowledge skills are used "occasionally" IMC, including arcana. Perform goes into "seen used once or twice" unless it is by a Bard. Sleight of Hand goes straight into "seen used once or twice".

Seen used once or twice:
Craft (mostly Trapmaking)
Decipher Script
Escape Artist
Gather Information
Handle Animal
Profession (mostly Gambler)
Use Rope

Craft (everything) goes up into "occasionally" IMC. I've even had a character with Craft (bells and mirrors). Gather Information gets to "fairly regularly" IMC.

NEVER seen used:
Disguise
Forgery

And Decipher Script, and Handle Animal. I mean, Comprehend Languages is first level, and only rangers and druids use animals much - but they have Charm Animal too.

Disguise deserves a bit of an aside. It is conceptually very useful for all sort of infiltration jobs, considering that most illusions only give you a +10 Disguise bonus that high-level foes can easily defeat. But this is exactly the problem: Disguise is way too easy to defeat, and therefore largely useless. It is rolled in secret, making it extremely unreliable, and because of the circumstances of using this skill, a single failure tends to be catastrophic. I've found that Disguise is only useful if you have such an ungodly high modifier that even a low roll will be hard to beat anyway. I've made such a character (with the Spy prestige class from S&S), and I've played it in CotSQ with great success; I disguised the entire party as drows with some reliability and avoided several dangerous fights.

In fact, right now my PC is facing his greatest Disguise challenge: he's posing as a vampire, and he'll try to fool a drow priestess. I've borrowed a hat of disguise, so I have something like +24 which should hopefully offset the penalties for having to fake stuff like, y'know, not breathing.

 

[arche]

Diguise and forgery are rarely used. That's why when I had a chance to be a player, I made a character that specialized in using disguise and forgery. He constatnly forged all documents he could and would never show his real face. Unless you intentionally want to use these skills, they are usually bypassed by either magic or some other way. At leas as a DM, I don't think of any real uses for the skills for my NPC's in regular sessions.

 

[Sammael]

I like the "frequency of use" layout, so I'll try something similar:

Used Every Session:
Bluff
Concentration
Diplomacy
Gather Information
Hide (I folded Hide and Move Silently into Sneak)
Listen
Sense Motive
Spellcraft
Spot

Used Frequently:
Climb
Heal
Intimidate
Jump
Knowledge (all subskills except Nobility and Royalty)
Search
Survival

Used Occasionally:
Appraise
Balance
Disable Device
Open Lock
Sleight of Hand
Tumble

Used Rarely:
Decipher Script
Disguise
Escape Artist
Forgery
Handle Animal
Perform (no bard in group)
Ride
Swim

Never Used:
Craft
Profession
Use Magic Device
Use Rope (I finally folded it into Sleight of Hand because it made no sense as a separate skill)

 

[Evilhalfling]

To follow the lovely trend
Used Every Session:
Concentration
Tumble
Spellcraft
Spot

Used Frequently:
Diplomacy
Gather Information (untrained)
Hide
Move silently
Listen
Bluff
Heal (used for approximation of health remaining to monsters)
Jump
Knowledge (mostly arcane and religion)
Survival

Used Occasionally:
Appraise
Balance
Sense Motive
Intimidate
Search

Used Rarely:
Disable Device(no thief)
Open Lock ''
Sleight of Hand ''
Handle Animal
Perform
Ride
Swim
Craft

Used no more than once
Climb
Profession (although the sword of normality gave +5 ranks to Innkeeper and the player used the HR synergy bonus to sense motive)
Decipher Script
Use Magic Device
Use Rope
Disguise
Escape Artist
Forgery

[/QUOTE]

 

[CRGreathouse]

Used Every Session:
Heal (guess condition of monsters and PCs; guess effect of damage on creatures, e.g. acid resistance)
Knowledge (arcana, history, magic, religion)
Listen
Spot
Tumble

Used Frequently:
Appraise
Bluff
Concentration
Diplomacy
Hide
Knowledge (architecture and engineering, local, nobility and royalty, the planes)
Move Silently
Sense Motive
Spellcraft

