Best and worst skills

[Trandir]

What is in your opinion the best and worst skills?

This might be influenced by: uses in combat and OoC, frequency of use, flavor and PrC requirement.

Personally I think that the best is spot, it helps you not dye to a traps ,an ambush or just notice those little detailes the DM has prepared. The worst is speak language. The automatic and bonus languages covers a decent enough array of languages that a PC will probably never feel the need to learn a new language. Also nearly no class has this as a class skill and speaking more languages despite how usefull might sound for a group of adventurers travelling across the lands nearly every time the NPCs will speak common or they will not engage in a discussion before attacking. Also a couple of scrools of comprehend languages can overcome any barrier for a reasonable price if needed.

[Saintheart]

On the presumption that D&D is primarily concerned with combat, I'd actually argue the best skill is Listen. Works like Spot for surprise purposes. Listen is opposed by Move Silently, which is reliant on DEX bonuses - which monsters as a group don't tend to have great scads of - and don't do much more than invisibility to Spot, i.e. Spot still doesn't allow you to pinpoint an invisible creature either. And indeed against a blinded creature, invisibility has no effect.

The most useless skill, though, is Profession. Outside of qualifying for certain PrCs its only use is basically getting a few miserable gp in your begging bowl, which I guess you could do if you're missing your legs or something and can't go and kill something of a level-appropriate CR in order to make thousands more gold than you could carrying on your profession of barrister or whatever. At least Craft allows you to make stuff.

[pabelfly]

Best skills
Use Magic Device - being able to cast spells from items is always good
Diplomacy - you're near-certainly going to have to speak to people, being able to have some choice as to what happens is really helpful
Tumble - movement options in combat that don't provoke attacks of opportunity
Spot and Listen - helps stop ambushes before battle
Search - find treasure. Everyone loves treasure

Worst skill - Truespeak

[ZamielVanWeber]

Bad skills? Appraise. The volumes of gold you deal in quickly become so massive fiddling with appraise with every transaction becomes pointless and painful.

[AnimeTheCat]

Depending on the campaign, forgery can be absurdly potent. Imagine just flashing about forgeries to get where you need to and take what you want with little to no risk. Forgery can absolutely handle many urban setting campaigns. Though, in most situations, I agree that skills like your perception skills are most used and can be most critically damaging if failed.

Worst skill... probably something obscure like profession or truespeak as have been mentioned above. Maybe add appraise to that list...

[Divine Susuryu]

UMD > Diplomacy (for fanatics) > everything else > truespeak, appraise, profession

[Thurbane]

Use Rope is fairly useless. I mean, yeah, for tying up opponents, but manacles are only 15gp. I know you can get a higher DC using the skill, but still...

Not a skill I'd ever put a rank in.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

Profession is great... in one specific context. Profession (sailor) is the single most useful skill in a sailing campaign, useful for everything from operating the ship to narrative naval combat. Even for people not intending to do any of those, in a sailing campaign a single rank to be able to Aid Another is probably a solid investment.

Every other profession skill is worth taking only for flavor or to qualify for prestige classes (e.g. Profession (gambler) for Fatespinner).

[Biggus]

Use Magic Device is the most widely useful skill. Wands can be activated with a flat DC 20 check, which gives you access to every level 0-4 spell in the game: this opens up numerous options which aren't otherwise available. It's worth taking the Apprentice (Spellcaster) feat from DMG2 just to get it as a class skill.

[daremetoidareyo]

disable device. with the right build, you can dismantle your opponents weapons in one round worth of actions.

[The Viscount]

Use Rope is fairly useless. I mean, yeah, for tying up opponents, but manacles are only 15gp. I know you can get a higher DC using the skill, but still...

Not a skill I'd ever put a rank in.

I had to make a use rope check once to tie someone up. Because on opposed use rope checks you get a +10 bonus for being the one tying them up, I succeeded without any ranks.

For best skill, after the popular choice of UMD (which I agree is the strongest) I'm going to say Iaijutsu focus for sheer impact on gameplay when used correctly.

For worst, I'm going to say open lock, because disable device can be used to jam locks open, so there is no use for open lock besides to fulfill requirements.

[Vizzerdrix]

disable device. with the right build, you can dismantle your opponents weapons in one round worth of actions.

