scarmiglionne4
2013-03-25, 03:51 PM
2nd Draft: 04/10/2013
This uses the skills known variant from unearthed arcana.
There are three different types of skills: Basic Skills, Practiced Skills, and Learned Skills. Basic skills measure how well a character does something that relies on his natural abilities. Practiced skills may require practice to get better at, but are not usually something that is taught. Learned skills must be acquired through education, whether it is learned from a book or a teacher.
Basic skills are class skills for any class and can be used untrained. Every character has 3 ranks in all basic skills. Ranks achieved by making a basic skill a known skill replace these ranks in that skill. Practiced skills are based on class and can also be used untrained. Every character has 1 rank in all practiced skills. Ranks achieved by making a practiced skill a known skill replace this rank in that skill. Learned skills are also based on class but can be made class skills for any class for intelligent characters.
Starting characters may choose an amount of Craft, Knowledge, or Profession skills equal to their intelligence modifier in much the same way as bonus languages are chosen. This skill allotment makes the chosen skills count as class skills.
Each skill is either a known skill or an unknown skill. A character is considered to have the maximum number of ranks allowable in any skill known to that character, and no ranks in any skill unknown to that character.
ACROBATICS (Dex; Armor Check Penalty) <Basic>
Acrobatics is the applied use of agility and grace. It determines whether a character can maintain balance, long jump, escape restraint, squeeze through a tight space, perform gymnastics, or any non-specific use of dexterity.
TYPICAL USES: Escape grapple, escape restraints, long jump, balancing, contortion, and gymnastics.
Escape Grapple: You can make a check opposed by your enemy’s grapple check to get out of a grapple or out of a pinned condition (so that you’re only grappling).
Escape Restraint: You can make a check to escape from being tied up and other forms of restraint.
Long Jump: You can make a check to perform a horizontal jump, made across a gap like a chasm or stream. At the midpoint of the jump, you attain a vertical height equal to one-quarter of the horizontal distance.
Your check is modified by your speed. If your speed is 30 feet, then no modifier based on speed applies to the check. If your speed is less than 30 feet, you take a –6 penalty for every 10 feet of speed less than 30 feet. If your speed is greater than 30 feet, you gain a +4 bonus for every 10 feet beyond 30 feet.
DCs for making a long jump assume that you get a running start, which requires that you move at least 20 feet in a straight line before attempting the jump. If you do not get a running start, the DC is doubled. Distance moved by jumping is counted against your normal maximum movement in a round.
If your check succeeds, you land on your feet at the far end. If you fail the check by less than 5, you don’t clear the distance, but you can make a DC 15 Reflex save to grab the far edge of the gap. You end your movement grasping the far edge. If that leaves you dangling over a chasm or gap, getting up requires a move action and a successful Athletics check.
Balancing: 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.
If you take damage while balancing, you must make another check against the same DC to remain standing.
If you accept a –5 penalty, you can move your full speed as a move action. (Moving twice your speed in a round requires two checks, one for each move action used.) You may also accept this penalty in order to charge across a precarious surface; charging requires one check for each multiple of your speed (or fraction thereof) that you charge.
Perform gymnastics: You can land softly when you fall or tumble past opponents. You can also use gymnastics to entertain an audience.
Contortion: You can bend and flex your body to fit into a space where your head fits but your shoulders don’t. If the space is long, such as a chimney, the GM may call for multiple checks. You can’t get through a space that your head does not fit through.
Action: Varies.
Special: If you have 5 or more ranks in Acrobatics, you gain a +3 dodge bonus to AC when using the Defensive Stance instead of the usual +2 dodge bonus to AC. You gain a +6 dodge bonus to AC when using the total defense stance instead of the usual +4 dodge bonus to AC.
Synergy: If you have 5 or more ranks in Acrobatics, you get a +2 bonus in Athletics.
APPRAISE (Int) <Practiced>
You can evaluate the monetary value of an object.
TYPICAL USES: An Appraise check determines the value of an item. If you succeed by 5 or more, you also determine if the item has magic properties, although this success does not grant knowledge of the magic item’s abilities. If you fail the check by less than 5, you determine the price of that item to within 20% of its actual value. If you fail this check by 5 or more, the price is wildly inaccurate, subject to GM discretion. Particularly rare or exotic items are more difficult to Appraise.
You can also use this check to determine the most valuable item visible in a treasure hoard. The larger the hoard, the more difficult the check. Action: Appraising an item takes 1 standard action. Determining the most valuable object in a treasure hoard takes 1 full-round action.
Retry: Additional attempts to Appraise an item reveal the same result.
ATHLETICS (Str; Armor Check Penalty) <Basic>
Athletics is fitness and physical prowess. It determines whether a character can climb, high jump, perform amazing feats of strength, swim in physically demanding situations, or any other non-specific use of strength.
TYPICAL USES: Climbing, catching a falling character, high jump, exceptional strength, and swimming.
Climbing: Climbing is gradually moving in any direction on a slope, a wall, or some other steep incline (or even a ceiling with handholds) at one-quarter your normal speed. A slope is considered to be any incline at an angle measuring less than 60 degrees; a wall is any incline at an angle measuring 60 degrees or more.
Failure by 4 or less means that you make no progress, and a check that fails by 5 or more means that you fall from whatever height you have already attained.
You need both hands free to climb, but you may cling to a wall with one hand while you take an action that requires only one hand. While climbing, you can’t move to avoid a blow, so you lose your Dexterity bonus to AC (if any). You also can’t use a shield while climbing.
Any time you take damage while climbing, make an Athletics check against the same DC used to climb the slope or wall. Failure means you fall from your current height and sustain the appropriate falling damage.
By accepting a –5 penalty, you can move half your speed (instead of one-quarter your speed).
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 he or she is within your reach. Doing so requires a successful melee touch attack against the falling character. If you hit, you must immediately attempt an Athletics check. Success indicates that you catch the falling character, but his or her total weight, including equipment, cannot exceed your heavy load limit or you automatically fall. If you fail your 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.
High Jump: A high jump is a vertical leap made to reach a ledge high above or to grasp something overhead, such as a tree limb. The DC is equal to 4 times the distance to be cleared.
If you jumped up to grab something, a successful check indicates that you reached the desired height and successfully pulled yourself up, if necessary.
If you fail the check, you do not reach the height, and you land on your feet in the same spot from which you jumped.
Obviously, the difficulty of reaching a given height varies according to the size of the character or creature. The maximum vertical reach for an average creature of a given size is shown on the table below.
Same as the one in PHB
Quadrupedal creatures don’t have the same vertical reach as a bipedal creature; treat them as being one size category smaller. For heights less than half the character’s vertical reach, no check is required.
Exceptional Strength: Any time a character wants to break something, bend bars, lift a heavy, rusted gate, or do anything where almost superhuman strength is required, an Athletics check is made.
Swimming: Make a check once per round while you are in the water. Success means you may swim at up to one-half your speed (as a full-round action) or at one-quarter your speed (as a move action).
If you fail by 4 or less, you make no progress through the water. If you fail by 5 or more, you go underwater.
If you are underwater you must hold your breath. You can hold your breath for a number of rounds equal to your Constitution score, but only if you do nothing other than take move actions or free actions. If you take a standard action or a full-round action, the remainder of the duration for which you can hold your breath is reduced by 1 round. After that period of time, you must make an Endurance check every round to continue holding your breath. Each round, the DC for that check increases by 1. If you fail the Endurance check, you begin to drown.
The DC for the check depends on the water. There are also penalties for carrying a medium or heavy load or wearing armor in addition to the armor check penalty already being applied.
Additional Swim Penalties
Armor/Load Additional Check Penalty
Light or Shield 0
Medium -3
Heavy -6
Action: Varies
Retry: Varies
Synergy: If you have 5 or more ranks in Acrobatics, you get a +2 bonus on Athletics checks.
CRAFT (Int) <Learned>
No changes.
ENDURANCE (Con; Armor Check Penalty) <Basic>
Endurance is withstanding exertion over time. It determines whether a character can continue hold their breath, maintain consciousness after suffering nonlethal damage, undergo the physical strain of spellcasting under stress, or do anything physically demanding for long periods of time.
TYPICAL USES: Holding your breath, strenuous activity over time, maintain consciousness, contain magical energy, or any non-specific use of Constitution.
Holding your breath: see Athletics - Swimming.
Strenuous Activity: Each hour that you participate in strenuous activity you must make a DC 20 Endurance check or take 1d6 points of nonlethal damage from fatigue.
Maintain Consciousness: Anytime a character would be staggered or knocked unconscious, they may make a DC 25 or DC 10 + damage dealt (whichever is higher) Endurance check. If successful, 1d6 nonlethal damage is immediately healed. Nonlethal damage cannot exceed more than a character’s HP +1.
