Skill boosts that can be potions?

[Zaq]

What spells are there that provide a bonus to unspecified skills and can be made into potions? The potion part is absolutely critical, so nothing personal-only or of a spell level above 3rd. Arcane is going to be preferable to divine, too.

I know about Share Talents and Master's Touch (both PHB2), but I'm willing to bet that there are others out there, and if there's one source I trust to help me ferret them out, that source is the Playground.

[Kazudo]

Well, there are a handful that do specific skills. like Balancing Lorecall from the Spell Compendium that grants a +4 to Balance among other such things.

Artificers have some infusions they can do...Other than that, I can't think of anything.

[NoACWarrior]

Theres Heroism you are forgetting - a +2 across the board, thats PHBI

Divine Insight from SpC - 5+CL on a single skill check
Crown of Glory from SpC - +4 across the board
Fleeting Fortune from ChVal - +5 on a single skill check
Masochism from BoVD - +X where X is detremined by how much HP you sacrifice a round.
Good Hope from PHBI - +2 across the board

Quite a few more which I'm not listing.

[Zaq]

Well, there are a handful that do specific skills. like Balancing Lorecall from the Spell Compendium that grants a +4 to Balance among other such things.

Artificers have some infusions they can do...Other than that, I can't think of anything.

Hmm, I need them to be undifferentiated, but thanks.


Theres Heroism you are forgetting - a +2 across the board, thats PHBI

Divine Insight from SpC - 5+CL on a single skill check
Crown of Glory from SpC - +4 across the board
Fleeting Fortune from ChVal - +5 on a single skill check
Masochism from BoVD - +X where X is detremined by how much HP you sacrifice a round.
Good Hope from PHBI - +2 across the board

Quite a few more which I'm not listing.

Divine Insight is personal-only, so no potions. Crown of Glory is level 8, so no potions. Fleeting Fortune is a good find, though it's a shame that it's on such an obscure list (and probably divine-only, so getting an Eternal Wand of it will be hell). Masochism is interesting, but probably hard to control. Good Hope and Heroism are definitely good calls; can't believe I forgot them.

Any others out there? Wieldskill (MoF) is damned near perfect, but it's a Cleric spell, so it'll be a pain in the arse to get as an Eternal Wand (though maybe as a normal wand . . . if my plot actually sees the light of day, I'll have to check with the GM). Any equivalents on an arcane list, or anything else we can think of?

[Chronos]

Remember, all decisions for a potion need to be made at the time of creation. So you'd have to have a Potion of Wieldskill (Basketweaving), for instance, not just a Potion of Wieldskill.

With that in mind, what skill are you trying to boost? There might be some specific spell that would work.

[Zaq]

Remember, all decisions for a potion need to be made at the time of creation. So you'd have to have a Potion of Wieldskill (Basketweaving), for instance, not just a Potion of Wieldskill.

With that in mind, what skill are you trying to boost? There might be some specific spell that would work.

Truespeak, of course. So no, there won't be a specific spell that will boost it. I'm possibly going to be playing under a new GM soon, and I want to see what I'm capable of without playing the exact same Truenamer I have in the past (and probably with somewhat harsher book restrictions). I've hit on the idea of using Delay Potion, an Eternal Wand of Quick Potion, and a(n Eternal) wand of some skill-boosting spell to give me the kick I need to get around, for example, not having access to the Paragnostic Assembly. Since I'd be the one loading the wand of Wieldskill into the Quick Potions, I can just call it Wieldskill (Truespeak) and be A-OK.

So yeah, Wieldskill is the current contender for best option, but I'm holding out to see if anyone can dig up an arcane spell to use instead, since Wieldskill can be made into wands but not Eternal Wands (at least without shenanigans).

[Gavinfoxx]

Some non-personal l2, l1 and l0 skill spells include:

wieldskill
guidance of the avatar
deftness

[Zaq]

Where's Deftness from?

[TiaC]

You might be able to swing using the infusion that repairs items on Shards.

[avr]

IIRC there's an infusion which directly aids skills. It's called Skill Enhancement or something like that. Not arcane admittedly.

If you don't have a +4 INT item already Fox's Cunning will add something.

[Chronos]

Quoth Zaq:

Truespeak, of course.
Ah, of course, I didn't notice it was you asking.