That sounds silly and I would love to see a build that can do it! :smallsmile:

[Malphegor]

The most useless skill, though, is Profession..


I disagree. Because it's a skill check that directly equates to gold for work.

An exemplar with a lot of iny or smaller permament animated objects can nanobot their way to getting really rich with any Profession they choose. (somehow. I'm not sure how an army of self-animated fragments of metal or whatever let someone be a really good lawyer.).

...
wait.

it's possible to math out Ratatouille in 3.5!

Linguini has Profession(Chef). Remy is using the Aid Another action to just bump the human enough to make good food.

The final dish for the critic was made using a series of Aid Another checks- as normal for a kitchen but each rat provides its own bonus!

D&D- it turns out that too many cooks despite the popular idiom does NOT spoil the broth, but makes it AMAZING!

[Quertus]

So, my favorite skill - in any system - is Sense Motive. And it's pretty darn strong in 3e - distinguishing hostiles, not being lied to, knowing opponents' CR, even reading minds at epic. Yes, please - sign me up!

The arguably best skill in 3e is Appraise. 3e is run on loot, and not leaving behind the million GP statue is kinda strong. Of course, Appraise is kinda pointless to put ranks in, because, even if you fail the roll, you just think that the million GP statue is worth half a million to 2 million GP.

Another really good set of skills - and one of the most commonly rolled - is Spot and Listen. More information = more agency to make good choices.

Spellcraft - and all the Knowledge skills - deserve honorable mention in the "know important things" category.

UMD, of course, deserves to make the list. It will probably be awarded the "munchkin's best friend" award.

Coming in second to UMD may well be Iaijutsu Focus. It's good to give muggles nice things.

Profession is actually a great skill - for the GM. It tells you a lot about your players.

Diplomacy? Eh, like Alignment, it's a huge source of misunderstanding.

The worst-implemented skill is Survival. If you do the math, most species cannot consistently hunt, and die off - especially if they are Large or larger, and/or have young to feed.

[MeimuHakurei]

At low op Profession actually has a bit of merit because while the amount of gold earned is paltry, it's at least something.

Heal (the skill) on the other hand is true garbage - it's obsoleted by cantrips already (since it also requires an expendable resource that's not that cheap at basic levels) and the only prereq I can think of is needing 4 Ranks to get Augment Healing (a questionable feat in itself). It doesn't help that, as a Wisdom skill, it's most likely on classes that already have healing spells (even the Monk can outclass Heal's utility with Wholeness of Body).

@Quertus: Why bother using Appraise to get cash out of your loot when you can use Bluff?

[Asmotherion]

Depends on your build really.

On an incantatrix Spellcraft is your bread and butter but it's not as useful for a Fighter (how much does it matter if you call it a green beam or Disintegrate? you still bite the dust and have no means to protect against it). And i'd really be amazed to see a Wizard that really needs above 5 Jump/Climb/Swim etc when they can replicate those with a spell wile on a non-caster those are essential (either because of survivability or because your build depends on them ex leap attac).

[AnimeTheCat]

@Quertus: Why bother using Appraise to get cash out of your loot when you can use Bluff?

or Forgery!

[DeTess]

I wouldn't write off profession entirely. Since the SRD states that:



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.


There's an argument to be made that something like profession(bounty hunter) could be used as a substitute for a number of other skills, including gather information, survival, intimidate and use rope when dealing with tasks within the limit of your profession (such as tracking down and capturing a humanoid, in the above example).

[Glimbur]

Best skill? Sleight of hand. Get next to somebody at middle levels and all their magic bling is yours. Also their spell component pouch and almost everything else. With free actions they can't stop. Ok it is abusive but all the good skills were taken.

Worst skill is jump. By the time you can be good enough at it to make it useful magic does it better.

[pabelfly]

Worst skill is jump. By the time you can be good enough at it to make it useful magic does it better.

I don't know if I'd go with Jump - a lot of martial characters want it, especially with Leap attack and various maneuvers that want you to jump and attack.

[Quertus]

@Quertus: Why bother using Appraise to get cash out of your loot when you can use Bluff?


or Forgery!

Because, thanks to Appraise, they can tell that the lie isn't worth the air/ink it took to say/write it?


