skills performance-wilderness lore
S T O N E K E E P |
Return to Skills PagePerformance (Cha)You are skilled in several types of artistic
expression and know how to put on a show. Possible
Performance types include ballad, buffoonery, chant, comedy,
dance, drama, drums, epic, flute, harp, juggling,
limericks, lute, mandolin, melody, mime, ode, pan pipes,
recorder, shalm, storytelling, and trumpet. (The DM may
authorize Check: You can impress audiences with your talent and skill.
A masterwork musical instrument gives a +2 circumstance bonus to Perform checks that involve the use of the instrument. Retry: Retries are allowed, but they don’t negate previous failures, and an audience that has been unimpressed in the past is going to be prejudiced against future performances. (Increase the DC by 2 for each previous failure.) Special: A bard must have at least 3 ranks in Perform to inspire courage in his allies, use his countersong ability, or use his fascinate ability. A bard needs 6 ranks in Perform to inspire competence, 9 ranks to use his suggestion ability, and 12 ranks to inspire greatness. In addition to using the Perform skill, a character could entertain people with tumbling, tightrope walking, and spells (especially illusions). PickPocket (Dex; Trained Only; Armor Check Penalty)You can cut or lift a purse and hide it on your person, palm an unattended object, or perform some feat of legerdemain with an object no larger than a hat or a loaf of bread. Check: A check against DC 10 lets you palm a coin-sized, unattended object. Minor feats of legerdemain, such as making a coin disappear, are also DC 10 unless an observer is determined to note where the item went. When performing this skill under close observation, your skill check is opposed by the observer’s Spot check. The observer’s check doesn’t prevent you from performing the action, just from doing it unnoticed. If you try to take something from another creature, you must make a skill check against DC 20. The opponent makes a Spot check to detect the attempt. The opponent detects the attempt if her check result beats your check result, regardless of whether you got the item.
Retry: A second Pick Pocket attempt against the same target, or when being watched by the same observer, has a DC +10 higher than the first skill check if the first check failed or if the attempt was noticed. Special: If you have 5 or more ranks in Bluff, you get a +2 synergy bonus on Pick Pocket checks. Profession (Wis; Trained Only)You are trained in a livelihood or a professional role, such as apothecary, boater, bookkeeper, brewer, cook, driver, farmer, fisher, guide, herbalist, herdsman, innkeeper, lumberjack, miller, miner, porter, rancher, sailor, scribe, siege engineer, stablehand, tanner, teamster, woodcutter, and so forth. Like Craft, Profession is actually a number of separate skills. For instance, you could have the skill Profession (cook). Your ranks in that skill don’t affect any checks you happen to make for milling or mining. You could have several Profession skills, each with its own ranks, each purchased as a separate skill. While a Craft skill represents skill in creating or making an item, a Profession skill represents an aptitude in a vocation requiring a broader range of less specific knowledge. To draw a modern analogy, if an occupation is a service industry, it’s probably a Profession skill. If it’s in the manufacturing sector, it’s probably a Craft skill. Check: You can practice your trade and make a decent living, earning about half your check result in gold pieces per week of dedicated work. You know how to use the tools of your trade, how to perform the profession’s daily tasks, how to supervise untrained helpers, and how to handle common problems. For example, a sailor knows how to tie several basic knots, how to tend and repair sails, and how to stand a deck watch at sea. The DM sets DCs for specialized tasks. Retry: An attempt to use a Profession skill to earn an income cannot be retried. You are stuck with whatever weekly wage your check result brought you. (Another check may be made after a week to determine a new income for the next period of time.) An attempt to accomplish some specific task can usually be retried. Special: Untrained laborers and assistants earn an average of 1 silver piece per day. ReadLips (Int; Trained Only)You can understand what others are saying by watching their lips. Check: You must be within 30 feet of the speaker and be able to see her speak. You must be able to understand the speaker’s language. (Use of this skill is language-dependent.) The base DC is 15, and it is higher for complex