Contain Sorcery: While weaving a spell if the caster takes damage they run the risk of the energy escaping the body before the spell can be formed. They must make a DC 10 + damage dealt Endurance check to avoid losing the sorcery and thus the spell.
FOCUS(Wis) <Basic>
Focus is control of one’s own mind. It determines a character’s ability to maintain attention on a task to complete it under stress, or simply to concentrate on something until a certain degree of understanding can be achieved.
TYPICAL USES: Ignore effects of a wound, maintain concentration, memorize, recall information, resist dying, resist fear, tolerate poison, willpower, intuition, or any non-specific use of Wisdom.
The DC and the effect of a successful check depend on the task you attempt.
Ignore Effects of a Wound: If you are wounded there is an additional penalty to certain actions. A successful Focus check removes this penalty. The wound doesn’t go away—it is just ignored through the force of will.
Maintain Concentration: You must make a Focus check whenever you might potentially be distracted while engaged in some action that requires your full attention. Such actions include concentrating on an active spell, directing a spell, using a spell-like ability, or using a skill or maneuver that would provoke an attack of opportunity. In general, if an action wouldn’t normally provoke an attack of opportunity, you need not make a Focus check to avoid being distracted.
If the Focus check succeeds, you may continue with the action as normal. If the check fails, the action automatically fails and is wasted. 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. If you were using a spell-like ability, that use of the ability is lost. A skill use also fails, and in some cases a failed skill check may have other ramifications as well.
Memorize: You can attempt to memorize a long string of numbers, a long passage of verse, or some other particularly difficult piece of information (but you can’t memorize magical writing or similarly exotic scripts). Each successful check allows you to memorize a single page of text (up to 800 words), numbers, diagrams, or sigils (even if you don’t recognize their meaning). If a document is longer than one page, you can make additional checks for each additional page. You always retain this information; however, you can recall it only with another successful Focus check.
Recall Information: You can recall general information obtained during play. DC 10 +2 for each week passed after information obtained.
Resist Dying: You can attempt to subconsciously prevent yourself from dying. If you have negative hit points and are losing hit points (at 1 per round, 1 per hour), you can substitute a DC 20 Focus check for your d% roll to see if you become stable. If the check is successful, you stop losing hit points (you do not gain any hit points, however, as a result of the check). You can substitute this check for the d% roll in later rounds if you are initially unsuccessful.
Resist Fear: In response to any fear effect, you make a saving throw normally. If you fail the saving throw, you can make a Focus check on your next round even while overcome by fear. If your Focus check meets or beats the DC for the fear effect, you shrug off the fear. On a failed check, the fear affects you normally, and you gain no further attempts to shrug off that particular fear effect.
Tolerate Poison: You can choose to substitute a Focus check for a saving throw against any standard poison’s secondary damage or effect. This skill has no effect on the initial saving throw against poison.
Willpower: If reduced to 0 hit points (disabled), you can make a Focus check. If successful, you can take a normal action while at 0 hit points without taking 1 point of damage. You must make a check for each strenuous action you want to take. A failed Focus check in this circumstance carries no direct penalty—you can choose not to take the strenuous action and thus avoid the hit point loss. If you do so anyway, you drop to -1 hit points, as normal when disabled.
Intuition: Other things that can be done with Focus are estimating the strength or ability of a creature, determining if a retreat is necessary, etc.
Action: Varies.
Retry: Yes, for memorize and willpower uses, though a success doesn’t cancel the effects of a previous failure. No for the most other uses.
Synergy: If you have 5 or more ranks in Endurance, you get a +2 bonus on Focus checks.
HANDLE ANIMAL(Cha) <Learned>
No changes.
HEAL (Wis) <Learned>
You are skilled at tending to the ailments of others.
TYPICAL USES: First-Aid, Long-term care, treat 1st and 2nd degree wounds, and treat poison and disease.
First-Aid: You usually use first aid to save a dying character. If a character has negative hit points and is losing hit points (at the rate of 1 per round, 1 per hour, or 1 per day), you can make him stable. A stable character regains no hit points but stops losing them. First aid also stops a character from losing hit points due to effects that cause bleeding. This use is 1 standard action.
Long-term care: Providing long-term care means treating a wounded person for a day or more. If your Heal check is successful, the patient recovers hit points or ability score points lost to ability damage at twice the normal rate: 2 hit points per level for a full 8 hours of rest in a day, or 4 hit points per level for each full day of complete rest; 2 ability score points for a full 8 hours of rest in a day, or 4 ability score points for each full day of complete rest.
You can tend as many as six patients at a time. You need a few items and supplies (bandages, salves, and so on) that are easy to come by in settled lands. Giving long-term care counts as light activity for the healer. You cannot give long-term care to yourself. This use takes 8 hours.
Treat 1st degree wounds: You can restore hit points to a damaged creature. Treating 1st degree wounds restores 1 hit point per level of the creature. If you exceed the DC by 5 or more, add your Wisdom modifier (if positive) to this amount. A creature can only benefit from its wounds being treated within 24 hours of being injured and never more than once per day. This use takes 1 hour.
Treat 2nd degree wounds: 2nd degree wounds have a penalizing effect. A successful heal check removes this penalty. This use takes 10 minutes.
Note: You must expend two uses from a healer's kit to perform this task. You take a –2 penalty on your check for each use from a healer's kit that you lack.
Treat Poison: To treat poison means to tend to a single character who has been poisoned and who is going to take more damage from the poison (or suffer some other effect). Every time the poisoned character makes a saving throw against the poison, you make a Heal check. If your Heal check exceeds the DC of the poison, the character receives a +4 competence bonus on his saving throw against the poison. This use takes 1 standard action.
Treat Disease: To treat a disease means to tend to a single diseased character. Every time the diseased character makes a saving throw against disease effects, you make a Heal check. If your Heal check exceeds the DC of the disease, the character receives a +4 competence bonus on his saving throw against the disease. This use takes 10 minutes.
INFLUENCE (Cha) <Basic>
You can make use of the power of personality.
TYPICALS USES: Deception, persuasion, investigation, intimidation and any other non-specific use of charisma.
Deception: Using Influence for deception is an opposed skill check against your opponent’s Perception skill. If you use Influence to fool someone, with a successful check you convince your opponent that what you are saying is true. This type of Influence check is modified depending upon the believability of the lie. Note that some lies are so improbable that it is impossible to convince anyone that they are true (subject to GM discretion). This use also includes wearing a disguise to deceive.
Influence Attitudes: You can change the initial attitudes of non-player characters with a successful check. The DC of this check depends on the creature’s starting attitude toward you, adjusted by its Charisma modifier.
If you succeed, the character’s attitude toward you is improved by one step. For every 5 by which your check result exceeds the DC, the character’s attitude toward you increases by one additional step. A creature’s attitude cannot be shifted more than two steps up in this way, although the GM can override this rule in some situations.
If you fail the check by 4 or less, the character’s attitude toward you is unchanged. If you fail by 5 or more, the character’s attitude toward you is decreased by one step.
You cannot use Influence for this purpose against a creature that does not understand you or has an Intelligence of 3 or less. This use of Influence is generally ineffective in combat and against creatures that intend to harm you or your allies in the immediate future. Any attitude shift caused through Influence generally lasts for 1d4 hours but can last much longer or shorter depending upon the situation (GM discretion).
You can use Influence for intimidation to force an opponent to act friendly toward you for 1d6 × 10 minutes with a successful check. The DC of this check is equal to 10 + the target’s Hit Dice + the target’s Wisdom modifier.
If successful, the opponent will give you information you desire, take actions that do not endanger it, or offer other limited assistance.
After the intimidation expires, the target treats you as unfriendly and may report you to local authorities.
If you fail this check by 5 or more, the target attempts to deceive you or otherwise hinder your activities.
Action: Varies
Retry: Varies
Persuasion: If a creature’s attitude toward you is at least indifferent, you can make requests of the creature. This is an additional Diplomacy check, using the creature’s current attitude to determine the base DC, with one of the following modifiers. Once a creature’s attitude has shifted to helpful, the creature gives in to most requests without a check, unless the request is against its nature or puts it in serious peril. Some requests automatically fail if the request goes against the creature’s values or its nature, subject to GM discretion.
Investigation: You can also use Influence to gather information about a specific topic or individual. To do this, you must spend at least 1d4 hours canvassing people at local taverns, markets, and gathering places. The DC of this check depends on the obscurity of the information sought, but for most commonly known facts or rumors it is 10. For obscure or secret knowledge, the DC might increase to 20 or higher. The GM might rule that some topics are simply unknown to common folk.
KNOWLEDGE (Int) <Learned>
Like the Craft and Profession skills, Knowledge actually encompasses a number of unrelated skills. Knowledge represents a study of some body of lore, possibly an academic or even scientific discipline.
Below are listed typical fields of study. With your GM’s approval, you can invent new areas of knowledge.
