Helps needed for Skill Mastery ability

[neochaos]

Skill Mastery

The rogue becomes so certain in the use of certain skills that she can use them reliably even under adverse conditions.

Upon gaining this ability, she selects a number of skills equal to 3 + her Intelligence modifier. When making a skill check with one of these skills, she may take 10 even if stress and distractions would normally prevent her from doing so. A rogue may gain this special ability multiple times, selecting additional skills for it to apply to each time.

Ok, I got that it's nice ability, but I'm not sure about "take 10 even if stress and distractions would normally prevent her from doing so" part. Which skills are the skills that I cannot take 10 in stress or distraction? Could you give me examples, or lists, of those kind of skills?

[Sstoopidtallkid]

"Taking Ten" means essentially you do something twice, without the punishment for rolling low. That's why it takes twice as long usually. Most skills you cannot Take Ten if threatened. There are some, but the list of ones you can is shorter than the list of ones where you can't, IIRC.

[Azerian Kelimon]

Example: Disable device can't, I believe, have 10 taken. Same with Move Silently and Hide.

[neochaos]

How about Open Lock, Search/Spot/Listen? I can choose total of 5...

[SamTheCleric]

Tumble is a good one, you can't take ten normally... but with skill mastery you cartwheel around all the dragons with ease!

[mostlyharmful]

Use Magic Device!!!! this is the kicker for me, you can now pull the whacky reliably and in combat.

[Torger]

Taking 10

When your character is not being threatened or distracted, you may choose to take 10. Instead of rolling 1d20 for the skill check, calculate your result as if you had rolled a 10. For many routine tasks, taking 10 makes them automatically successful. Distractions or threats (such as combat) make it impossible for a character to take 10. In most cases, taking 10 is purely a safety measure —you know (or expect) that an average roll will succeed but fear that a poor roll might fail, so you elect to settle for the average roll (a 10). Taking 10 is especially useful in situations where a particularly high roll wouldn’t help.

By that statement, you can't take 10 on any skill check in combat. Try tying a fancy knot while under fire. Not very easy.

[Chronos]

Use Magic Device!!!! this is the kicker for me, you can now pull the whacky reliably and in combat.

If you get Skill Mastery in UMD, then stress will no longer prevent you from taking 10, but the unreliable nature of magic will still prevent you. What you need for UMD is something like the Warlock's Deceive Device ability.

Back to the OP, you can't take 10 on any skill at all when threatened. The real question when picking your Skill Mastery skills is, which skills are you likely to try to use when you're threatened? You probably won't try to weave baskets in the middle of a battle, so Craft (Basketweaving) is probably a waste for Skill Mastery. On the other hand, it is often useful to try to tumble in combat, so skill mastery in Tumble might be a good idea.

[Worira]

"Taking Ten" means essentially you do something twice, without the punishment for rolling low. That's why it takes twice as long usually. Most skills you cannot Take Ten if threatened. There are some, but the list of ones you can is shorter than the list of ones where you can't, IIRC.

Taking ten takes the same amount of time as rolling.

[sikyon]

If you get Skill Mastery in UMD, then stress will no longer prevent you from taking 10, but the unreliable nature of magic will still prevent you. What you need for UMD is something like the Warlock's Deceive Device ability.

I believe that taking 10 with UMD using skill mastery is possible, given that the artificer gets skill mastery (UMD) as a bonus feat. I've never seen any reference for "unreliable nature of magic" stopping you.

[Tsotha-lanti]

Which skills are the skills that I cannot take 10 in stress or distraction?

ALL skills. You can't Take 10 if you're under stress or distracted ( = combat). Skill Mastery allows you to Take 10 on the selected skills in combat (or when otherwise under attack; still, in fact, in combat).


Hide, Move Silently, Tumble, Spot, and Listen are good choices. Open Lock and Search aren't - you rarely use those skills in the heat of combat, and in fact usually Take 20 (especially at lower levels).