speech or an inarticulate speaker. You have to concentrate on reading lips for a full minute before making the skill check, and you can’t perform some other action during this minute. You can move at half speed but not any faster, and you must maintain a line of sight to the lips being read. If the check succeeds, you can understand the general content of a minute’s worth of speaking, but you usually still miss certain details. If the check fails, you can’t read the speaker’s lips. If the check fails by 5 or more, you draw some incorrect conclusion about the speech. The DM rolls your check so you don’t know whether you succeeded or missed by 5. Retry: The skill can be used once per minute. Ride (Dex)You can ride a particular type of mount (usually a horse, but possibly a different mount). When you select this skill, choose the type of mount you are familiar with. For this purpose, “horses” includes mules, donkeys, and ponies. If you use the skill with a different mount (such as riding a giant lizard when you’re used to riding horses), your rank is reduced by 2 (but not below 0). If you use this skill with a very different mount (such as riding a griffon when you’re used to riding horses), your rank is reduced by 5 (but not below 0). Check: Typical riding actions don’t require checks. You can saddle, mount, ride, and dismount from a mount without a problem. Mounting or dismounting is a move-equivalent action. Some tasks require checks:
*Armor check penalty applies. Guide with Knees: You can react instantly to guide your mount with your knees so that you can use both hands in combat. Make the check at the start of your round. If you fail, you can only use one hand this round because you need to use the other to control your mount. Stay in Saddle: You can react instantly to try to avoid falling when your mount rears or bolts unexpectedly or when you take damage. Fight with Warhorse: If you direct your war-trained mount to attack in battle, you can still make your own attack or attacks normally. Cover: You can react instantly to drop down and hang alongside your mount, using it as one-half cover. You can’t attack or cast spells while using your mount as cover. If you fail, you don’t get the cover benefit. Soft Fall: You react instantly to try to take no damage when you fall off a mount, such as when it is killed or when it falls. If you fail, you take 1d6 points of falling damage. Leap: You can get your mount to leap obstacles as part of its movement. Use your Ride skill modifier or the mount’s Jump skill modifier (whichever is lower) to see how far the mount can jump. The DC (15) is what you need to roll to stay on the mount when it leaps. Control Mount in Battle: As a move-equivalent action, you can attempt to control a light horse, pony, or heavy horse while in combat. If you fail, you can do nothing else that round. You do not need to roll for warhorses or warponies. Fast Mount or Dismount: You can mount or dismount as a free action. If you fail the check, mounting or dismounting is a move-equivalent action. (You can’t attempt a fast mount or dismount unless you can perform the mount or dismount as a move-equivalent action this round.) Special: If you are riding bareback, you suffer a –5 penalty on Ride checks. If you have 5 or more ranks in Handle Animal, you get a +2 synergy bonus to Ride checks. If your mount has a military saddle, it gives a +2 circumstance bonus to Ride checks related to staying in the saddle. Scry (Int)Use this skill to spy on someone with a scrying spell or a crystal ball or to perform some divinations. Check: You can’t use this skill without some magical means to scry, such as the scrying spell, the greater scrying spell, the vision spell, or a crystal ball. Use of this skill is described in association with those spells and items. These items allow you to spy on others, and this skill just lets you do it better. This skill also improves your chance to notice when you’re being scried, as detailed in the descriptions of the arcane eye and detect scrying spells. Search (Int)You can find secret doors, simple traps, hidden compartments, and other details not readily apparent. The Spot skill lets you notice something, such as a hiding rogue. The Search skill lets a character discern some small detail or irregularity through active effort. Search does not allow you to find complex traps unless you are a rogue (see the “Special” section below). Check: You generally must be within 10 feet of the object or surface to be searched. It takes 1 round to search a 5-foot-by-5-foot area or a volume of goods 5 feet on a side; doing so is a full-round action.
