Skills
Skills are learned abilities acquired through a combination of training
(skill ranks) and natural talent (an ability). These factors combine to
form the parts of a skill check, which is a roll of the die, plus the skill’s
rank, key ability score, and any applicable modifiers.:
Skill check = 2d10 + skill rank +
key ability score + modifiers
The higher the roll, the better the result. You’re usually looking for a
total that equals or exceeds a particular Difficulty or another character’s
check total.
Skill Rank
Your rank in a skill indicates how well trained you are with it. You
assign ranks from your role and level to skills, and the maximum rank
you can have in any skill is your level +3. You can use some skills even if you aren’t trained in them (having no rank). This is known as using
a skill untrained.
Ability Score
Each skill has a key ability, applied to the skill’s checks. Each skill’s key
ability is noted in its description.
Modifiers
Miscellaneous modifiers to skill checks include favorable or unfavorable
conditions, bonuses from feats, and penalties for not having proper
tools, among others.
Acquiring Skills
You choose a certain number of skills your character knows at 1st level,
based on your role and Intelligence score. For example, a warrior knows
four skills at 1st level, plus or minus the character’s Intelligence score,
so a warrior with Intelligence +1 is trained in five skills at 1st level. A
1st-level character is always trained in at least one skill, regardless of
Intelligence.
Improving Skills
As your character advances in level, you gain additional ranks to assign to
skills. You can assign these ranks to existing skills your character knows,
improving them up to the maximum rank of (level +3) or you can assign
earned skill ranks to entirely new skills, making your character trained with
a rank in that skill.
Untrained Skills
Characters can perform some tasks without any training in a skill,
using only raw talent (as defined by their ability scores), but trained
characters tend to be better at such things. If a skill description doesn’t
include “Trained Only,” you can attempt tasks involving that skill
even if you have no training in it. Your bonus for the skill check is just
the key ability score for that skill, with no ranks added in. Untrained
characters can still hide or swim, for example; they’re just not as good
at it as those with training.
Skills that cannot be used untrained are designated as “Trained Only” in
their descriptions. Attempts to use these skills untrained automatically
fail. In addition to trained only skills, some skills given in this chapter
may be in appropriate to certain settings, and the Narrator should feel
free to limit access to those skills or ban them entirely. For example,
a medieval knight isn’t going to learn the Computers skill and while a
peasant might pick up ranks in Drive for his ox-cart, he won’t be using
it to compete in the Indy 500.
How Skills Work
When you use a skill, make a skill check to see how well you do. The
higher the result, the better the outcome. Based on the circumstances,
your check result must equal or beat a particular Difficulty number. The
harder the task, the higher the number you need to roll. See Checks in
the Introduction for more information.
Interaction Skills
Certain skills, called interaction skills, are aimed at dealing with others
through social interaction. Interaction skills allow you to influence
attitudes and get others to cooperate with you. Since interaction
skills are intended for dealing with others socially, they have certain
requirements.
First, you must actually be able to interact with the subject or subjects
of the skill. That means the subject must be aware of you and able to
understand you. If you don’t speak the same language, or they can’t hear
you for some reason, that’s the same as working without the proper
tools, imposing a –4 on your skill check, since you have to convey your
meaning through gestures, body language, tone, and so forth.
Interaction skills work best on intelligent subjects, ones with Intelligence
–3 or higher. You can use them on creatures with lower Intelligence (–4
or –5) but with a –8 penalty on your check; they’re just too dumb to
get the subtleties of your point. You can’t use interaction skills at all
on subjects lacking a mental ability. (Try convincing a rock to be your
friend—or afraid of you—sometime.)
Some interaction skills last a particular amount of time. Using
Intimidate to demoralize an opponent, for example, lasts for only a
few seconds (one round). In these cases, the time is always measured
from the subject’s point of view. If you successfully demoralize an
opponent, the effect lasts one full round starting on the target’s
initiative and ending on the target’s place in the initiative order on
the following round.
You can use interaction skills against groups, but you must be trying to
influence the entire group in the same way. You can use Diplomacy, for
example, to sway a group of people and improve their attitude toward
you, but you must be trying to convince all of them about the same
thing. Everyone in the group must be able to hear and understand
you. You make one interaction skill check and the Narrator compares
it against each person in the group (or against an average value for the
group, to speed things up).
Specialty Skills
Some skills cover a wide range of knowledge or techniques. These skills
are actually groups of similar skills, called specialty skills. When learning
one of these skills, you must choose a specialty or a particular aspect
of the skill your character is trained in. For example, you might choose
the history specialty of Knowledge or the leatherworking specialty of
Craft. Skill ranks in one specialty do not provide training in the skill’s
other specialties.
