Index: Skills

Acrobatics

Dexterity, Armor Check Penalty applies

You can tumble past your enemies, land softly after a fall, and balance on precarious surfaces.

Task Acrobatics DC
Traverse a narrow surface (2-6 inches) 15
Traverse a very narrow surface (less than 2 inches) 20
Traverse a steeply sloped floor 10

Traverse a very slippery floor (smooth ice)

 10
Run/charge across a slippery floor (wet stone) 10
Run/charge across an uneven or sloped floor 15
Tumble past an enemy Special
Tumble through an enemy's space 20
Treat a fall as 10 ft shorter 15
Treat a fall as 20 ft shorter 25
Entertain an Audience Special
Balancing

You can walk on a precarious surface. A successful check lets you move at half your speed along the surface for 1 round. A failure by 4 or less means you can’t move for 1 round. A failure by 5 or more means you fall. The difficulty varies with the surface, as follows:

 Being Attacked while Balancing: You are considered off-guard while balancing, since you can’t move to avoid a blow. If you have 5 or more ranks in Acrobatics, you aren’t considered off-guard while balancing. If you take damage while balancing, you must make another Acrobatics check against the same DC to remain standing.

Accelerated Movement: You can try to walk across a precarious surface more quickly than normal. If you accept a –5 penalty, you can move your full speed as a minor action. You may also accept this penalty in order to charge across a precarious surface.

Tumbling

If you have 4 or more ranks in Acrobatics, you can tumble past enemies to make yourself harder to hit. You can’t tumble if your speed has been reduced by encumbrance and difficult terrain can make tumbling much harder.

Tumble Past an Enemy: You can tumble at half speed as part of your movement, nimbly dodging reaction attacks while doing so. You gain your Acrobatics Bonus (including all other modifiers from armor, rough terrain, etc.) to AC during your movement. This helps you avoid any reaction attacks your movement might provoke. If you use this ability while tumbling through an enemy (see below), your bonus is reduced by 5.

Tumble Through an Enemy's Space: If you succeed on a DC 20 Acrobatics check, you can move through an enemy's space. This movement still provokes reaction attacks normally.

Landing after a Fall

You can treat a fall (see ???) as if it were 10 feet shorter if you succeed on a DC 15 Acrobatics Check. If you succeed on a DC 25 check, you can treat the fall as if it were 20 feet shorter.

Entertaining an Audience

You can use the Acrobatics skill to amuse an audience, as though using the Perform skill.

 

Appraise

Intelligence

You can tell an antique from old junk, a sword that’s old and fancy from an elven heirloom, and high-quality jewelry from cheap stuff made to look good.

Common Items

You can appraise common or well-known objects with a DC 12 Appraise check. Failure means that you estimate the value at 50% to 150%. 

Rare and Exotic Items

Appraising a rare or exotic item requires a successful check against DC 15, 20, or higher. If the check is successful, you estimate the value correctly; failure means you cannot estimate the item’s value.

Bluff

Charisma

You can make the outrageous or the untrue seem plausible, or use doublespeak or innuendo to deliver a secret message to another character. The skill encompasses acting, conning, fast talking, misdirection, prevarication, and misleading body language. Use a bluff to sow temporary confusion, get someone to turn and look where you point, or simply look innocuous.

Deception

A Bluff check is opposed by the target’s Sense Motive check. See the accompanying table for examples of different kinds of bluffs and the modifier to the target’s Sense Motive check for each one. 

Example Circumstances Sense Motive Modifier

The target wants to believe you.

“These emeralds aren’t stolen. I’m just desperate for coin right now, so I’m offering them to you cheap.”

 -5

The bluff is believable and doesn’t affect the target much.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, sir. I’m just a simple peasant girl here for the fair.”

 +0

The bluff is a little hard to believe or puts the target at some risk.

“You orcs want to fight? I’ll take you all on myself. I don’t need my friends’ help. Just don’t get your blood all over my new surcoat.”

 +5

The bluff is hard to believe or puts the target at significant risk.

“This diadem doesn’t belong to the duchess. It just looks like hers. Trust me, I wouldn’t sell you jewelry that would get you hanged, would I?”

 +10

The bluff is way out there; it’s almost too incredible to consider.

“You might find this hard to believe, but I’m actually a lammasu who’s been polymorphed into human form by an evil sorcerer. You know we lammasu are trustworthy, so you can believe me.”

 +20
Feinting in Combat

You can also use Bluff to mislead an opponent in melee combat (so that it can’t dodge your next attack effectively). See "Feint".

 

Climb

Strength, Armor Check Penalty applies

You can scale a cliff, to get to the window on the second story of a wizard’s tower, or to climb out of a pit after falling through a trapdoor.

Climbing is part of movement, so it’s generally part of a move action (and may be combined with other types of movement in a move action). With a successful Climb check, you can advance up, down, or across a slope, a wall, or some other steep incline (or even a ceiling with handholds) at one-quarter your normal speed. A Climb check that fails by 4 or less means that you make no progress, and one that fails by 5 or more means that you fall from whatever height you have already attained.

The DC of the check depends on the conditions of the climb. Compare the task with those on the following table to determine an appropriate DC. While climbing, you count as off-guard.