Arcana (ancient mysteries, magic traditions, arcane symbols, cryptic phrases, constructs, dragons, magical beasts). Also, can be used to identify magical properties of items and materials and can be used in the hands of those not gifted in sorcery to perform incantations and make use of magical items.
Architecture (buildings, aqueducts, bridges, fortifications).
Geography (legends, personalities, inhabitants, laws, customs, traditions, lands, terrain, climate).
History (origins of legends, historical personalities, past inhabitants, ancient laws and customs, origins of traditions, royalty, wars, colonies, migrations, founding of cities, lineages, heraldry, family trees, mottoes).
Religion (gods and goddesses, mythic history, ecclesiastic tradition, holy symbols, undead, planes of existence, outsiders, elementals, spirits).
TYPICAL USES: Answering a question within your field of study and identify monsters and their traits.
In many cases, you can use this skill to identify monsters and their special powers or vulnerabilities. In general, the DC of such a check equals 10 + the monster’s HD. A successful check allows you to remember a bit of useful information about that monster. For every 5 points by which your check result exceeds the DC, you recall another piece of useful information.
Action: Usually none. In most cases, making a Knowledge check doesn’t take an action—you simply know the answer or you don’t.
Retry: No. The check represents what you know, and thinking about a topic a second time doesn’t let you know something that you never learned in the first place.
Synergy: If you have 5 or more ranks in Knowledge (arcana), you get a +2 bonus on Spellcraft checks.
If you have 5 or more ranks in Knowledge (architecture), you get a +2 bonus on Perception checks made to find secret doors or hidden compartments.
If you have 5 or more ranks in Knowledge (geography), you get a +2 bonus on Survival checks made to keep from getting lost or to avoid natural hazards a +2 bonus on Influence checks used for general investigation.
If you have 5 or more ranks in Knowledge (History), you get a +2 bonus on Influence checks.
Untrained: An untrained Knowledge check would be a Reason check. Without actual training, you know only common knowledge (DC 10 or lower).
LINGUISTICS (Int) <Learned>
You are skilled at working with language, in both its spoken and written forms. You can speak a smattering of multiple languages, and can decipher nearly any tongue given enough time. Your skill in writing allows you to create and detect forgeries as well.
TYPICAL USES: Read or comprehend main idea of writing, detect or create forgeries, write legibly, copy writing, communicate with people or creatures that speak a language in which you are not fluent.
Comprehend writing: You can read 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, make a DC 5 Focus check 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.)
Both the Linguistics check and (if necessary) the Focus check are made secretly by the GM, so that you can't tell whether the conclusion you draw is true or false.
PERCEPTION (Wis) <Basic>
Your senses allow you to notice fine details and alert you to danger. Perception covers all five senses, including sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell.
TYPICAL USES: Perception has a number of uses, the most common of which is an opposed check versus an opponent's Stealth check to notice the opponent and avoid being surprised. If you are successful, you see the opponent and can react accordingly. If you fail by less than 5, you fail to see the opponent but can hear them. Failure by more than 5 means you opponent has successfully eluded your senses and your opponent can take a variety of actions, including sneaking past you and attacking you.
Perception is also used to notice fine details in the environment. The DC to notice such details varies depending upon distance, the environment, and how noticeable the detail is. The following table gives a number of guidelines.
Action: Most Perception checks are reactive, made in response to observable stimulus. Intentionally searching for stimulus is a move action.
Retry: Yes. You can try to sense something you missed the first time, so long as the stimulus is still present.
PERFORM (Cha) <Practiced>
You are skilled at one form of entertainment, from singing to acting to playing an instrument and can impress audiences with your talent and skill in your chosen performance type. Like Craft, Knowledge, and Profession, Perform is actually a number of separate skills. You could have several Perform skills, each with its own ranks.
Each of the eight categories of the Perform skill includes a variety of methods, instruments, or techniques. Following are the categories and some examples: Act (comedy, drama, pantomime), Dance (ballet, waltz, jig), Keyboard instruments (harpsichord, piano), Oratory (epic, ode, storytelling), Percussion instruments (bells, chimes, drums), String instruments (fiddle, harp, lute, mandolin), Wind instruments (flute, pan pipes, recorder), Sing (ballad, chant, melody).
Inspirational Performance: A performer can attempt to execute a truly inspirational performance. Depending on the ranks he has in the Perform skill, he can inspire courage in allies, fascinate a creature, help others perform skills better, or inspire greatness. An inspirational performance can be done with any of the above types of performance.
Inspire Courage: A performer with 3 or more ranks in Perform who succeeds at a DC 20 Perform check can inspire courage in his allies, bolstering them against fear and improving their combat abilities. To be affected, an ally must hear the performance for a full round. The effect lasts as long as the performance continues and for 5 rounds after the Performance ends (or 5 rounds after the ally can no longer hear the perfomer). While performing, a character can fight but cannot cast spells, activate magic items by spell completion (such as scrolls), or activate magic items by magic word (such as wands). Affected allies receive a +2 morale bonus to saving throws against charm and fear effects and a +1 morale bonus to attack and weapon damage rolls. Inspire courage is a mind-affecting ability.
Fascinate: A performer with 3 or more ranks in Perform can cause a single creature to become fascinated with him. The creature to be fascinated must be able to see and hear the performer and must be within 90 feet. The performer must also see the creature. The creature must not be distracted. The distraction of nearby combat or other dangers prevents the ability from working. The performer makes a Perform check, and the target can negate the effect with a Will saving throw equal to or greater than the performer’s check result. If the saving throw succeeds, the performer cannot attempt to fascinate that creature again for 24 hours. If the saving throw fails, the creature sits quietly and listens to the performance for up to 1 round per ½ the performer’s ranks in Performe. While fascinated, the target’s Perception checks suffer a –4 penalty. Any potential threat allows the fascinated creature a second saving throw against a new Perform check result. Any obvious threat, such as casting a spell, drawing a sword, or aiming, automatically breaks the effect.
While fascinating (or attempting to fascinate) a creature, the performer must concentrate, as if casting or maintaining a spell. Fascinate is a mind-affecting charm ability.
Inspire Competence: A performer with 6 or more ranks in Perform who succeeds at a DC 25 Perform check can help an ally succeed at a task. The ally must be able to see and hear the performer and must be within 30 feet. The performer must also see the creature. Depending on the task that the ally has at hand, the performer may use his performance to lift the ally’s spirits, to help the ally focus mentally, or in some other way. The ally gets a +2 competence bonus on his skill checks with a particular skill as long as he or she continues to hear the performance. The GM may rule that certain uses of this ability are infeasible—chanting to make a footpad move more quietly, for example, is self-defeating. The performer can maintain the effect for 2 minutes (long enough for the ally to take 20). Inspire competence is a mind-affecting ability.
Inspire Greatness: A performer with 12 or more ranks in Perform who succeeds at a DC 30 Perform check can inspire greatness in another creature, granting extra fighting capability. To inspire greatness, the performer must perform his art and the creature must hear the performance for a full round, as with inspire courage. The creature must also be within 30 feet. A creature inspired with greatness gains attack bonuses and saving throw bonuses as long as he or she hears the performance and for 5 rounds thereafter. The target gains the following boosts:
+2 competence bonus on attacks.
+1 competence bonus on Fortitude saves.
Inspire greatness is a mind-affecting ability.
Action: Varies.
Retry: Yes. Retries are allowed, but they don't negate previous failures.
PROFESSION (Wis) <Learned>
You are trained in a livelihood or a professional role, such as apothecary, boater, bookkeeper, driver, farmer, fisher, guide, herbalist, herder, hunter, innkeeper, miller, miner, porter, sailor, scribe, stableman, tanner, woodcutter, or the like.
TYPICAL USES: You can earn half your Profession 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 helpers, and how to handle common problems. You can also answer questions about your Profession.
Like Craft, Knowledge, and Perform, Profession is actually a number of separate skills. You could have several Profession skills, each with its own ranks. While a Craft skill represents ability in creating an item, a Profession skill represents an aptitude in a vocation requiring a broader range of less specific knowledge.
Profession skills often encompass the use of other skills in order to perform tasks the profession requires. This grants a bonus to certain skill checks and can grant Tool Familiarity to certain weapons. The skill need only be known as a class skill to obtain these bonuses and abilities.
Tool Familiarity reduces the penalty for fighting with a weapon you are not proficient with by 2. It does not grant full proficiency in the weapon in question because Tool Familiarity comes from experience using such tools as axes in ways unrelated to fighting. If a character that has weapon familiarity gains full proficiency in the weapon in question, they gain Weapon Focus as a bonus feat for that weapon.
Apothecary: You sell healing supplies. +2 bonus to Heal checks. You are always assumed to have at least one use of a healer’s kit per day.
Boater: Can handle a small, oar-driven, watercraft. +2 bonus on Athletics checks made to swim. +2 bonus to Survival checks while traveling on a lake or river.