*Even dwarves who are not rogues can use Search to do this if the trap is built into or out of stone. Special: Active Abjuration spells
within 10 feet of each other for 24 hours or more create
barely visible energy fluctuations. These fluctuations
give characters a +4 bonus to Search checks to locate
such Abjuration spells. The spells explosive runes, fire trap, glyph of warding, and symbol create magic traps that a rogue can find by making a Search check and then attempt to disarm by using Disable Device. Spike growth and spike stones, however, create magic traps that can be found using Search, but against which Disable Device checks do not succeed. A dwarf, even one that does not have the Traps feat, can use the Search skill to find a difficult trap (those with DCs above 20) if the trap is built into or out of stone. They gain a +2 racial bonus to do so from their stonecutting ability. Special: A character who does not have the Track feat can use the Search skill to find tracks, but can only follow tracks if the DC is 10 or less. (See the Track feat.) SenseMotive (Wis)Use this skill to tell when someone is bluffing you. This skill represents sensitivity to the body language, speech habits, and mannerisms of others. Check: A successful check allows you to avoid being bluffed (see the Bluff skill). You can also use the skill to tell when something is up (something odd is going on that you were unaware of) or to assess someone’s trustworthiness. Trying to gain information with this skill takes at least 1 minute, and you could spend a whole evening trying to get a sense of the people around you.
Hunch: This use of the skill essentially means making a gut assessment of the social situation. You can get the feeling from another’s behavior that something is wrong, such as when you’re talking to an impostor. Alternatively, you can get the feeling that someone is trustworthy. Sense Enchantment: You can tell that someone’s behavior is being influenced by an Enchantment effect (by definition, a mind-affecting effect), such as charm person, even if that person isn’t aware of it herself. Retry: No, though you may make a Sense Motive check for each bluff made on you. Special: A character with a favored enemy gains a bonus on Sense Motive checks when using this skill against that favored enemy. Speak Language (None; Trained Only)The Speak Language skill doesn’t work like a standard skill. • You start at 1st level knowing one or two languages (according to your race) plus an additional number of languages equal to your Intelligence bonus. • Instead of buying a rank in Speak Language, you choose a new language that you can speak. • You don’t make Speak Language checks. You either know a language or you don’t. • A literate character can read and write any language she speaks. Each language has an alphabet (though sometimes several spoken languages share a single alphabet). Common languages and their alphabets are summarized in Table: Languages, following. Retry: Not applicable. (There are no Speak Language checks to fail.)
Spellcraft (Int; Trained Only)Use this skill to identify spells as they are cast or spells already in place. Check: You can identify spells and magic effects.
Additionally, certain spells allow you to gain information about magic provided that you make a Spellcraft check as detailed in the spell description (for example, see the detect magic spell). Retry: See above. Special: If you have 5 or more ranks of Use Magic Device, you get a +2 synergy bonus to Spellcraft checks to decipher spells on scrolls. Spot (Wis)Use this skill to notice bandits waiting in ambush, to see a rogue lurking in the shadows, or to see the giant centipede in the pile of trash. Check: The Spot skill is used primarily to detect characters or creatures who are hiding. Typically, Spot is opposed by the Hide check of the creature trying not to be seen. Sometimes a creature isn’t intentionally hiding but is still difficult to see, so a successful Spot check is necessary to notice it. A Spot check result of greater than 20 can generally let you become aware of an invisible creature near you (though you can’t actually see it). Spot is also used to detect someone in disguise (see the Disguise skill).
Retry: You can make a Spot check every time you have the opportunity to notice something in a reactive manner. As a full-round action, you may attempt to spot something that you failed to spot previously. Special: The subject of a hypnotism spell suffers a –4 penalty on Spot checks. The target of a bard’s Fascinate ability suffers a –4 penalty on Spot checks. A character with a favored enemy gains a bonus on Spot checks when using this skill against that favored enemy. Swim (Str)Using this skill, a land-based creature can swim, dive, navigate underwater obstacles, and so on. Check: A successful Swim check allows you to swim one-quarter of your speed as a move-equivalent action or one half your speed as a full-round action. Roll once per round. If you fail, you make no progress through the water. If you fail by 5 or more, you go underwater and start to drown. The Dungeon Master has rules for drowning. If you are underwater (whether drowning or swimming underwater intentionally), you suffer a cumulative –1 penalty to your Swim check for each consecutive round you’ve been underwater.