Used Occasionally:
Balance
Gather Information
Intimidate
Jump (I let my players make a Jump check to avoid AoO when standing)
Knowledge (dungeoneering, geography, nature)
Search
Survival

Used Rarely:
Craft
Decipher Script
Disable Device (often in one campaign, very rare otherwise; most don't train, but those who do use it almost continually)
Disguise
Handle Animal
Open Lock
Perform
Profession
Ride
Sleight of Hand
Use Magic Device

Used no more than once
Climb
Escape Artist
Forgery
Swim
Use Rope

 

[shadow]

Speak Language!

In almost every D&D setting that I've played in it's assumed that everyone in the world speaks common. As a result, no one ever buys ranks in speak language. As a fellow gamer told me, "Speak language is a friggin' waste of skill points!"

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

Here's my experience:

Used every session (or nearly so):
Concentration
Handle Animal
Hide
Knowledge (Arcana, Planes, Religion)
Listen
Move Silently
Search
Spellcraft
Spot
Survival
Tumble

Used fairly regularly:
Bluff
Diplomacy
Disable Device
Heal
Jump
Knowledge (Local)
Open Lock
Ride
Sense Motive

Used occasionally:
Climb
Decipher Script
Gather Information
Intimidate
Jump
Knowledge (most others)
Perform (almost exclusively for bardic music)
Swim
Use Magic Device

Seen used once or twice:
Appraise
Balance
Craft (mostly Trapmaking, but armorer and weaponsmith come up on occasion, as does Alchemy)
Disguise
Escape Artist
Sleight of Hand
Profession (I've seen a variety from Miner (a dwarf cleric) to brewer (a cleric of Wenta) to Doorwright (a fighter/sorcerer), to ritual sacrificer (an Olman character). Ritual Sacrificer is the only one that gets used often--generally to analyze the evidence of ritual sacrifice by evil cults).

NEVER seen used:
Forgery
Use Rope

Now one thing to keep in mind here is that this varies greatly from campaign to campaign. In the campaign we'll be switching to when my home group takes a break, Ride jumps up to an every session skill and handle animal drops down to once or twice. Why? Because, in that game, I'm playing a paladin and everyone else has a ring of Phantom Steed (actually, I have one too) so we do a lot of riding. On the other hand, unlike the game I'm playing at the moment, we don't have a druid or a ranger and consequently, Handle Animal is used only occasionally.

There's a principle to be found from this: characters use the skills that they have and that they're set up to use. In that latter campaign, my paladin does everything he can to avoid having to use balance but he's maxed his sense motive score and he'll be using it every chance he gets. In the current campaign, my ranger/fighter/rogue isn't particularly good at Sense Motive, but between his dex and the synergy from Tumble, he's perfectly happy to make a balance check any time it looks easier than the jump check. Similarly, Use Magic Device plays out very very differently depending upon the characters involved. In Living Greyhawk, I've observed that characters without the skill never use it, characters with one or two ranks use it occasionally (generally to use wands of cure light wounds when there's no cleric in the group), and characters who are actually good at it use it every session. No surprise there. The same is true of Escape Artist. Most characters ignore the skill (because they're going to be better off just making the grapple checks) but I've seen a few characters who are really good at it and they use it fairly often.

 

[IronWolf]

Based on my own experience (DMing and playing), I'd say Profession and Forgery.

I don't think I've ever taken either of them as a player, and I don't think anyone in any of my games since 3.0 came out has taken them either. Have others had the same experience with these two skills -- or with other skills?

I have a rogue that took ranks in forgery. The game is on the borderline of falling apart, but I have every intent of using that skill at some point. Whether it be to forge letters of credit or any other interesting document I think I can get away with.

I have a player on one of my campaigns who took Profession (Brewer). He used it in a small town in the Vast to gain favor with one of the local Inn owners (i.e. he brewed up a batch of ale for the Inn to sell).