I suppose there's also Mechanus Mind, but it's only a +2, and it's a competence bonus.

And wouldn't you only be able to pull this trick twice per day? That's how many uses you get out of the eternal wands, and quick potions can't be stockpiled.

[ahenobarbi]

Alter self swaps you regular racial skill bonuses to racial skill bonuses of the race you changed into. Many races have bonuses to various skills (whisper gnomes for hide & move silently, kobolds to trap making, ...)

I don't think there is a race that boosts Truespeak.

[Chronos]

I don't think there is a race that boosts Truespeak.
There are a few, but I think they're all Outsiders, and they might have more than 5 HD.

[Zaq]

Alter self swaps you regular racial skill bonuses to racial skill bonuses of the race you changed into. Many races have bonuses to various skills (whisper gnomes for hide & move silently, kobolds to trap making, ...)

I don't think there is a race that boosts Truespeak.

Illumians do. The Naen sigil gives +2 on all INT-based checks. That's one of many reasons why they're my favorite race.

I do know that this is just twice per day (for now . . . until I get more Eternal Wands of Quick Potion), but I'm treating this more as a turbocharge than as a baseline. I won't need it first thing in the morning, but after I've built up a few layers of the Law of Resistance, then I bust out the Wieldskill potions. I'm low level, so I won't even be able to try to Quicken it, which is a different perspective than I've played from in a while.

The trickiest part I'm left with is coming up with a personality for an illumian Truenamer who's a know-it-all but who isn't the exact same character I used to play (who was a know-it-all illumian Truenamer).

[Chronos]

The trickiest part I'm left with is coming up with a personality for an illumian Truenamer who's a know-it-all but who isn't the exact same character I used to play (who was a know-it-all illumian Truenamer).
How about someone who doesn't know it all, but wants to? He's intensely curious about everything, and always trying out new things. This fits in well with his experimentation with peculiar magic items.

[Zaq]

How about someone who doesn't know it all, but wants to? He's intensely curious about everything, and always trying out new things. This fits in well with his experimentation with peculiar magic items.

Yyyyyeah, that's still uncomfortably close to the old character. This is one of the major downsides of playing a Truenamer: sad to say, there pretty much actually is One True Path, with only minor variations possible (assuming you want to, you know, matter even a little bit). And that One True Path lends itself pretty heavily to character personality.

I do think that I'll be well-served by making his know-it-all-ness a lesser part of his personality; I'm assuming I'm not going to have access to the Paragnostic Assembly (which is why I'm doing these shenanigans with Quick Potion), so the fact that I've got a ton of Knowledge skills can just be what it is, rather than being the guiding ideal of my personality. It'll be a bit weird, but I think that's where I need to start. Thing is, I'm not sure where to go from there, since that just tells me what NOT to be, rather than what to be. I can usually come up with character personalities pretty readily, but I'm usually not treading over so much ground I've already trodden.

(Incidentally, any other potionable skill boosts out there, anyone? Wieldskill's good stuff, but I want a backup in case the GM clamps down on it; I know that he's picky about book usage.)

[Telok]

Does it really have to be potionable? Is there any way to use an elixer made with Craft Wonderous? I mean, they act and cost the same but without the horrid potion restrictions. I understand not wanting to spend more actions than nessicary in combat but you're already a Truenamer, one round isn't exactly hurting yout dps or anything.

[Zaq]

An elixir would be homebrew, which I don't want to ask for with a new GM, and it probably wouldn't work with Delay Potion anyway. The idea is that I'm too low level to have Quicken Utterance, so I'm going to use my (otherwise useless) swift actions to buff my Truespeak checks with Delay Potion. It'll be a fun exercise in seeing what I can pull off when I don't have every single resource I could ever want at my fingertips (like I said, I'm assuming at a minimum that I won't have access to the Paragnostic Assembly) . . . I've played a Truenamer with a high enough bonus that he doesn't even have to roll to Quicken, and now I'm seeing what the other end of the spectrum is like, scrambling and scraping up every last bonus I can get my fingers on.

But the point is that I'll be making my own potions with Quick Potion, then using Delay Potion to make them effectively swift actions instead of standards. So anything that doesn't play nice with Quick Potion isn't going to be helpful for me.