Bookkeeper: You can keep track of finances with or without the ability to write any sort of script. +2 bonus to Profession: Bookkeeper checks if character has at least 5 ranks in Linguistics.
Driver: You drive a cart or wagon pulled by one or more pack animals. Weapon Familiarity: Whip. +2 bonus to Handle Animal checks. +2 to Survival checks to avoid getting lost and avoid natural hazards.
Farmer: You raise field crops, orchards, or vinyards. Weapon Familiarity: Flail, Guisarme, Ranseur, Sickle, and Scythe. +2 bonus on Endurance checks. +2 to Survival checks to predict the weather.
Fisher: You capture fish or other aquatic animals. Weapon Familiarity: Net and trident. +4 bonus to Survival checks within 50 miles of a body of water to find food and water. +2 bonus to Knowledge checks to determine traits of aquatic creatures.
Guide: You lead others through the wilderness. +4 bonus to Survival checks to avoid getting lost and avoid natural hazards. +2 bonus to Endurance checks. You can automatically determine where true north lies in relation to yourself as though you knew Survival as a class skill.
Herbalist: You collect herbs that can be used for various purposes, especially healing. +2 bonus on Survival checks made to locate and identify plants and other materials found in the wild that can be used for healing. Locating such material grants a +4 bonus to Heal checks for 24 hours.
Herder: You care for livestock. +4 bonus to Handle Animal checks used to push an animal.
Hunter: You pursue and kill or capture animals. Grants Weapon Familiarity: Bows and Shortspear. +4 bonus to Survival checks used to track. +2 bonus to all other Survival checks. +2 bonus to Craft: trapmaking checks.
Innkeeper: You maintain a way-station and resting place for travelers and their livestock. An innkeeper would be proficient in locating water and handling a stable. +2 bonus to Survival checks used to locate drinking water. +2 bonus to Handle Animal checks used to push an animal.
Miller: You grind grain to make bread. Operates and maintains a manually operated mechanical device known as a gristmill. +2 bonus to Endurance checks and +2 bonus to Sabotage checks to disarm simple mechanical devices not including locks.
Miner: You search for and retrieve minerals. You can make checks to locate different types of mineral ores, gems, and coal. Weapon Familiarity: light hammer, light pick, heavy pick, and warhammer. +2 bonus to Perception checks while underground or surrounded by stone.
Porter: You are skilled at transporting goods overland. You figure carrying capacity as though you Strength were 2 points higher.
Sailor: You can handle a sail-driven watercraft. As a part of this training, a sailor is also skilled in tying special knots. +2 bonus to Perceptions checks while at sea. +2 bonus to Reflex saves while aboard a sailing vessel.
Scribe: You copy and write books and documents. You are literate. It is assumed that a scribe always has at least enough paper (or whatever type of writing surface is most common) and means of writing 800 words per day. +2 bonus to Linguistics checks.
Stableman: You care for and maintain shelter for animals used as mounts. +4 bonus to Handle Animal checks.
Tanner: You can treat animal skins to produce leather. +4 bonus to Fortitude saves against noxious odors.
Woodcutter: You cut down trees and transport lumber. Grants Weapon Familiarity: Axes.
REASON (Int) <Basic>
You have the capacity for consciously making sense of things. This skill is used to make inferences based on limited information, solve complicated problems, work puzzles, and any other non-specific uses of Intelligence.
TYPICAL USES: Research, deduction, problem-solving, and puzzle-solving.
Action: Varies
Retry: Varies.
RIDE (Dex) <Basic>
You can ride any kind of creature suited for riding. If you attempt to ride a creature that is ill suited as a mount (such as most bipedal creatures), you take a –5 penalty on your Ride checks.
TYPICAL USES: Typical riding actions don’t require checks. You can saddle, mount, ride, and dismount from a mount without a problem. The following tasks do require checks.
Evasive Maneuver: Once per round when your mount is hit in combat, you may attempt a Ride check (as a reaction) to negate the hit. The hit is negated if your Ride check result is greater than the opponent’s attack roll.
Everything else is unchanged.
SABOTAGE (Dex) <Learned>
You are skilled at disarming traps and opening locks. In addition, this skill lets you disable simple mechanical devices, such as catapults, wagon wheels, and doors.
When disarming a trap or other device, the Sabotage check is made secretly, so that you don’t necessarily know whether you’ve succeeded.
TYPICAL USES: If the check succeeds, you disable the device. If it fails by 4 or less, you have failed but can try again. If you fail by 5 or more, something goes wrong. If the device is a trap, you spring it. If you’re attempting some sort of sabotage, you think the device is disabled, but it still works normally.
You also can rig simple devices such as saddles or wagon wheels to work normally for a while and then fail or fall off some time later (usually after 1d4 rounds or minutes of use).
The DC to open a lock depends on the lock's quality. If you do not have a set of thieves’ tools it will be substantially more difficult to open a lock.
Action: The amount of time needed to make a Sabotage check depends on the task.
Simple Device: Disabling a simple device takes 1 round and is a full-round action.
Complex/Intricate Device: An intricate or complex device requires 1d4 or 2d4 rounds. Attempting to open a lock is a full-round action.
Retry: You can retry checks made to disable traps if you miss the check by 4 or less, though you must be aware that you fail in order to try again. You can retry checks made to open locks.
SLEIGHT OF HAND (Dex; Armor Check Penalty) <Learned>
Unchanged.
SPELLCRAFT (Int) <Learned>
You are skilled at the art of casting spells and identifying spells as they are being cast.
TYPICAL USES: Spellcraft is used whenever your knowledge and skill of the technical art of casting a spell comes into question.
Action: Identifying a spell as it is being cast requires no action, but you must be able to clearly see the spell as it is being cast, and this incurs the same penalties as a Perception skill check due to distance, poor conditions, and other factors.
Retry: No.
STEALTH (Dex; Armor Check Penalty) <Basic>
You are skilled at avoiding detection, allowing you to slip past foes or strike from an unseen position. This skill covers hiding and moving silently.
Your Stealth check is opposed by the Perception check of anyone who might notice you. You can move up to half your normal speed and use Stealth at no penalty. When moving at a speed greater than half but less than your normal speed, you take a –5 penalty. It's impossible to use Stealth while attacking, running, or charging.
A creature larger or smaller than Medium takes a size bonus or penalty on Stealth checks depending on its size category: Fine +16, Diminutive +12, Tiny +8, Small +4, Large –4, Huge –8, Gargantuan –12, Colossal –16.
If people are observing you using any of their senses (but typically sight), you can't use Stealth. Against most creatures, finding cover or concealment allows you to use Stealth. If your observers are momentarily distracted you can attempt to use Stealth. While the others turn their attention from you, you can attempt a Stealth check if you can get to an unobserved place of some kind. This check, however, is made at a –10 penalty because you have to move quickly.
Sniping: If you've already successfully used Stealth at least 10 feet from your target, you can make one ranged attack and then immediately use Stealth again. You take a –20 penalty on your Stealth check to maintain your obscured location.
Creating a Diversion to Hide: You can use Influence to allow you to use Stealth. A successful Influence check can give you the momentary diversion you need to attempt a Stealth check while people are aware of you.
Action: Usually none. Normally, you make a Stealth check as part of movement, so it doesn't take a separate action. However, using Stealth immediately after a ranged attack (see Sniping, above) is a move action.
Special: If you are invisible, you gain a +40 bonus on Stealth checks if you are immobile or a +20 bonus on Stealth checks if you're moving.
SURVIVAL (Wis) <Practiced>
You are skilled at surviving in the wild and at navigating in the wilderness. You also excel at following trails and tracks left by others and identifying flora and fauna.
TYPICAL USES: You can keep yourself and others safe and fed in the wild. This means you can follow tracks, hunt, and forage for food. You also know much about animals, fey, giants, monstrous humanoids, plants, seasons and cycles, weather, and vermin.
Track: To find tracks or to follow them for 1 mile requires a successful Survival check. You must make another Survival check every time the tracks become difficult to follow. If you are not trained in this skill, you can make untrained checks to find tracks, but you can follow them only if the DC for the task is 10 or lower. Alternatively, you can use the Perception skill to find a footprint or similar sign of a creature's passage using the same DCs, but you can't use Perception to follow tracks, even if someone else has already found them.
You move at half your normal speed while following tracks (or at your normal speed with a –5 penalty on the check, or at up to twice your normal speed with a –20 penalty on the check).
Action: Varies. A single Survival check may represent activity over the course of hours or a full day. A Survival check made to find tracks is at least a full-round action, and it may take even longer.
Retry: Varies. For getting along in the wild or for gaining the Fortitude save bonus noted in Table: Survival DCs by Task, you make a Survival 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 Survival 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. For finding tracks, you can retry a failed check after 1 hour (outdoors) or 10 minutes (indoors) of searching.
