Yagura:SRD:Skills Summary

Skills Summary

Each skill point you spend on a skill gets you 1 rank in that skill. Class skills are the skills found on your character’s class skill list, and these have a maximum rank of 3 + your level in a class that has that skill as a class skill. Cross-class skills are skills not found on your character’s class skill list, and have a maximum rank of half your maximum rank in a class skill. You can’t save skill points to spend later.

Skill Abilities

Skills enable characters to use a short list of abilities tied to that skill. The more ranks a character has in a skill, the more skill abilities are available. Each skill ability has a skill rank requirement, and characters with at least this many ranks may attempt a skill check to use that ability.

Using Skills

To make a skill check, roll: 1d20 + skill modifiers. Skill modifiers includes your skill ranks, your attribute bonus from the related attribute, and any miscellaneous modifiers for circumstances related to the ability, ranging from racial bonuses to equipment bonuses and armor check penalties.

This roll works just like an attack roll or a saving throw— the higher the roll, the better. Either you’re trying to match or exceed a certain Difficulty Class (DC), or you’re trying to beat another character’s check result.

Your skill check result determines the degree of success or failure your character experiences.

Skill Modifiers

While your ranks are important for providing a level of competence and opening up new abilities, equally important is your total bonus to these ability checks. Bonuses to skills are broken up into five groups:

• Skill ranks
• The ability modifier for the skill's key ability (the ability associated with the skill’s use).
• Conditional modifiers are those gained based on actual conditions when you use a skill ability, and are generally detailed in the skill descriptions. Bonuses arising from different conditions stack, unless otherwise noted in the condition description.
• Competence modifiers are any racial ability, class feature, feat, gear, spell, or any other bonus or penalty to a skill that does not fit into one of the other groupings. Competence bonuses do not stack with other competence bonuses, and cannot exceed +3. Competence penalties do not stack with other competence penalties, but are not capped. Only the largest available competence bonus and penalty apply on any particular roll.
• Circumstance modifiers are a miscellaneous +/-2 modifier that the GM may apply as necessary. They should be reserved for special cases where the existing condition modifiers do not adequately cover the situation.

Checks Without Rolls

Making a roll for a skill ability includes the potential for both great success and great failure, and there are times when you might rather just get by without worrying about it. These times are generally those when you are not under pressure to perform (as you would in combat or under stress), and when you have time to focus.

With some restrictions you may "take" a roll result of 10, 15, or 20 with any skill ability whenever you are not actively threatened or distracted. If you have 4 or more ranks in the skill than the minimum ranks required to use a skill ability then you may "take" a result even when you are actively threatened or distracted.

Taking 10

Taking 10 represents putting in an average amount of effort, and not attempting to reach for a greater result. It can be thought of as doing "just enough to get by". For the purposes of your skill check, you treat your 1d20 roll as if it had come up 10. Taking this option takes the same amount of time as a normal use of the skill ability does.

Taking 15

Taking 15 represents spending time and effort to do a good job, but without spending time to make it perfect. It can be thought of as "taking the time to do it right". For the purposes of your skill check, you treat your 1d20 roll as if it had come up 15. Taking this option takes four times as long as a normal use of the skill ability does.

Taking 20

Taking 20 represents putting in a great deal of effort in an attempt to make the check as "perfect as you can get". It means doing it over, and over, and over until you get it right... even if you get it wrong once or twice along the way. If you would fail the check in a way that would not allow you to retry it had you rolled a 1, you treat your 1d20 roll as if it had come up 1. Otherwise you treat your 1d20 roll as if it had come up 20. Taking this option takes 20 times as long as a normal use of the skill ability.

Retraining

There will be situations where a skill in which you have never invested points becomes a skill you need to use; that's where retraining comes in. To retrain, you first dedicate some time to the process, and at the end of that time you move skill ranks from skill to skill. The days spent must be consecutive, but regardless of when you decide to stop, the days spent retraining determine the number of skill ranks you may shift around.

It takes six days to retrain a number of ranks equal to your level + 3 (which is the maximum rank you can have in a class skill). Retraining less than six days retrains less ranks in skills - just divide the max by 6, round down, and that's how many ranks you retrain in a day. You may draw skill ranks from any number of different skills, and retrain those ranks to any combination of skills. The number of ranks you have in a skill after retraining still cannot exceed the maximum determined by your level and class skill list.