Best skill? Sleight of hand. Get next to somebody at middle levels and all their magic bling is yours. Also their spell component pouch and almost everything else. With free actions they can't stop. Ok it is abusive but all the good skills were taken.

I can't believe that I forgot this one, given that I intended to call this skill out as one of the best in my long post! So what if the foes flee, if you've already taken all their stuff?

[Unavenger]

The worst skill in 3.5 is Scry, because it no longer does anything (scrying spells no longer call for a Scry check, they use a will save from the target instead).

The best skill is harder, because the strongest ones (Sleight of Hand for free action nonsense shenanigans, Knowledge for literal omniscience, Diplomacy for literal mind control, etc...) are very, very DM-dependant. Y(D)MMV.

[Celestia]

I wouldn't write off profession entirely. Since the SRD states that:



There's an argument to be made that something like profession(bounty hunter) could be used as a substitute for a number of other skills, including gather information, survival, intimidate and use rope when dealing with tasks within the limit of your profession (such as tracking down and capturing a humanoid, in the above example).
Hmm, so my 1 skill point per level idiot beatstick can just buy Profession (Adventurer) and use that as a substitute for every other skill? I can dig it.

[Vizzerdrix]

Hmm, so my 1 skill point per level idiot beatstick can just buy Profession (Adventurer) and use that as a substitute for every other skill? I can dig it.

Don't forget to grab craft: mcguffin so you can short cut quests.


Oh, and I'm calling out control shape. Should just be a will save.

[Malphegor]

I’d say the best skill is Lucid Dreaming. Once mastered, it does little in most campaigns. Then enter the plane of Dream.

Okay so now if you can navigate Dream, you can roll this skill for any number of Inception-based adventures. You have to be careful, you can change the dream but not the dreamer.

But it’s a huge ‘go nuts with creativity’ skill

[Thurbane]

Once you have access to flight, Climb and Jump become largely redundant.

[Celestia]

Don't forget to grab craft: mcguffin so you can short cut quests.


Oh, and I'm calling out control shape. Should just be a will save.
Lol! It would be fun to show up to a game session with those two skills as a prank, just to see the DM's reaction. :smalltongue:

[AnimeTheCat]

Lol! It would be fun to show up to a game session with those two skills as a prank, just to see the DM's reaction. :smalltongue:

Hopefully the DM just takes it in stride.

[The Viscount]

Once you have access to flight, Climb and Jump become largely redundant.

Jump at least has its role for Tiger Claw maneuvers, but I agree Climb becomes pointless very fast. Same for climb speeds, for that matter.

[AnimeTheCat]

Jump at least has its role for Tiger Claw maneuvers, but I agree Climb becomes pointless very fast. Same for climb speeds, for that matter.

Climb speeds are very useful in caves or other places with ceilings. Fly up there if you want, but be prepared for a critter to drop on you.

[ayvango]

Skill system in d20 is just mess of misconceptions. Skills and Feats are the only ways to fine tune your character after making bulk choices of race and class. And feats are just too limited. Feats are too rare. So all other options are passed as skills.

Some skills has trained-only barrier. Some stack class feature or feat barriers. Like Survival requiring the Track feat to perform complex actions or Search require Trapfinding. Jump skill is limited by land speed. There is also Speak Language that have no ranks, but extend language capabilities.

Some skills used against environment like use magic device or tumble. You could afford to train them high enough to complete everyday tasks and stop progression. Other skills are in tight competition: hide and spot, move silently and listen, diplomacy vs diplomacy. Saving points in that skills means you may as well taking none. And have only so much skill points while needing to max competition so you pretty starving on all other stuff. That makes role play aspect much less fun.

There are broad aspect skills that requires further qualification: Knowledge, Profession, Craft, Perform. Knowledge are in game mechanics limelights and is still usable in its divers. Investing skill points in craft is useless since it is too specific. Any perform is enough to get bardic goodies so you could specialize without penalty in single choice of performing. You would expect to have pretty diverse bards in game. But absolute majority of magic instruments are of string type, so all bards chooses perform (string). Profession is either bull**** or real gem if using broadly like profession (adventurer). Knowledge (local) draws insanity inside insanity. It should be specialized again. But any local knowledge is enough to identify humanoids.