Special: If you know Survival as a class skill, you can automatically determine where true north lies in relation to yourself.
This uses the skills known variant from unearthed arcana.
There are three different types of skills: Basic Skills, Practiced Skills, and Learned Skills. Basic skills measure how well a character does something that relies on his natural abilities. Practiced skills may require practice to get better at, but are not usually something that is taught. Learned skills must be acquired through education, whether it is learned from a book or a teacher.
Basic skills are class skills for any class and can be used untrained. Every character has 3 ranks in all basic skills. Ranks achieved by making a basic skill a known skill replace these ranks in that skill. Practiced skills are based on class and can also be used untrained. Every character has 1 rank in all practiced skills. Ranks achieved by making a practiced skill a known skill replace this rank in that skill. Learned skills are also based on class but can be made class skills for any class for intelligent characters.
Starting characters may choose an amount of Craft, Knowledge, or Profession skills equal to their intelligence modifier in much the same way as bonus languages are chosen. This skill allotment makes the chosen skills count as class skills.
Each skill is either a known skill or an unknown skill. A character is considered to have the maximum number of ranks allowable in any skill known to that character, and no ranks in any skill unknown to that character.
ACROBATICS (Dex; Armor Check Penalty) <Basic>
Acrobatics is the applied use of agility and grace. It determines whether a character can maintain balance, long jump, escape restraint, squeeze through a tight space, perform gymnastics, or any non-specific use of dexterity.
TYPICAL USES: Escape grapple, escape restraints, long jump, balancing, contortion, and gymnastics.
Escape Grapple: You can make a check opposed by your enemy’s grapple check to get out of a grapple or out of a pinned condition (so that you’re only grappling).
Escape Restraint: You can make a check to escape from being tied up and other forms of restraint.
Long Jump: You can make a check to perform a horizontal jump, made across a gap like a chasm or stream. At the midpoint of the jump, you attain a vertical height equal to one-quarter of the horizontal distance.
Your check is modified by your speed. If your speed is 30 feet, then no modifier based on speed applies to the check. If your speed is less than 30 feet, you take a –6 penalty for every 10 feet of speed less than 30 feet. If your speed is greater than 30 feet, you gain a +4 bonus for every 10 feet beyond 30 feet.
DCs for making a long jump assume that you get a running start, which requires that you move at least 20 feet in a straight line before attempting the jump. If you do not get a running start, the DC is doubled. Distance moved by jumping is counted against your normal maximum movement in a round.
If your check succeeds, you land on your feet at the far end. If you fail the check by less than 5, you don’t clear the distance, but you can make a DC 15 Reflex save to grab the far edge of the gap. You end your movement grasping the far edge. If that leaves you dangling over a chasm or gap, getting up requires a move action and a successful Athletics check.
Balancing: 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.
If you take damage while balancing, you must make another check against the same DC to remain standing.
If you accept a –5 penalty, you can move your full speed as a move action. (Moving twice your speed in a round requires two checks, one for each move action used.) You may also accept this penalty in order to charge across a precarious surface; charging requires one check for each multiple of your speed (or fraction thereof) that you charge.
Perform gymnastics: You can land softly when you fall or tumble past opponents. You can also use gymnastics to entertain an audience.
Contortion: You can bend and flex your body to fit into a space where your head fits but your shoulders don’t. If the space is long, such as a chimney, the GM may call for multiple checks. You can’t get through a space that your head does not fit through.
Action: Varies.
Special: If you have 5 or more ranks in Acrobatics, you gain a +3 dodge bonus to AC when using the Defensive Stance instead of the usual +2 dodge bonus to AC. You gain a +6 dodge bonus to AC when using the total defense stance instead of the usual +4 dodge bonus to AC.
Synergy: If you have 5 or more ranks in Acrobatics, you get a +2 bonus in Athletics.
APPRAISE (Int) <Practiced>
You can evaluate the monetary value of an object.
TYPICAL USES: An Appraise check determines the value of an item. If you succeed by 5 or more, you also determine if the item has magic properties, although this success does not grant knowledge of the magic item’s abilities. If you fail the check by less than 5, you determine the price of that item to within 20% of its actual value. If you fail this check by 5 or more, the price is wildly inaccurate, subject to GM discretion. Particularly rare or exotic items are more difficult to Appraise.
You can also use this check to determine the most valuable item visible in a treasure hoard. The larger the hoard, the more difficult the check. Action: Appraising an item takes 1 standard action. Determining the most valuable object in a treasure hoard takes 1 full-round action.
Retry: Additional attempts to Appraise an item reveal the same result.
ATHLETICS (Str; Armor Check Penalty) <Basic>
Athletics is fitness and physical prowess. It determines whether a character can climb, high jump, perform amazing feats of strength, swim in physically demanding situations, or any other non-specific use of strength.
TYPICAL USES: Climbing, catching a falling character, high jump, exceptional strength, and swimming.
Climbing: Climbing is gradually moving in any direction on a slope, a wall, or some other steep incline (or even a ceiling with handholds) at one-quarter your normal speed. A slope is considered to be any incline at an angle measuring less than 60 degrees; a wall is any incline at an angle measuring 60 degrees or more.
Failure by 4 or less means that you make no progress, and a check that fails by 5 or more means that you fall from whatever height you have already attained.
You need both hands free to climb, but you may cling to a wall with one hand while you take an action that requires only one hand. While climbing, you can’t move to avoid a blow, so you lose your Dexterity bonus to AC (if any). You also can’t use a shield while climbing.
Any time you take damage while climbing, make an Athletics check against the same DC used to climb the slope or wall. Failure means you fall from your current height and sustain the appropriate falling damage.
By accepting a –5 penalty, you can move half your speed (instead of one-quarter your speed).
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 he or she is within your reach. Doing so requires a successful melee touch attack against the falling character. If you hit, you must immediately attempt an Athletics check. Success indicates that you catch the falling character, but his or her total weight, including equipment, cannot exceed your heavy load limit or you automatically fall. If you fail your 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.
High Jump: A high jump is a vertical leap made to reach a ledge high above or to grasp something overhead, such as a tree limb. The DC is equal to 4 times the distance to be cleared.
If you jumped up to grab something, a successful check indicates that you reached the desired height and successfully pulled yourself up, if necessary.
If you fail the check, you do not reach the height, and you land on your feet in the same spot from which you jumped.
Obviously, the difficulty of reaching a given height varies according to the size of the character or creature. The maximum vertical reach for an average creature of a given size is shown on the table below.
Same as the one in PHB
Quadrupedal creatures don’t have the same vertical reach as a bipedal creature; treat them as being one size category smaller. For heights less than half the character’s vertical reach, no check is required.
Exceptional Strength: Any time a character wants to break something, bend bars, lift a heavy, rusted gate, or do anything where almost superhuman strength is required, an Athletics check is made.
Swimming: Make a check once per round while you are in the water. Success means you may swim at up to one-half your speed (as a full-round action) or at one-quarter your speed (as a move action).
If you fail by 4 or less, you make no progress through the water. If you fail by 5 or more, you go underwater.
If you are underwater you must hold your breath. You can hold your breath for a number of rounds equal to your Constitution score, but only if you do nothing other than take move actions or free actions. If you take a standard action or a full-round action, the remainder of the duration for which you can hold your breath is reduced by 1 round. After that period of time, you must make an Endurance check every round to continue holding your breath. Each round, the DC for that check increases by 1. If you fail the Endurance check, you begin to drown.
The DC for the check depends on the water. There are also penalties for carrying a medium or heavy load or wearing armor in addition to the armor check penalty already being applied.
Additional Swim Penalties
Armor/Load Additional Check Penalty
Light or Shield 0
Medium -3
Heavy -6
Action: Varies
Retry: Varies
Synergy: If you have 5 or more ranks in Acrobatics, you get a +2 bonus on Athletics checks.
CRAFT (Int) <Learned>
No changes.
ENDURANCE (Con; Armor Check Penalty) <Basic>
Endurance is withstanding exertion over time. It determines whether a character can continue hold their breath, maintain consciousness after suffering nonlethal damage, undergo the physical strain of spellcasting under stress, or do anything physically demanding for long periods of time.
TYPICAL USES: Holding your breath, strenuous activity over time, maintain consciousness, contain magical energy, or any non-specific use of Constitution.
Holding your breath: see Athletics - Swimming.
Strenuous Activity: Each hour that you participate in strenuous activity you must make a DC 20 Endurance check or take 1d6 points of nonlethal damage from fatigue.
Maintain Consciousness: Anytime a character would be staggered or knocked unconscious, they may make a DC 25 or DC 10 + damage dealt (whichever is higher) Endurance check. If successful, 1d6 nonlethal damage is immediately healed. Nonlethal damage cannot exceed more than a character’s HP +1.
Contain Sorcery: While weaving a spell if the caster takes damage they run the risk of the energy escaping the body before the spell can be formed. They must make a DC 10 + damage dealt Endurance check to avoid losing the sorcery and thus the spell.
