Old Fart's skill guide

[[TGC] MadGod]

Since there is a lack of in game help and the SRD is an overwhelming info blob, I have decided to do a short guide to skills in the Pathfinder system and how to use them. Especially since you will not find some of the "skills" in pathfinder documents, since Owlcat decided (for whatever reason) to roll several PF skills into one.

CAVEAT: The makers of this game have seen it fit to deviate in many instances (either bugged out or on purpose) from the paper version of Pathfinder. Since this is technically supposed to be a Pathfinder adventure with pathfinder rules (at least in theory), I have tried to stick to the basic skill mechanics and will not speak of the more obscure things, let alone stuff that was written in the PF FAQs but not in the rules proper. An example is the fact that you cannot retry to pick a lock (ok with me..makes sense in a crpg).

Skill ranks

Skills can have 1 rank per character level. Each rank gives you +1 in the skill. Prerequisites of feats that call for skills (like Mobility 5) will be calling for the base ranks, not the bonus.

Skill bonus

The bonus of a skill is calculated by rank+attribute bonus+misc. bonuses. Hovering the mouse over a skill bonus will reveal the calculation of the bonus.

Some skills say "Armor Check Penalty" (ACP) in their description. That means your armor/shield influences this skill in a negative way. If you hover over your armor you will notice a number from 0 to -x (x > 0) called "armor check penalty" which will be subtracted from your bonus to give the final value. For example Stealth and Mobility are skills that will be worsened by wearing armor or shields. This penalty is typeless, so if you wear armor AND shield, the negative values will stack.

Rolling a skill

One must realize, there is no "crit" when rolling a skill. The minimum roll you can achieve in any skill is 1+bonus, the maximum 20+bonus. So if my Cleric has a Lore(Religion) bonus of +10, the minium skill roll is 11, the maximum is 30.

Every skill roll is compared to the DC (Difficulty Class) of the challenge. The challenge can be static (like the difficulty of a trap or lock) or variable (like a stealth check). If you want to spot the rogue sneaking up on you, you would need to beat his stealth skill check with your perception skill check. If your best possible result in a skill check cannot beat the difficulty of the challenge, you CANNOT make it.

For example: The above mentioned cleric has to find out something about a very obscure cult of nudist halfling monks that worship Asmodeus (DC 35). There is no way he can do it unless he gets at least a +15 Lore(Religion), in which case he has to roll a 20 or get more bonuses (like going to a library etc...so not in a CRPG. :) ). In his frustration, he tries to find out something about the sister cult of jazz-dancing knifemaster rogues who run a massage parlor on the side and have advertising in town for their church (DC 10). He does not need to roll, since he will beat the challenge even with a 1.

There are exceptions to that rule (especially with Use Magic Device). But in general, the above is true.

Skills

I will only cover skills that have a mechanical game impact, not a dialog impact. Since Owlcat decided to not give characters the ability to find out things actively with Knowledge checks, I will skip those altogether.

Mobility You can activate the "Acrobatics" action from the abilities bar and then move @ half speed, trying to avoid an Attack of Opportunity. Affected by ACP.

Trickery The catch-all skill for picking locks and disarming traps. Your skill check is pitted against the lock or trap difficulty. If you fail your check by 5 or more points, you will spring a trap. You can retry a disarm attempt. In case of locks, you apparently are not allowed to try again (despite that being possible in the paper game.). Affected by ACP.

Stealth You try to stay out of sight. You do not vanish or turn invisible. Technically, you try to use cover and shadows to not be seen. This skill is much more powerful than in the paper game (apparently). You can walk around, cover be damned and still be gone from sight. Your stealth check is compared to the perception check of your opponent. If he fails, he does not see you. Attacking out of stealth denies an opponent their DEX bonus to AC (thus allowing a sneak attack) unless they have uncanny dodge/improved uncanny dodge. In the paper game, only the first attack out of stealth would be a sneak attack/attack without DEX, never checked what this game does. Affected by ACP.

