Athletic skill for heavy armoured characters?

[|Nick]

Should I skill athletics with my fighter? He has it as a class skill and he has the strength modifier, but it seems that the shield penalty and armour penalty are so bad, that it's not worth it.
Is there more tied to the skill than skillchecks, like faster movement?

[アンジェル]

Just the skill check. Movement is not related to that but more to race and size if I recall it right. I would skip it if you have other party members who are better with the skills. Lann e.g. is good with them since he is not wearing any armour in his intended build.

[|Nick]

Unfortiunalty, theres no place for Lann in the party most of the time.

[アンジェル]

Originally posted by |Nick:

Unfortiunalty, theres no place for Lann in the party most of the time.

No need to force yourself using character X or Y. It was just an example. If you are out of options you could always still skill that. Even someone without having it as class skill is probably better than compensating the penalties.

[Serendipitous]

Originally posted by |Nick:

Unfortiunalty, theres no place for Lann in the party most of the time.

Why? Out of all companions he is one of the few mechanically decent ones.

[CHAO$$$]

You should have at least 1 character with athletics around for shortcuts and areas locked behind skillchecks.
At worst you can just undress everytime you need to move a boulder.

[アンジェル]

Originally posted by CHAO$$$:

You should have at least 1 character with athletics around for shortcuts and areas locked behind skillchecks.
At worst you can just undress everytime you need to move a boulder.

The image of a tank stripping so they can climb the walls of Drezen... hilarious.

[Johndoe101]

I found this work before you made those skills rolls and know when they will happens. Remove the armor and shield to get rid of those penalties and have a slight faster move speed. Once the skill check is done put the armor and shield back on . Geting mitheral armor later on will help reduce the ac penalty to the skill use. If using a default fighter with no archetype then having the armor training will help reduce the ac penality to the skill use. The other option is to light or medium armor with a lighter shield when it come to it ac pen as to lower it.


As when it came the pen and paper side of the game. Due to the type of long travel through rough terrain for a campaign i played in . I find having 2 suits of armor helped depending on the enviroment in knowing the skills i need to use on for the day travels. Such as for traveling i would wear a chain shirt with weapon/light shield to reduce the ac pen beside being faster. If i know i would get in a combat and have the time . I switch in to fullplate with a heavy shield for ac . Little tips like this from the pen and paper side of the game are useful when it come to playing the game.