FOCUS(Wis) <Basic>
Focus is control of one’s own mind. It determines a character’s ability to maintain attention on a task to complete it under stress, or simply to concentrate on something until a certain degree of understanding can be achieved.
TYPICAL USES: Ignore effects of a wound, maintain concentration, memorize, recall information, resist dying, resist fear, tolerate poison, willpower, intuition, or any non-specific use of Wisdom.
The DC and the effect of a successful check depend on the task you attempt.
Ignore Effects of a Wound: If you are wounded there is an additional penalty to certain actions. A successful Focus check removes this penalty. The wound doesn’t go away—it is just ignored through the force of will.
Maintain Concentration: You must make a Focus check whenever you might potentially be distracted while engaged in some action that requires your full attention. Such actions include concentrating on an active spell, directing a spell, using a spell-like ability, or using a skill or maneuver that would provoke an attack of opportunity. In general, if an action wouldn’t normally provoke an attack of opportunity, you need not make a Focus check to avoid being distracted.
If the Focus check succeeds, you may continue with the action as normal. If the check fails, the action automatically fails and is wasted. 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. If you were using a spell-like ability, that use of the ability is lost. A skill use also fails, and in some cases a failed skill check may have other ramifications as well.
Memorize: You can attempt to memorize a long string of numbers, a long passage of verse, or some other particularly difficult piece of information (but you can’t memorize magical writing or similarly exotic scripts). Each successful check allows you to memorize a single page of text (up to 800 words), numbers, diagrams, or sigils (even if you don’t recognize their meaning). If a document is longer than one page, you can make additional checks for each additional page. You always retain this information; however, you can recall it only with another successful Focus check.
Recall Information: You can recall general information obtained during play. DC 10 +2 for each week passed after information obtained.
Resist Dying: You can attempt to subconsciously prevent yourself from dying. If you have negative hit points and are losing hit points (at 1 per round, 1 per hour), you can substitute a DC 20 Focus check for your d% roll to see if you become stable. If the check is successful, you stop losing hit points (you do not gain any hit points, however, as a result of the check). You can substitute this check for the d% roll in later rounds if you are initially unsuccessful.
Resist Fear: In response to any fear effect, you make a saving throw normally. If you fail the saving throw, you can make a Focus check on your next round even while overcome by fear. If your Focus check meets or beats the DC for the fear effect, you shrug off the fear. On a failed check, the fear affects you normally, and you gain no further attempts to shrug off that particular fear effect.
Tolerate Poison: You can choose to substitute a Focus check for a saving throw against any standard poison’s secondary damage or effect. This skill has no effect on the initial saving throw against poison.
Willpower: If reduced to 0 hit points (disabled), you can make a Focus check. If successful, you can take a normal action while at 0 hit points without taking 1 point of damage. You must make a check for each strenuous action you want to take. A failed Focus check in this circumstance carries no direct penalty—you can choose not to take the strenuous action and thus avoid the hit point loss. If you do so anyway, you drop to -1 hit points, as normal when disabled.
Intuition: Other things that can be done with Focus are estimating the strength or ability of a creature, determining if a retreat is necessary, etc.
Action: Varies.
Retry: Yes, for memorize and willpower uses, though a success doesn’t cancel the effects of a previous failure. No for the most other uses.
Synergy: If you have 5 or more ranks in Endurance, you get a +2 bonus on Focus checks.
HANDLE ANIMAL(Cha) <Learned>
No changes.
HEAL (Wis) <Learned>
You are skilled at tending to the ailments of others.
TYPICAL USES: First-Aid, Long-term care, treat 1st and 2nd degree wounds, and treat poison and disease.
First-Aid: You usually use first aid to save a dying character. If a character has negative hit points and is losing hit points (at the rate of 1 per round, 1 per hour, or 1 per day), you can make him stable. A stable character regains no hit points but stops losing them. First aid also stops a character from losing hit points due to effects that cause bleeding. This use is 1 standard action.
Long-term care: Providing long-term care means treating a wounded person for a day or more. If your Heal check is successful, the patient recovers hit points or ability score points lost to ability damage at twice the normal rate: 2 hit points per level for a full 8 hours of rest in a day, or 4 hit points per level for each full day of complete rest; 2 ability score points for a full 8 hours of rest in a day, or 4 ability score points for each full day of complete rest.
You can tend as many as six patients at a time. You need a few items and supplies (bandages, salves, and so on) that are easy to come by in settled lands. Giving long-term care counts as light activity for the healer. You cannot give long-term care to yourself. This use takes 8 hours.
Treat 1st degree wounds: You can restore hit points to a damaged creature. Treating 1st degree wounds restores 1 hit point per level of the creature. If you exceed the DC by 5 or more, add your Wisdom modifier (if positive) to this amount. A creature can only benefit from its wounds being treated within 24 hours of being injured and never more than once per day. This use takes 1 hour.
Treat 2nd degree wounds: 2nd degree wounds have a penalizing effect. A successful heal check removes this penalty. This use takes 10 minutes.
Note: You must expend two uses from a healer's kit to perform this task. You take a –2 penalty on your check for each use from a healer's kit that you lack.
Treat Poison: To treat poison means to tend to a single character who has been poisoned and who is going to take more damage from the poison (or suffer some other effect). Every time the poisoned character makes a saving throw against the poison, you make a Heal check. If your Heal check exceeds the DC of the poison, the character receives a +4 competence bonus on his saving throw against the poison. This use takes 1 standard action.
Treat Disease: To treat a disease means to tend to a single diseased character. Every time the diseased character makes a saving throw against disease effects, you make a Heal check. If your Heal check exceeds the DC of the disease, the character receives a +4 competence bonus on his saving throw against the disease. This use takes 10 minutes.
INFLUENCE (Cha) <Basic>
You can make use of the power of personality.
TYPICALS USES: Deception, persuasion, investigation, intimidation and any other non-specific use of charisma.
Deception: Using Influence for deception is an opposed skill check against your opponent’s Perception skill. If you use Influence to fool someone, with a successful check you convince your opponent that what you are saying is true. This type of Influence check is modified depending upon the believability of the lie. Note that some lies are so improbable that it is impossible to convince anyone that they are true (subject to GM discretion). This use also includes wearing a disguise to deceive.
Influence Attitudes: You can change the initial attitudes of non-player characters with a successful check. The DC of this check depends on the creature’s starting attitude toward you, adjusted by its Charisma modifier.
If you succeed, the character’s attitude toward you is improved by one step. For every 5 by which your check result exceeds the DC, the character’s attitude toward you increases by one additional step. A creature’s attitude cannot be shifted more than two steps up in this way, although the GM can override this rule in some situations.
If you fail the check by 4 or less, the character’s attitude toward you is unchanged. If you fail by 5 or more, the character’s attitude toward you is decreased by one step.
You cannot use Influence for this purpose against a creature that does not understand you or has an Intelligence of 3 or less. This use of Influence is generally ineffective in combat and against creatures that intend to harm you or your allies in the immediate future. Any attitude shift caused through Influence generally lasts for 1d4 hours but can last much longer or shorter depending upon the situation (GM discretion).
You can use Influence for intimidation to force an opponent to act friendly toward you for 1d6 × 10 minutes with a successful check. The DC of this check is equal to 10 + the target’s Hit Dice + the target’s Wisdom modifier.
If successful, the opponent will give you information you desire, take actions that do not endanger it, or offer other limited assistance.
After the intimidation expires, the target treats you as unfriendly and may report you to local authorities.
If you fail this check by 5 or more, the target attempts to deceive you or otherwise hinder your activities.
Action: Varies
Retry: Varies
Persuasion: If a creature’s attitude toward you is at least indifferent, you can make requests of the creature. This is an additional Diplomacy check, using the creature’s current attitude to determine the base DC, with one of the following modifiers. Once a creature’s attitude has shifted to helpful, the creature gives in to most requests without a check, unless the request is against its nature or puts it in serious peril. Some requests automatically fail if the request goes against the creature’s values or its nature, subject to GM discretion.
Investigation: You can also use Influence to gather information about a specific topic or individual. To do this, you must spend at least 1d4 hours canvassing people at local taverns, markets, and gathering places. The DC of this check depends on the obscurity of the information sought, but for most commonly known facts or rumors it is 10. For obscure or secret knowledge, the DC might increase to 20 or higher. The GM might rule that some topics are simply unknown to common folk.
KNOWLEDGE (Int) <Learned>
Like the Craft and Profession skills, Knowledge actually encompasses a number of unrelated skills. Knowledge represents a study of some body of lore, possibly an academic or even scientific discipline.
Below are listed typical fields of study. With your GM’s approval, you can invent new areas of knowledge.