The DC for the Swim check depends on the water. Each hour that you swim, make a Swim check against DC 20 or take 1d6 points of subdual damage from fatigue. Special: Instead of an armor check penalty, you suffer a penalty of –1 for each 5 pounds of gear you are carrying or wearing. Tumble (Dex; Trained Only; Armor Check Penalty)You can dive, roll, somersault, flip, and so on. You can’t use this skill if your speed has been reduced by armor, excess equipment, or loot. Check: You can land softly when you fall or tumble past opponents. You can also tumble to entertain an audience (as with the Perform skill).
Retry: An audience, once it has judged a tumbler as uninteresting, is not receptive to repeat performances. You can try to reduce damage from a fall as an instant reaction once per fall. You can attempt to tumble as part of movement once per round. Special: A character with 5 or more ranks in Tumble gains a +3 dodge AC bonus when executing the fight defensively standard or full-round action instead of a +2 dodge AC bonus (see Fighting Defensively). A character with 5 or more ranks in Tumble gains a +6 dodge AC bonus when executing the total defense standard action instead of a +4 dodge AC bonus (see Total Defense). If you have 5 or more ranks in Jump, you get a +2 synergy bonus on Tumble checks. If you have 5 or more ranks in Tumble, you get a +2 synergy bonus on Balance checks. UseMagicDevice (Cha; Trained Only)Use this skill to activate magic devices, including scrolls and wands, that otherwise you could not activate. Check: You can use this skill to read a spell or to activate a magic item. This skill lets you use a magic item as if you had the spell ability or class features of another class, as if you were a different race, or as if you were a different alignment. When you’re attempting to activate a magic item using this skill, you do so as a standard action. (Speak to your Dungeon Master for discussions of how magic items are normally activated.) However, the checks you make to determine whether you are successful at emulating the desired factors to successfully perform the activation are instant. They take no time by themselves and are included in the activate magic item standard action. You make emulation checks each time you activate a device such as a wand. If you are using the check to emulate an alignment or some other quality in an ongoing manner (such as to emulate neutral evil to prevent yourself from being damaged by a book of vile darkness you are carrying when you are not evil), you need to make the relevant emulation checks once per hour. You must consciously choose what to emulate. That is, you have to know what you are trying to emulate when you make an emulation check. Decipher a Written Spell: This works just like deciphering a written spell with the Spellcraft skill, except that the DC is 5 points higher. Emulate Spell Ability: This use of the skill allows you to use a magic item as if you had a particular spell on your spell list. To cast a spell from a scroll or use a wand, you have to have a particular spell on your spell list. By using the skill this way, you can use such an item as if you did have the spell on your spell list. Your effective caster level is your result minus 20. (It’s okay to have a caster level of 0.) For wands, it doesn’t matter what caster level you are, but it does matter for scrolls. If your effective level is lower than the caster level, you may have a difficult time using a scroll successfully (see the Dungeon Master for more information on scrolls). This skill does not let you cast the spell. It only lets you cast it from a scroll or wand as if the spell were on your class list. Note: If you are casting it from a scroll, you have to decipher it first. Emulate Class Feature: Sometimes you need to use a class feature to activate a magic item. Your effective level in the emulated class equals your result minus 20. For example, Lidda finds a magic chalice that turns regular water into holy water when a cleric or experienced paladin channels positive energy into it as if turning undead. She attempts to activate the item by emulating the cleric’s undead turning power. Her effective cleric level is her result minus 20. Since a cleric can turn undead at 1st level, she needs a result of 21 or higher on her Use Magic Device check. This skill does not let you use the class feature of another class. It just lets you activate magic items as if you had the class feature. If the