Surface or Activity Climb DC
A slope too steep to walk up, or a knotted rope with a wall to brace against. 0
A rope with a wall to brace against or a knotted rope. 5
A surface with ledges to hold on to and stand on, such as a very rough wall. 10
Any surface with adequate handholds and footholds (natural or artificial), such as a very rough natural rock surface or a tree, or an unknotted rope, or pulling yourself up when dangling by your hands. 15
An uneven surface with some narrow handholds and footholds, such as a typical wall in a dungeon or ruins. 20
A rough surface, such as a natural rock wall or a brick wall. 25
An overhang or ceiling with handholds but no footholds. 25

Catching Yourself When Falling: It’s practically impossible to catch yourself on a wall while falling. Make a Climb check (DC = wall’s DC + 20) to do so. It’s much easier to catch yourself on a slope (DC = slope’s DC + 10).

Catching a Falling Character While Climbing: If someone climbing above you or adjacent to you falls, you can attempt to catch the falling character if they are within your reach. Doing so requires a successful DC 10 Reflex save. If you succeed, you must immediately attempt a Climb check (DC = wall’s DC + 10). Success indicates that you catch the falling character, but their total weight, including equipment, cannot exceed your heavy load limit or you automatically fall. If you fail your Climb check by 4 or less, you fail to stop the character’s fall but don’t lose your grip on the wall. If you fail by 5 or more, you fail to stop the character’s fall and begin falling as well.

Concentration

You can focus your mind on a task, despite serious distractions.

You must make a Concentration check whenever you might potentially be distracted (by taking damage, by harsh weather, and so on) while engaged in some action that requires your full attention. Such actions include casting a spell, concentrating on an active spell, or using a skill that would provoke a reaction attack (such as Heal, and Tamper, among others). In general, if an action wouldn’t normally provoke a reaction attack, you need not make a Concentration check to avoid being distracted.

If the Concentration check succeeds, you may continue with the action as normal. If the check fails, the action automatically fails and is wasted. If you were in the process of casting a spell, the spell is lost (see Cast a Spell, ???). If you were concentrating on an active spell, the spell ends as if you had ceased concentrating on it. If you were directing a spell, the direction fails but the spell remains active. A skill use also fails, and in some cases a failed skill check may have other ramifications as well.

The table below summarizes various types of distractions that cause you to make a Concentration check. If the distraction occurs while you are trying to cast a spell, you must add the tier of the spell you are trying to cast to the appropriate Concentration DC (See Concentration, page ???, for more information). If more than one type of distraction is present, make a check for each one; any failed Concentration check indicates that the task is not completed.

Distraction Concentration DC
Damaged during the action 10 + damage dealt
Distracted by a nondamaging spell Spell's save DC
Vigorous motion (a moving mount, or a small boat in rough water) 10
Violent motion (a galloping horse, or a storm-tossed ship) 15
Extraordinarily violent motion (an earthquake, a collapsing building) 20
Grappled or held ??? ???
Bad weather (high wind an blinding rain or sleet) 5
Wind driven hail, dust, or debris 10
Casting Defensively

You can use Concentration to cast a spell defensively, so as to avoid reaction attacks altogether. This doesn’t apply to other actions that might provoke reaction attacks (such as movement or loading a crossbow). See Casting on the Defensive.

Craft

Decipher Script

Intelligence, Trained Only

Use this skill to piece together the meaning of ancient runes carved into the wall of an abandoned temple, to get the gist of an intercepted letter written in the Infernal language, to follow the directions on a treasure map written in a forgotten alphabet, or to interpret the mysterious glyphs painted on a cave wall.

You can decipher writing in an unfamiliar language or a message written in an incomplete or archaic form. The base DC is 20 for the simplest messages, 25 for standard texts, and 30 or higher for intricate, exotic, or very old writing.

If the check succeeds, you understand the general content of a piece of writing about one page long (or the equivalent). If the check fails, the GM makes a DC 5 Wisdom check for your to see if you avoid drawing a false conclusion about the text. (Success means that you do not draw a false conclusion; failure means that you do.) The GM secretly makes both the Decipher Script check and (if necessary) the Wisdom check, so that you can’t tell whether the conclusion you draw is true or false.

Diplomacy

Disguise

Escape Artist

Fly

Forgery

Gather Information

Handle Animal

Heal

Aiding the Dying

As a full round  action, roll heal vs wound save DC+5. If you succeed, you negate a failed death save this round.

Tending to the Wounded

Someone with the heal skill can grant them a +2 bonus with a DC 10 check, or a +4 bonus with a DC 20 check. Such tending applies to all their rolls this week.

Long-term Care

Someone with the heal skill can grant them a +2 bonus with a DC 10 check, or a +4 bonus with a DC 20 check. Such tending applies to all their rolls this week. A character can tend to themselves, but they only gain half the bonus.

Intimidate

Lore

Perception

Perform

Profession

Ride

Search

Sense Motive

Sleight of Hand

Spellcraft

learning spells--you get a +5 bonus if the spell is traditional

overreaching

Stealth

[add rules for group stealth--1 roll for the whole team]

Survival

Swim

Tamper