Skill tier list?

[Brian]

Just wondering if people have kind of broken down which skills are must haves vs meh. Obviously they all have some utility but, for instance, if you aren't using scrolls/wands, seems like UMD is basically pointless (no roleplay uses). Or if taking mobility past 3 with anyone is better than more knowledge ranks. Things like that.

[Duder]

UMD isn't pointless, but you're right it's not great either. I've used it often in situations where you can't rest or leave the area, and run out of all your spells
I put four or five points into it with characters that have no magical ability whatsoever.
You're not going to want to UMD in the middle of battle (you'll waste your round if it fails), just buffs like wands and scrolls that cause personal range

You're going to want to make sure someone in your party is ranked higher on one of the skills.
Fail an athletics check, get damage. Fail perception, you wont spot things and traps.
Knowledge Arcana, Knowledge Nature is needed for getting information on the enemies when you Inspect. All characters roll for that in battle a few times, and the enemies sheet will be permanently updated with information. Arcana is also used for identifying magic items.
Mobility, similar to athletics, climbing hills, squeezing through passages, and CMD defense. My MC is basically high in persuasion, has a bit of knowledge arcana, not a whole lot and he identifies most items.
I gave him the professor's hat because it gives +2 to all skills and lets the party carry 1000 or some odd more pounds, I can carry a literal truckload now.
This is a good discussion to have I'd like to see how the local experts weigh in on this.

[Radiac]

You need one person who has maxxed Trickery in the party pretty much all the time, for traps and locked chests. Linzi can do this, or Octavia, or you can make aRogue main character, like I did, and do it yourself, or you can make a custom merc for this. You also need someone who can do Persuasion well, and it can be helpful to have that person be your main character. The Knowledge and Lore skills can always be on some companion or custom merc, as far as I can tell. UMD is good for a non-spellcaster main character to have, because you may need to try to solo some small amount of content, and being able to use various wands and scrolls can be helpful. Athletics and Mobility are both also useful on at least one map that you might try to solo, but are otherwise things that you can have a companion worry about most of the time. I believe that Stealth is the one skill that, unless you're going to sneak one person around on their own, the clumsiest person on the team gives the team away, such that the worst Stealth on the team ends up dominating the results.

Perception is a skill that you need to rank up pretty much everyone on the team with. I wouldn't recommend spending a lot of Feats on improving Perception alone, per se, on multiple characters, but you want everyone on the main traveling party team to have as high of a Perception as they reasonably can, just from skill points and ability scores at the very least, and probably at least one character with more than that, like bonuses from one Feat and one bit of gear.

When you pass near by a hidden object or secret door, everyone on the team get's a Perception check to determine whether or not that character sees the hidden thing. It turns out that if you have 6 people, each of whom has a only a mere 25% chance of finding the thing, you end up with a roughly 82% chance to find the thing, because you get, in essence, one roll then 5 rerolls to try to see the thing. So if you have everyone with maxxed skill points in Perception, plus one person with a Feat for that and some gear, you probably find over 95% of the hidden things.

[Brian]

I know you want all skills covered by at least 1 party member each. But when you have overlapping skills, I'm more curious which ones people think are more dumpable vs "you can never have enough".

My list would put Perception (for as many as possible) and Trickery (always need 1 person with it) at the top, but athletics...I've never seen a time when it's vital. I put it on fighter-types because of roleplay and class skill, but it always ends up feeling a little "who really cares?"

[asame_akio]

I dunno if this is quite what you’re asking, but just in case: you either want someone to be a specialist in a skill or not bother with it at all—there isn’t much point in being just decent at a skill, with the exceptions of UMD (since these have specified DCs) and Mobility (since having 3 ranks gives you a bonus to fighting defensively, and being able to reliably beat a DC of 15 in combat lets you move without triggering AOOs. Pretty much everything else scales so that only specialists really have a hope of beating checks.

As for how many specialists you need, generally you can make do with one in your party. The major exceptions are Perception, which everyone rolls every time there’s a Perception check, so it’s good to have multiple party members putting a rank in every level; Knowledge/Lore, which everyone rolls to learn enemy stats every time you encounter or kill an enemy; and maybe Persuasion, if you want multiple party members using Cornugon Smash or Dreadful Carnage to demoralize enemies. It also doesn’t hurt to have two Trickery specialists, since you can’t attempt to unlock a chest more than once (assuming you fail the first time) per level with a single character. Pretty much every other check is only rolled once, and only by whichever character in your party has the highest bonus.

Oh, and Athletics is useful for accessing alternate routes into enemy fortifications, accessing treasures that you otherwise can’t, and escaping certain effects (such as an entangle spell). The irony of Athletics, unfortunately, is that the characters with the highest strength are often wearing heavy armor with severe armor check penalties, making them bad at the skill even if they’re sinking ranks into it every level, so it might not hurt to have someone who’ll be more lightly armored your Athletics specialist—Amiri (if you aren’t trying to turn her into a tank) and Kalikke (if you give her the Skilled Kineticist utility wild talent) can both be good candidates.

[Immortal Reaver]

3 main skills.

Perception - at least 2 people that you put max points in them in party. Also if you have left over skill points, you do not know what you do with them for others put them into this. Used most, every character gets a roll.

Trickery - 2 people too. Traps, Treasure Chest (=loot and money). If one fails to open lock, you can quicksave then second can try by savescumming. If are always saving before lockpicking you can have 1 in party.

Persuation - great source of EXP, skill that is most used in dialoge. Can be used in combat, but needs specific feats. MC preferable. You only need 1 person for skill checks.


Others in order of usefulness (at least for me)

Stealth - 1 person. hiding camp againts ambushes, and avoiding ambush when traveling on world map (super usefull to save time by traveling with spent party). Can be used to scout out what enemies are next (can be done by guy with invisibility too).

Lore Nature - at least 1 in party with max ranks. Needed to get rations during camping. Reveal enemy stats, get lore/info sooner.

Mobility+Athletics - useful at begining-mid of the game, but later is not that important, you will find few such skill checks in optinal areas.

Knowledge World - reveal enemy stats, get lore/info sooner. Cooking gets some nice bonuses, failing cooking increaces chance of revealing camp.

Knowledge Arcana - reveal enemy stats, get lore/info sooner. While it reveals effects on
enchanted gear, those checks are super low.

Lore Religion - reveal enemy stats, get lore/info sooner

UMD - Failed attempt does not use item. Least usefull. And even then you can just keep it low.

[Duder]

I'm probably putting myself at a disadvantage but I spread the points around, but have each character specialize in one or two skills.
The MC you'll want some points in all skills for the times when you have to go solo for certain quests.