class whose feature you are emulating has an alignment requirement, you must meet it, either honestly or by emulating an appropriate alignment as a separate check (see below). Emulate Ability Score: To cast a spell from a scroll, you need a high ability score in the Wisdom. Your effective Wisdom score is your result minus 15. If you already have a high enough score in Wisdom, you don’t need to make this check. Emulate Race: Some magic items work only for certain races, or work better for those of certain races. You can use such an item as if you were a race of your choice. For example, Lidda, a halfling, could attempt to use a +3 dwarven throwing hammer. If she failed her Use Magic Device check, the hammer would work for her normally as a halfling, but if she succeeded, it would work for her as if she were a dwarf. You can emulate only one race at a time. Emulate Alignment: Some magic items have positive or negative effects based on your alignment. You can use these items as if you were of an alignment of your choice. For example, the book of vile darkness damages non-evil characters who touch it. Lidda could emulate an evil alignment so she could handle the book of vile darkness safely. You can emulate only one alignment at a time. Activate Blindly: Some magic items are activated by special words, thoughts, or actions. You can activate such items as if you were using the activation word, thought, or action even if you’re not and even if you don’t know it. You do have to use something equivalent. You have to speak, wave the item around, or otherwise attempt to get it to activate. You get a special +2 bonus if you’ve activated the item at least once before. If you fail by 10 or more, you suffer a mishap. A mishap means that magical energy gets released but it doesn’t do what you wanted it to do. The DM determines the result of a mishap, as with scroll mishaps. The default mishaps are that the item affects the wrong target or that uncontrolled magical energy gets released, dealing 2d6 points of damage to you. Note: This mishap is in addition to the chance for a mishap that you normally run when you cast a spell from a scroll and the spell’s caster level is higher than your level. Retry: Yes, but if you ever roll a natural 1 while attempting to activate an item and you fail, then you can’t try to activate it again for a day. Special: You cannot take 10 with this skill. Magic is too unpredictable for you to use this skill reliably. If you have 5 or more ranks in Spellcraft, you get a +2 synergy bonus on Use Magic Device checks related to scrolls. If you have 5 or more ranks in Decipher Script, you get a +2 synergy bonus on Use Magic Device checks related to scrolls. These bonuses stack. UseRope (Dex)With this skill, you can make firm knots, undo tricky knots, and bind prisoners with ropes. Check: Most tasks with a rope are relatively simple.
When you bind another character with a rope, any Escape Artist check that the bound character makes is opposed by your Use Rope check. You get a special +10 bonus on the check because it is easier to bind someone than to escape from being tied up. You don’t even make your Use Rope check until someone tries to escape. Special: A silk rope gives a +2 circumstance bonus on Use Rope checks. If you cast an animate rope spell on a rope, you get a +2 circumstance bonus to any Use Rope checks you make when using the rope. These bonuses stack. If you have 5 or more ranks in Escape Artist, you get a +2 synergy bonus on checks to bind someone. WildernessLore (Wis)Use this skill to hunt wild game, guide a party safely through frozen wastelands, identify signs that owlbears live nearby, or avoid quicksand and other natural hazards. Check: You can keep yourself and others safe and fed in the wild.
Retry: For getting along in the wild or for gaining the Fortitude save bonus, you make a check once every 24 hours. The result of that check applies until the next check is made. To avoid getting lost or avoid natural hazards, you make a check whenever the situation calls for one. Retries to avoid getting lost in a specific situation or to avoid a specific natural hazard are not allowed. Special: If you have 5 or more ranks of Intuit Direction, you get a +2 synergy bonus on Wilderness Lore checks to avoid getting lost. A character with a favored enemy gains a bonus on Wilderness Lore checks when using this skill to gain information about that favored enemy. |
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