An important thing to note is that you should NOT be able to stealth in combat or -- for that matter -- in plain sight. Strictly speaking, you would need some kind of distraction (skill not in game), a special class feature (not in game) or cover to get into stealth mode.

Creatures that have Blindsight, Tremorsense (if you are touching the ground) or Lifesense senses cannot be fooled by stealth (and blur/invisibility/displacement) and will see you automatically. If you wonder which monsters have those senses or if a monster you just spotted has it, check https://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/ and look for the monster. If it is not there, check the base name (like for "ferocious wolf", check "wolf"). Each monster has a stat block "senses". It should list all senses the monster has.

Perception Used to find and spot stuff. Simple roll vs. the difficulty of the spotting or the opposed skill check (Stealth) of a creature. If you succeed, you see whatever is there, if not, you don't. There is a plethora of positive and negative modifiers to this skill in paper, but afaik the game does not give you the modifier for lighting (for example) unless I missed it somewhere.

Persuasion Used in diplomacy/intimidate and to demoralize opponents. The former are checks against a static difficulty in dialog sequences. The latter is a check against a variable DC depending on the enemy. For demoralizing opponents, the DC is 10+"level of enemy"+Wisdom modifier.

Use Magic Device (UMD) The bread-and-butter skill of a rogue or bard. It allows you to use ALL magic items you normally could not use. Although I have read that many paper possibilities are not in game, but that seems to be a bug, judging from the encyclopedia text in game. The roll is a simple one vs. the DC of the item in question.

You can retry a failed roll unless you roll 1. You then cannot try again for 24h (except for scrolls..that is different, if implemented.).

• Wands : DC 20, Caster Level is always minimum of what is needed to cast the spell.
  
• Staff : DC 20 (I had a brain fart earlier). The Caster level of a staff is written in the staff description.
  
• Scrolls : DC is 20 + caster level (CL). So a scroll of bless (CL 1) has a DC of 21, while the same scroll made by a level 10 caster (CL 10) would have a DC of 30. You need the attribute (10+spell level) to cast it as well, so if your Character has a wisdom of 11 or higher, he just needs to beat the 20+caster level, if he lacks it, he needs to roll another UMD check to emulate the attribute (see below).
  
  Example: Your Rogue wants to cast a flame strike (divine level 5 spell, CL 10) on some unsuspecting water elementals. Unfortunately, he does not have a WIS of 15, so apart from having to roll a DC 30 UMD to activate the scroll, he needs to roll a second DC 30 to emulate a WIS of 15. I have no idea if that is implemented in game or if you can just cast away if you beat the first UMD.
  
  
• Race : Emulating a race is a DC 25. (BSing your way past a magic guardian that only lets dwarves pass, but you are an elf.)
  
• Alignment: Emulating an alignment (for that sweet holy avenger sword, despite you being every alignment but Lawful Good) is a DC 30.
  
• Class Feature: Like Caster levels or other class levels. Your effective class level is the roll - 20. You only need the minimum level needed. So if an item can be used by "a cleric channeling positive energy", it would be enough to roll a 21 (Level 1 cleric can channel). If an item states "can be used by anyone able to cast 4th level arcane spells", you would need to have a class level of 7, roll needed would be 27 (minimum for level 4 spells [no cheese]).
  
• Attribute: Needed for some items and all scrolls if you lack the attribute to cast the spell (10+spell level). The emulated attribute is roll - 15.

Scroll mishaps: If you roll a 1 on an UMD with a scroll you have to succeed on a DC 5 Wisdom check, or bad things happen. I doubt that this is implemented beyond "The scroll blows up in your face.." if at all.

I have surely forgotten something. And anyone finding typos can keep them with my blessing.

[dfedwards2001]

Note UMD does not currently let you emulate anything re use of a magic item. It does let you use scrolls and wands.

[[TGC] MadGod]

Originally posted by dfedwards2001:

Note UMD does not currently let you emulate anything re use of a magic item. It does let you use scrolls and wands.

Considering the text on UMD in game, I considered that a bug and decided to include all possible uses of UMD.

[Qrasss]

Thanks.

You by chance know if any of the kills influence intiative checks?