So skills are very diverse to compare them directly. But having plenty game practice you could optimize skills pretty easily. Dealing with D&D you should put into consideration its main moving force: magic. More specifically magic spells and magic items.

Magic items for skills are pretty straightforward: just 100gp * skill_level^2. No specific items, just common formula for all skills. And common trick is to mix skill bonuses from different sources to avoid quadratic costs. Making single off-body skill item and staking similar bonuses (skills) made it pretty cheap. And you could always convert you XP to gold or magic items. So you could dip into trained-only skills, take some skills to 5 to make use of its synergies and use magic items to get higher bonuses. And of course max out competing skills - spot, list, hide, move silently. With high enough spot you could even see invisible. You could also max diplomacy but that would extinguish all fun from social interactions. Just like "press to win" button.

Spells influence skill system in different ways, so each skill should be treated separately. Some spells just give quantitative improvements to appropriate skill check. Some brings qualitative changes. Getting fly methods obsoletes jump, climb and use rope. If you still need jump check for its side effects you could boost jump heavily. +30 for the Jump spell. +4 for each 10' of land speed improvement and there are many ways to improve land speed. There are spells that provide climb and swim speeds making corresponding skills obsolete. Tumble is very valuable mean of battle mobility, but teleportation spells and items (that works as move, swift and even immediate actions) make tumble completely obsolete short of dead magic zones. Escape Artist skill looks very promising, but Freedom of Movement spell makes it obsolete again. Knock replaces Open Lock. It's cheaper to get wand of knock then to boost Open Lock checks by magic items. Speak Language have verbal and scriptory part as well as receiving and sending. Comprehend Languages solves receiving part. Tongues solves verbal part. But no spell solves scriptory sending, e.g. writing. And so on.

Each skill has ton of details and deserve to have a handbook of its own like classes get handbooks. But I could not find any.

[ayvango]

Fly up there if you want, but be prepared for a critter to drop on you.
What mechanics should be used to simulate such encounters?

[daremetoidareyo]

Each skill has ton of details and deserve to have a handbook of its own like classes get handbooks. But I could not find any.

Uhhh. I have a few in my sig. I got disable device and bluff and survival and I think listen. I also made a list of all escape artist boosters. Oh yeah, all of the knowledge skills. Ooh, and appraise.

[AnimeTheCat]

What mechanics should be used to simulate such encounters?

What do you mean? Someone said climb speeds were irrelevant, I beg to differ. Climb speeds are irrelevant wherever the there is nowhere to use them. Otherwise, they are very relevant. Caves are one such place. Underground lakes are common and underdark dwellers could be using their climb speeds to traverse the ceilings of the caverns rather than flight. If an unsuspecting PC flies under one such creature, it could spell bad news for the PC. Touch attack and grapple, pull the grappled character underwater, drown them.

[Bohandas]

The most useless skill, though, is Profession. Outside of qualifying for certain PrCs its only use is basically getting a few miserable gp in your begging bowl, which I guess you could do if you're missing your legs or something and can't go and kill something of a level-appropriate CR in order to make thousands more gold than you could carrying on your profession of barrister or whatever. At least Craft allows you to make stuff.

Profession lets you "perform the profession's daily tasks". There are plenty of professions where this partucular clause would allow the profession skill to be used in place of the bizarrely specific Use Rope skill. Since it can also do the things you mentiomed above it is therefore a better skill than Use Rope

[ayvango]

Touch attack and grapple, pull the grappled character underwater, drown them.
In case the flying character is in immediate treat range of the attacker.

On some thought similar scenario is also possible, when the attacker jumps down on the target and perform attack/grapple in mid-air. That how it should be from a real-world perspective. But how should it be resolved from game mechanics perspective? Does it ever contain rules for mid-air attacks? Could mid-air attacks be simulated with some other generic rules?

[Malphegor]

This thread is making me wonder what gameplay loop use rope is meant to cover. The SRD says it's for making grappling hooks work and tying people up. At epic level ranks you can cast a level 1 spell, animate rope without magic I guess. (through sheer knot-tying, you give rope life! somehow! Epic is ridiculous!)

I wonder if its existence is a relic of AD&D and prior and something got lost in translation? Because as is, Use Rope is not worth the skill rank that could go into Tumble, or Hide, or anything that's more immediately useful...

