Do Wizards need Magical Devices Skill

[Nuee]

I believe in D20 and DnD wizards can intrinsically use arcane devices (perhaps not clerical ones) and magical device skill would be redundant as a result. Does it work that way in this game? Or do your clerics and wizards need to train those skills up to be able to do so?

[SpiralRazor]

The primary thing with UMD for a wizard is to equip items that you wouldnt be able to due to race, class or alignment. Ive still been putting points here because theres really not much to spend them on, as a wizard.

[Nuee]

Nod. So it does have value. Ok had to wonder.

[fluxtorrent]

its also good for using those divine scrolls and wands

[Cinna]

UMD is mostly used for scrolls and wands. You'll want to invest all-or-nothing as the DCs for UMD tend to be very high, and the actions it is used for become pretty pointless with a high failure chance. The best people for UMD are a charisma based rogue, a sorcerer, a paladin, or a bard. Keep one of these around with a good supply of scrolls and wands and you'll ideally never be left short on that one awkward spell you'd have liked to have on hand, such as a disease/poison/curse/blindness/paralysis/ability damage cure.

A character only has to use UMD for a wand if they cannot cast the spell in the wand.

A character only has to use UMD for a scroll if they are not a member of the class that casts that scroll's spell (but doesnt personally have to know the spell or have it prepared).

UMD is probably one of the only skills I'd reccomend a combat optimizer take Skill Focus for, if its for a character that will use it a lot.

[Nuee]

Cool. Thank you for the answers. So for my wizard I should have no problem not taking it provided I keep it current on another character for those special outside class scrolls and unknown wand spells.

[AzureTheGamerKobold]

yep want to heal as a wizard? grab up UMD and some cure wands and bam problem solved.

[Cinna]

Originally posted by Nuee:

Cool. Thank you for the answers. So for my wizard I should have no problem not taking it provided I keep it current on another character for those special outside class scrolls and unknown wand spells.

If you're running Linzi she's a natural candidate because of her high charisma, having it as a class skill, and a large number of available skill points lowering her opportunity cost. With a CHA mod of +3, +3 Trained bonus, 3 ranks in it, and skill focus, she'd get a bonus of +12 at level 3. At level 10 she'll have 10 ranks, +5 cha, +6 skill focus, +3 trained bonus, for a bonus of 24. Bonuses get really significant around the time they reach 20 because they can overhwhelm the chance mechanic. If a task has a hard DC at 25, a bonus of 24 means you make it on any roll that isn't a 1.

Nothing I just said about +20 applies to attack rolls outside of tabletop version since this game uses its own made up numbers for monster stats instead of anything that follow's the game's conventions.