What skills can you take 10 or 20 on?

[Lamoni]

You can take 20 on a Spot check if you have the time.

True, there is just one large problem with this tactic. Well, not a problem really, just a weakness. If I am on sentry duty and I decide to take a 20 on a spot check, that means that I automatically fail to spot anything that doesn't call for a reactive roll for 10 rounds. Then at the end, I spot anything that there is to spot at that moment in time (well, anything that is less than my skill modifier + 20). Then i have to go back and start failing for another 10 rounds until I succeed again.

This means that a rogue could sneak up to the camp, stay 3-4 rounds and then leave and unless he was still there at the END of my take 20 attempts, I would have to rely on my reactive spot checks to spot him. If he happens to still be there when I finish my take 20, then I have a very good chance of spotting the rogue.

Also, it wouldn't be too hard to interpret the rule of automatically failing until you succeed after 20 attempts to be applied to all checks made with that skill. That would mean you would automatically fail your reactive spot checks too.

 

[Vegepygmy]

Why is it more fair to allow foes to take 20 on their Spot checks to find a hiding PC then to allow both to take 20 on their skills?

Because you will have the time to take 20 on your Hide checks much more often than your foes will have the time to take 20 on their Spot checks.

And I want to thank Transit for doing such an excellent job of explaining why it is inappropriate to allow taking 20 on Hide checks. He's absolutely dead on, and I couldn't have expressed the concept so clearly myself.

Take 20 is meant to skip over boring dice rolling and get right to the check result. It should never CHANGE the result of a check, or change the way a check is made. It should only speed up the time it takes to get the SAME RESULT that "rolling until I succeed" would have achieved, not make it possible to do something that is impossible in normal game play.

 

[Mistwell]

I don't see why you couldn't take 20 on a hide check if you were not being observed at the time by a foe, and you were not distracted, and there was no harm from a failure (at that time). I mean, that's how an ambush works, right? You dig in, move branches and dirt around, check the shadows, check the angels and barriers between you and the most likely approaches to you from a foe, the lighting, the shiney bits on you, the distractions to a likely approaching foe, the slope of the terrain, the colors of the terrain, the contrast between you and the terrain, etc...

All that stuff takes time, and the more time you spend preparing your hiding spot and position, the better hide result you should get. So why NOT allow someone to take 20 in those circumstances?

 

[Dross]

On the topic of taking 10/20, does anyone know of a way (feat/item/etc) to allow a character to take 10 on a ride check while in combat?

There is a regional feat in the Players Guide to Faerun called "Saddleback" that allows take 10 ride checks in mounted combat (and to use the check as a Reflex save for the mount).

Just note that regional feats are pruposefully made "better" than the non-regional feats.

 

[moritheil]

While rogue has been mentioned, I do not think exemplar has been mentioned as a way to take 10 on any skill.