Even if in reality rope skills would be useful for adventurers (most would slot easily into survival or profession), the listed uses are kinda... meh, unless there's rad stuff in the phb not in the srd on that skill as I'm away from books atm.

[ayvango]

This thread is making me wonder what gameplay loop use rope is meant to cover. The SRD says it's for making grappling hooks work
There are plenty of specific challenges for extremely low-level campaign (1st-2nd levels). Low level character has problems that could be solved with magic items and overall progression easily, but are bottle neck to adventuring on 1st level. For example, your carrying capacity extremely limits you. Especially in case when you want to preserve traveling speed keeping light encumbrance. Later you would get handy haversack and enveloping pit and forget about encumbrance problems. But the only option available to beginning adventures is a mule and you need handle animal to handle it. So for travel modes. You could get fly yourself, animate flying skeleton (nightmare is a solid choice), buy amber amulet of vermin: giant wasp. But beginning party could not ever afford grasping hook (from the dungeonscape book). So they should rely on primitive use rope checks to cross chasm.

You could buy some of this skills on the 1st level and retrain them later.

[AnimeTheCat]

In case the flying character is in immediate treat range of the attacker.

On some thought similar scenario is also possible, when the attacker jumps down on the target and perform attack/grapple in mid-air. That how it should be from a real-world perspective. But how should it be resolved from game mechanics perspective? Does it ever contain rules for mid-air attacks? Could mid-air attacks be simulated with some other generic rules?

Well... I'm not clear on the particulars but, I think we can safely assume that the creatures will have a 20 or 30 foot movement speed. I would figure that the cavern would have somewhere between 30 and 50 foot ceiling above the surface of the water, possibly narrowing to a tight 5-10 foot area (caverns aren't really known for having flat ceilings after all). An attacker has a couple of choices. They can wait to ambush in the narrowest area or they can wait about 30-40 fee above and hop their prey are close enough for them to ambush. Either way, I don't know why making an attack mid-air would be any different from making an attack while under the influence of a fly, air walk, or similar spell. You're traveling in a predictable path with explicit purpose, and all you need to succeed is a touch attack. Of course, the defender would get a spot check to see the hidden foes so it's possible that the defender could notice the ambush ahead of time. Either way, flight isn't necessarily the "best" form of travel at all times and under certain circumstances it can be countered by things that are considered "lesser" forms of transportation. There's also no reason to believe that intelligent foes wouldn't plan specifically for flying foes and set up net traps designed to pull enemies down. The only reason flight is so heavily seen as the end all be all is because there isn't a precident of countering it, unlike walking or climbing which is heavily countered in nearly all written adventures.

[Mordaedil]

The worst skill in 3.5 is Scry, because it no longer does anything (scrying spells no longer call for a Scry check, they use a will save from the target instead).

Scry isn't a skill in 3.5. It's a 3.0 skill only.

[ayvango]

Either way, I don't know why making an attack mid-air would be any different from making an attack while under the influence of a fly, air walk, or similar spell.
Fly speed gives you separate move action and standard action. If you would like to attack while flying you need to pick specific feat fly-by attack. If you would like to attack while jumping which is the case for getting pretty fast from ceiling to water you need to pick Spring Attack feat. In the same way attacking while free falling should have some burdensome prerequisite too.

And here we descends into homeruling realm since I could not recollect any rules about free falling aside from losing instantly 150ft altitude in the first round and losing 300ft altitude in the consecutive rounds.

That is why I'm interested whether I missed some essential rules.

[Vizzerdrix]

Fly speed gives you separate move action and standard action. If you would like to attack while flying you need to pick specific feat fly-by attack. If you would like to attack while jumping which is the case for getting pretty fast from ceiling to water you need to pick Spring Attack feat. In the same way attacking while free falling should have some burdensome prerequisite too.

And here we descends into homeruling realm since I could not recollect any rules about free falling aside from losing instantly 150ft altitude in the first round and losing 300ft altitude in the consecutive rounds.

That is why I'm interested whether I missed some essential rules.

And this is why you should just hit them with bolas, or a harpoon.

[Bohandas]

This thread is making me wonder what gameplay loop use rope is meant to cover. The SRD says it's for making grappling hooks work and tying people up. At epic level ranks you can cast a level 1 spell, animate rope without magic I guess. (through sheer knot-tying, you give rope life! somehow! Epic is ridiculous!)