Arcana (ancient mysteries, magic traditions, arcane symbols, cryptic phrases, constructs, dragons, magical beasts). Also, can be used to identify magical properties of items and materials and can be used in the hands of those not gifted in sorcery to perform incantations and make use of magical items.
Architecture (buildings, aqueducts, bridges, fortifications).
Geography (legends, personalities, inhabitants, laws, customs, traditions, lands, terrain, climate).
History (origins of legends, historical personalities, past inhabitants, ancient laws and customs, origins of traditions, royalty, wars, colonies, migrations, founding of cities, lineages, heraldry, family trees, mottoes).
Religion (gods and goddesses, mythic history, ecclesiastic tradition, holy symbols, undead, planes of existence, outsiders, elementals, spirits).
TYPICAL USES: Answering a question within your field of study and identify monsters and their traits.
In many cases, you can use this skill to identify monsters and their special powers or vulnerabilities. In general, the DC of such a check equals 10 + the monster’s HD. A successful check allows you to remember a bit of useful information about that monster. For every 5 points by which your check result exceeds the DC, you recall another piece of useful information.
Action: Usually none. In most cases, making a Knowledge check doesn’t take an action—you simply know the answer or you don’t.
Retry: No. The check represents what you know, and thinking about a topic a second time doesn’t let you know something that you never learned in the first place.
Synergy: If you have 5 or more ranks in Knowledge (arcana), you get a +2 bonus on Spellcraft checks.
If you have 5 or more ranks in Knowledge (architecture), you get a +2 bonus on Perception checks made to find secret doors or hidden compartments.
If you have 5 or more ranks in Knowledge (geography), you get a +2 bonus on Survival checks made to keep from getting lost or to avoid natural hazards a +2 bonus on Influence checks used for general investigation.
If you have 5 or more ranks in Knowledge (History), you get a +2 bonus on Influence checks.
Untrained: An untrained Knowledge check would be a Reason check. Without actual training, you know only common knowledge (DC 10 or lower).
LINGUISTICS (Int) <Learned>
You are skilled at working with language, in both its spoken and written forms. You can speak a smattering of multiple languages, and can decipher nearly any tongue given enough time. Your skill in writing allows you to create and detect forgeries as well.
TYPICAL USES: Read or comprehend main idea of writing, detect or create forgeries, write legibly, copy writing, communicate with people or creatures that speak a language in which you are not fluent.
Comprehend writing: You can read 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, make a DC 5 Focus check 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.)
Both the Linguistics check and (if necessary) the Focus check are made secretly by the GM, so that you can't tell whether the conclusion you draw is true or false.
PERCEPTION (Wis) <Basic>
Your senses allow you to notice fine details and alert you to danger. Perception covers all five senses, including sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell.
TYPICAL USES: Perception has a number of uses, the most common of which is an opposed check versus an opponent's Stealth check to notice the opponent and avoid being surprised. If you are successful, you see the opponent and can react accordingly. If you fail by less than 5, you fail to see the opponent but can hear them. Failure by more than 5 means you opponent has successfully eluded your senses and your opponent can take a variety of actions, including sneaking past you and attacking you.
Perception is also used to notice fine details in the environment. The DC to notice such details varies depending upon distance, the environment, and how noticeable the detail is. The following table gives a number of guidelines.
Action: Most Perception checks are reactive, made in response to observable stimulus. Intentionally searching for stimulus is a move action.
Retry: Yes. You can try to sense something you missed the first time, so long as the stimulus is still present.
PERFORM (Cha) <Practiced>
You are skilled at one form of entertainment, from singing to acting to playing an instrument and can impress audiences with your talent and skill in your chosen performance type. Like Craft, Knowledge, and Profession, Perform is actually a number of separate skills. You could have several Perform skills, each with its own ranks.
Each of the eight categories of the Perform skill includes a variety of methods, instruments, or techniques. Following are the categories and some examples: Act (comedy, drama, pantomime), Dance (ballet, waltz, jig), Keyboard instruments (harpsichord, piano), Oratory (epic, ode, storytelling), Percussion instruments (bells, chimes, drums), String instruments (fiddle, harp, lute, mandolin), Wind instruments (flute, pan pipes, recorder), Sing (ballad, chant, melody).
Inspirational Performance: A performer can attempt to execute a truly inspirational performance. Depending on the ranks he has in the Perform skill, he can inspire courage in allies, fascinate a creature, help others perform skills better, or inspire greatness. An inspirational performance can be done with any of the above types of performance.
Inspire Courage: A performer with 3 or more ranks in Perform who succeeds at a DC 20 Perform check can inspire courage in his allies, bolstering them against fear and improving their combat abilities. To be affected, an ally must hear the performance for a full round. The effect lasts as long as the performance continues and for 5 rounds after the Performance ends (or 5 rounds after the ally can no longer hear the perfomer). While performing, a character can fight but cannot cast spells, activate magic items by spell completion (such as scrolls), or activate magic items by magic word (such as wands). Affected allies receive a +2 morale bonus to saving throws against charm and fear effects and a +1 morale bonus to attack and weapon damage rolls. Inspire courage is a mind-affecting ability.
Fascinate: A performer with 3 or more ranks in Perform can cause a single creature to become fascinated with him. The creature to be fascinated must be able to see and hear the performer and must be within 90 feet. The performer must also see the creature. The creature must not be distracted. The distraction of nearby combat or other dangers prevents the ability from working. The performer makes a Perform check, and the target can negate the effect with a Will saving throw equal to or greater than the performer’s check result. If the saving throw succeeds, the performer cannot attempt to fascinate that creature again for 24 hours. If the saving throw fails, the creature sits quietly and listens to the performance for up to 1 round per ½ the performer’s ranks in Performe. While fascinated, the target’s Perception checks suffer a –4 penalty. Any potential threat allows the fascinated creature a second saving throw against a new Perform check result. Any obvious threat, such as casting a spell, drawing a sword, or aiming, automatically breaks the effect.
While fascinating (or attempting to fascinate) a creature, the performer must concentrate, as if casting or maintaining a spell. Fascinate is a mind-affecting charm ability.
Inspire Competence: A performer with 6 or more ranks in Perform who succeeds at a DC 25 Perform check can help an ally succeed at a task. The ally must be able to see and hear the performer and must be within 30 feet. The performer must also see the creature. Depending on the task that the ally has at hand, the performer may use his performance to lift the ally’s spirits, to help the ally focus mentally, or in some other way. The ally gets a +2 competence bonus on his skill checks with a particular skill as long as he or she continues to hear the performance. The GM may rule that certain uses of this ability are infeasible—chanting to make a footpad move more quietly, for example, is self-defeating. The performer can maintain the effect for 2 minutes (long enough for the ally to take 20). Inspire competence is a mind-affecting ability.
Inspire Greatness: A performer with 12 or more ranks in Perform who succeeds at a DC 30 Perform check can inspire greatness in another creature, granting extra fighting capability. To inspire greatness, the performer must perform his art and the creature must hear the performance for a full round, as with inspire courage. The creature must also be within 30 feet. A creature inspired with greatness gains attack bonuses and saving throw bonuses as long as he or she hears the performance and for 5 rounds thereafter. The target gains the following boosts:
+2 competence bonus on attacks.
+1 competence bonus on Fortitude saves.
Inspire greatness is a mind-affecting ability.
Action: Varies.
Retry: Yes. Retries are allowed, but they don't negate previous failures.
PROFESSION (Wis) <Learned>
You are trained in a livelihood or a professional role, such as apothecary, boater, bookkeeper, driver, farmer, fisher, guide, herbalist, herder, hunter, innkeeper, miller, miner, porter, sailor, scribe, stableman, tanner, woodcutter, or the like.
TYPICAL USES: You can earn half your Profession 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 helpers, and how to handle common problems. You can also answer questions about your Profession.
Like Craft, Knowledge, and Perform, Profession is actually a number of separate skills. You could have several Profession skills, each with its own ranks. While a Craft skill represents ability in creating an item, a Profession skill represents an aptitude in a vocation requiring a broader range of less specific knowledge.
Profession skills often encompass the use of other skills in order to perform tasks the profession requires. This grants a bonus to certain skill checks and can grant Tool Familiarity to certain weapons. The skill need only be known as a class skill to obtain these bonuses and abilities.
Tool Familiarity reduces the penalty for fighting with a weapon you are not proficient with by 2. It does not grant full proficiency in the weapon in question because Tool Familiarity comes from experience using such tools as axes in ways unrelated to fighting. If a character that has weapon familiarity gains full proficiency in the weapon in question, they gain Weapon Focus as a bonus feat for that weapon.
Apothecary: You sell healing supplies. +2 bonus to Heal checks. You are always assumed to have at least one use of a healer’s kit per day.
Boater: Can handle a small, oar-driven, watercraft. +2 bonus on Athletics checks made to swim. +2 bonus to Survival checks while traveling on a lake or river.