I wonder if its existence is a relic of AD&D and prior and something got lost in translation?

That was always my assumption as well.

[ayvango]

And this is why you should just hit them with bolas, or a harpoon.
Bolas do little against magical flight.

[ShurikVch]

Once you have access to flight, Climb and Jump become largely redundant.Tell that to a Windstorm (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/weather.htm#windstormWind) which just blown your flying PC over a horizon, while party's beatstick still climbing that rock no probs
Honestly, the worse offenders against the Climb and Jump skills are Spider Climb and Jump spells, which can do "the same thing, just better"; but even those spells are limited in a way they're eating into caster's per-day/known spells (or Warlock's Invocations Known)

[Celestia]

Fly speed gives you separate move action and standard action. If you would like to attack while flying you need to pick specific feat fly-by attack. If you would like to attack while jumping which is the case for getting pretty fast from ceiling to water you need to pick Spring Attack feat. In the same way attacking while free falling should have some burdensome prerequisite too.

And here we descends into homeruling realm since I could not recollect any rules about free falling aside from losing instantly 150ft altitude in the first round and losing 300ft altitude in the consecutive rounds.

That is why I'm interested whether I missed some essential rules.
You can attack while flying. It operates just like normal: move then attack or attack then move. What flyby attack does is let you move then attack then continue moving. Also, spring attack has nothing to do with jumping. It also allows you to move-attack-move, just on the ground. Attacking while jumping would require something like leap attack.

[ayvango]

You can attack while flying. It operates just like normal: move then attack or attack then move. What flyby attack does is let you move then attack then continue moving. Also, spring attack has nothing to do with jumping. It also allows you to move-attack-move, just on the ground. Attacking while jumping would require something like leap attack.
We have case when you fall-attack-fall, so it is not like normal fly or jump which have move-attack pattern without moving after the attack.

[Vizzerdrix]

Bolas do little against magical flight.

I'm sure we could do SOMETHING fun with bolas. I know I could do something fun with bolas :smallwink:

Also lassos.

[Thurbane]

Digging back through an old thread for something else, I found a real clanger of a skill: Knowledge (gemology) (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20040625d). :mitd:

[TheCount]

I know not everyone is playing with psionics but really? no mention of Autohypnosis (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/skills/autohypnosis.htm)?
I mean, just the memorization is worth it, the others are just gravy.

Also conentration. spellcasters love it, and if ToB is on the table its worth dipping a class to get the save replacers.

Edit:There is also Perform(dance)! its used by skills as well as prc prereqs. End of Edit!

there is disguise too, wich is almost always replaced by illusion and/or transmutation spells.

as for climb: i prefer items that give continous spiderclimb or enen better, false gravity.
I admit that its handy, but rarelly used (when was the last time you needed to get to a evil fortress on a spire like muntain/cliff/anything that was either guarded by flyers in large numbers (around thousands) with good magical defenses or a perpetual windsorm that cant be played with by spells AND the last......100-150(+)feet or so of the thing the fortress is on warded against magic? (and, if they did ward it, i imagine they spent the time to flatten the surface too)?

THATS a verry situational scene, yes, but possible. though, you could either use a flying beastwith EX flight to get thereor just teleport there or above it....and hope you survive the landing :P

[Unavenger]

Scry isn't a skill in 3.5. It's a 3.0 skill only.

Everything from 3.0 that wasn't updated is still in 3.5. So it is there, it's just completely useless.

[AnimeTheCat]

Everything from 3.0 that wasn't updated is still in 3.5. So it is there, it's just completely useless.

Skills were updated in 3.5 from 3.0, and Scry wasn't listed. So it's not there. Otherwise, Animal Empathy (or whatever the skill was called) is still there too, and the class features for Druid and ranger are useless.

[Unavenger]

Skills were updated in 3.5 from 3.0, and Scry wasn't listed. So it's not there. Otherwise, Animal Empathy (or whatever the skill was called) is still there too, and the class features for Druid and ranger are useless.

Classes were updated too. But some of the specific classes weren't. Skills were, but some of the old skills weren't. Iajutsu Focus is also a 3.0 skill, and it's used in 3.5 all the time.

[Thurbane]

Here's some more skills:


I know this is not exactly what you're looking for, but outside of the PHB, some official skills include:

Autohypnosis (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/skills/autohypnosis.htm)
Control Shape (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/lycanthrope.htm)
Handle Humanoid (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/fools/20030401c)
Iaijutsu Focus
Knowledge (psionics) (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/skills/knowledgePsionics.htm)
Lucid Dreaming
Martial Lore
Psicraft (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/skills/psicraft.htm)
Truespeak
Use Psionic Device (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/skills/usePsionicDevice.htm)

The BoED Sentinel of Bharrai PrC lists "Read/Write Language" as a separate skill to Speak Language. This seems to be an error.

There's also some 3.0 skills that were rolled into other skills or simply don't exist any more:

Alchemy
Animal Empathy
Innuendo
Intuit Direction
Pick Pocket
Read Lips
Scry
Stabilize Self
Wilderness Lore

Knowledge also has extra sub-skills: Oriental Adventures and Sword and Fist had a bunch of extra Knowledge skills (Barbarian Lore, Code of Martial Honor, Law, Shadowlands, Spirits, War, Weaponry etc.).

I believe Ravenloft has some skills unique to that setting (Hypnosis, for example), as does Kingdoms of Kalamar (Stabilize Self) and d20 Cthulhu (Cthulhu Mythos).

Classes were updated too. But some of the specific classes weren't. Skills were, but some of the old skills weren't. Iajutsu Focus is also a 3.0 skill, and it's used in 3.5 all the time.

As per the Core rulebook update booklet, page 4 (make of this what you will):



Old Skill Name
New Skill Name
Folded Into
Notes


Alchemy
Craft (alchemy)
n/a
Requires 1 spellcaster level to make alchemical items


Animal Empathy
[wild empathy]
n/a
Not a skill; class feature of druid, ranger


Innuendo
n/a
Bluff



Intuit Direction
n/a
Survival
Automatic with 5 ranks of Survival


Perform (type, type, type)
Perform (category)
n/a
Perform works like Craft or Profession


Read Lips
n/a
Spot



Ride (mount)
Ride
n/a
Doesn’t indicate a particular type of mount


Pick Pocket
Sleight of Hand
n/a



Scry
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Spells now require Will saves


Wilderness Lore
Survival
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[Alabenson]

As far as useless skills go, I'm a little surprised nobody's thought to bring up Speak Language yet. I cannot fathom ever needing to dedicate skill points to Speak Language, and I'm the sort of player who will periodically put ranks into a Profession for fluff reasons.

[Thurbane]

As far as useless skills go, I'm a little surprised nobody's thought to bring up Speak Language yet. I cannot fathom ever needing to dedicate skill points to Speak Language, and I'm the sort of player who will periodically put ranks into a Profession for fluff reasons.

There a few PrCs that require you to speak X number of languages, so there is that.

Also, some niche races will have communication issues at early levels without spending ranks to get Common. We had a low Int Deep Dwarf in our party once, who only spoke Dwarven and Goblin: which meant the other Dwarf in the party had to be his interpreter. Lead to a few comical situations...

[PoeticallyPsyco]

As far as useless skills go, I'm a little surprised nobody's thought to bring up Speak Language yet. I cannot fathom ever needing to dedicate skill points to Speak Language, and I'm the sort of player who will periodically put ranks into a Profession for fluff reasons.

There's the occasional language that's genuinely useful to know. Drow Sign Language lets the whole party communicate subtly, and Battlefield Signs (that name may not be exactly right) lets you send messages across great distances relatively rapidly without magic. And of course if you need to speak a language for campaign reasons (because everyone where you are speaks it), two skill points is probably a lot more convenient than burning through spell slots each day.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

I’d say the best skill is Lucid Dreaming. Once mastered, it does little in most campaigns. Then enter the plane of Dream.

Okay so now if you can navigate Dream, you can roll this skill for any number of Inception-based adventures. You have to be careful, you can change the dream but not the dreamer.

But it’s a huge ‘go nuts with creativity’ skillDon't forget that you can use Lucid Dreaming to pull otherwise unbeatable foes into the Dreamheart to permamurderize their minds.

[mabriss lethe]

Forgery is definitely one of the best. Worst? Other than truespeak, that would probably highly situational