Bookkeeper: You can keep track of finances with or without the ability to write any sort of script. +2 bonus to Profession: Bookkeeper checks if character has at least 5 ranks in Linguistics.
Driver: You drive a cart or wagon pulled by one or more pack animals. Weapon Familiarity: Whip. +2 bonus to Handle Animal checks. +2 to Survival checks to avoid getting lost and avoid natural hazards.
Farmer: You raise field crops, orchards, or vinyards. Weapon Familiarity: Flail, Guisarme, Ranseur, Sickle, and Scythe. +2 bonus on Endurance checks. +2 to Survival checks to predict the weather.
Fisher: You capture fish or other aquatic animals. Weapon Familiarity: Net and trident. +4 bonus to Survival checks within 50 miles of a body of water to find food and water. +2 bonus to Knowledge checks to determine traits of aquatic creatures.
Guide: You lead others through the wilderness. +4 bonus to Survival checks to avoid getting lost and avoid natural hazards. +2 bonus to Endurance checks. You can automatically determine where true north lies in relation to yourself as though you knew Survival as a class skill.
Herbalist: You collect herbs that can be used for various purposes, especially healing. +2 bonus on Survival checks made to locate and identify plants and other materials found in the wild that can be used for healing. Locating such material grants a +4 bonus to Heal checks for 24 hours.
Herder: You care for livestock. +4 bonus to Handle Animal checks used to push an animal.
Hunter: You pursue and kill or capture animals. Grants Weapon Familiarity: Bows and Shortspear. +4 bonus to Survival checks used to track. +2 bonus to all other Survival checks. +2 bonus to Craft: trapmaking checks.
Innkeeper: You maintain a way-station and resting place for travelers and their livestock. An innkeeper would be proficient in locating water and handling a stable. +2 bonus to Survival checks used to locate drinking water. +2 bonus to Handle Animal checks used to push an animal.
Miller: You grind grain to make bread. Operates and maintains a manually operated mechanical device known as a gristmill. +2 bonus to Endurance checks and +2 bonus to Sabotage checks to disarm simple mechanical devices not including locks.
Miner: You search for and retrieve minerals. You can make checks to locate different types of mineral ores, gems, and coal. Weapon Familiarity: light hammer, light pick, heavy pick, and warhammer. +2 bonus to Perception checks while underground or surrounded by stone.
Porter: You are skilled at transporting goods overland. You figure carrying capacity as though you Strength were 2 points higher.
Sailor: You can handle a sail-driven watercraft. As a part of this training, a sailor is also skilled in tying special knots. +2 bonus to Perceptions checks while at sea. +2 bonus to Reflex saves while aboard a sailing vessel.
Scribe: You copy and write books and documents. You are literate. It is assumed that a scribe always has at least enough paper (or whatever type of writing surface is most common) and means of writing 800 words per day. +2 bonus to Linguistics checks.
Stableman: You care for and maintain shelter for animals used as mounts. +4 bonus to Handle Animal checks.
Tanner: You can treat animal skins to produce leather. +4 bonus to Fortitude saves against noxious odors.
Woodcutter: You cut down trees and transport lumber. Grants Weapon Familiarity: Axes.
REASON (Int) <Basic>
You have the capacity for consciously making sense of things. This skill is used to make inferences based on limited information, solve complicated problems, work puzzles, and any other non-specific uses of Intelligence.
TYPICAL USES: Research, deduction, problem-solving, and puzzle-solving.
Action: Varies
Retry: Varies.
RIDE (Dex) <Basic>
You can ride any kind of creature suited for riding. If you attempt to ride a creature that is ill suited as a mount (such as most bipedal creatures), you take a –5 penalty on your Ride checks.
TYPICAL USES: Typical riding actions don’t require checks. You can saddle, mount, ride, and dismount from a mount without a problem. The following tasks do require checks.
Evasive Maneuver: Once per round when your mount is hit in combat, you may attempt a Ride check (as a reaction) to negate the hit. The hit is negated if your Ride check result is greater than the opponent’s attack roll.
Everything else is unchanged.
SABOTAGE (Dex) <Learned>
You are skilled at disarming traps and opening locks. In addition, this skill lets you disable simple mechanical devices, such as catapults, wagon wheels, and doors.
When disarming a trap or other device, the Sabotage check is made secretly, so that you don’t necessarily know whether you’ve succeeded.
TYPICAL USES: If the check succeeds, you disable the device. If it fails by 4 or less, you have failed but can try again. If you fail by 5 or more, something goes wrong. If the device is a trap, you spring it. If you’re attempting some sort of sabotage, you think the device is disabled, but it still works normally.
You also can rig simple devices such as saddles or wagon wheels to work normally for a while and then fail or fall off some time later (usually after 1d4 rounds or minutes of use).
The DC to open a lock depends on the lock's quality. If you do not have a set of thieves’ tools it will be substantially more difficult to open a lock.
Action: The amount of time needed to make a Sabotage check depends on the task.
Simple Device: Disabling a simple device takes 1 round and is a full-round action.
Complex/Intricate Device: An intricate or complex device requires 1d4 or 2d4 rounds. Attempting to open a lock is a full-round action.
Retry: You can retry checks made to disable traps if you miss the check by 4 or less, though you must be aware that you fail in order to try again. You can retry checks made to open locks.
SLEIGHT OF HAND (Dex; Armor Check Penalty) <Learned>
Unchanged.
SPELLCRAFT (Int) <Learned>
You are skilled at the art of casting spells and identifying spells as they are being cast.
TYPICAL USES: Spellcraft is used whenever your knowledge and skill of the technical art of casting a spell comes into question.
Action: Identifying a spell as it is being cast requires no action, but you must be able to clearly see the spell as it is being cast, and this incurs the same penalties as a Perception skill check due to distance, poor conditions, and other factors.
Retry: No.
STEALTH (Dex; Armor Check Penalty) <Basic>
You are skilled at avoiding detection, allowing you to slip past foes or strike from an unseen position. This skill covers hiding and moving silently.
Your Stealth check is opposed by the Perception check of anyone who might notice you. You can move up to half your normal speed and use Stealth at no penalty. When moving at a speed greater than half but less than your normal speed, you take a –5 penalty. It's impossible to use Stealth while attacking, running, or charging.
A creature larger or smaller than Medium takes a size bonus or penalty on Stealth checks depending on its size category: Fine +16, Diminutive +12, Tiny +8, Small +4, Large –4, Huge –8, Gargantuan –12, Colossal –16.
If people are observing you using any of their senses (but typically sight), you can't use Stealth. Against most creatures, finding cover or concealment allows you to use Stealth. If your observers are momentarily distracted you can attempt to use Stealth. While the others turn their attention from you, you can attempt a Stealth check if you can get to an unobserved place of some kind. This check, however, is made at a –10 penalty because you have to move quickly.
Sniping: If you've already successfully used Stealth at least 10 feet from your target, you can make one ranged attack and then immediately use Stealth again. You take a –20 penalty on your Stealth check to maintain your obscured location.
Creating a Diversion to Hide: You can use Influence to allow you to use Stealth. A successful Influence check can give you the momentary diversion you need to attempt a Stealth check while people are aware of you.
Action: Usually none. Normally, you make a Stealth check as part of movement, so it doesn't take a separate action. However, using Stealth immediately after a ranged attack (see Sniping, above) is a move action.
Special: If you are invisible, you gain a +40 bonus on Stealth checks if you are immobile or a +20 bonus on Stealth checks if you're moving.
SURVIVAL (Wis) <Practiced>
You are skilled at surviving in the wild and at navigating in the wilderness. You also excel at following trails and tracks left by others and identifying flora and fauna.
TYPICAL USES: You can keep yourself and others safe and fed in the wild. This means you can follow tracks, hunt, and forage for food. You also know much about animals, fey, giants, monstrous humanoids, plants, seasons and cycles, weather, and vermin.
Track: To find tracks or to follow them for 1 mile requires a successful Survival check. You must make another Survival check every time the tracks become difficult to follow. If you are not trained in this skill, you can make untrained checks to find tracks, but you can follow them only if the DC for the task is 10 or lower. Alternatively, you can use the Perception skill to find a footprint or similar sign of a creature's passage using the same DCs, but you can't use Perception to follow tracks, even if someone else has already found them.
You move at half your normal speed while following tracks (or at your normal speed with a –5 penalty on the check, or at up to twice your normal speed with a –20 penalty on the check).
Action: Varies. A single Survival check may represent activity over the course of hours or a full day. A Survival check made to find tracks is at least a full-round action, and it may take even longer.
Retry: Varies. For getting along in the wild or for gaining the Fortitude save bonus noted in Table: Survival DCs by Task, you make a Survival 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 Survival 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. For finding tracks, you can retry a failed check after 1 hour (outdoors) or 10 minutes (indoors) of searching.
Special: If you know Survival as a class skill, you can automatically determine where true north lies in relation to yourself.