Skills

I gave a brief preview of skills while I was discussing attributes; I’d like to spend a little more time on them now. First, I will list the skills I intend to use and give a brief description of each:

Acrobatics: jumping, balancing, tumbling.

Climb: what it says.

Deception: misdirection, lying, and disguise.

Endurance: ability to run or fight for long periods, resist heat, cold, and fatigue. Distinct from Fortitude saves, which are used to resist poison, disease, nausea. Endurance lets you ignore affliction, Fortitude lets you resist it.

Escape Artist: escaping bonds, squeezing through tight spaces.

Handle Animal: train and direct animals.

Heal: what it says.

Intimidate: what it says.

Lore: any application of the Pathfinder Knowledge skill that doesn’t fit under an existing skill—e.g. history, legends.

Perception: how sharp your senses are.

Persuasion: what it says (replaces Pathfinder Diplomacy)

Profession: making money with your skills. Also includes crafting.

Ride: what it says.

Security: lockpicking, trap disarming, trapsmithing.

Sense Motive: opposes Deception; can also be used to make a gut assessment of a situation.

Sleight of Hand: stealing.

Spellcraft: knowledge of magic.

Stealth: what it says.

Streetwise: getting by in the city, gathering information.

Survival: getting by in the wilderness, tracking, general outdoor skills and knowledge of nature.

Swim: what it says.

I intend to emphasize that the key attributes listed for each skill are only the attributes that are most commonly relevant; in many cases, substitute attributes can and should be used. For example, what in Pathfinder would be a Knowledge: Nature check is in Telharis a Survival check using Intelligence instead of Awareness. Another example would be using a Strength-based Acrobatics check to jump.

One major difference in the handling of skills between Telharis and Pathfinder is that I have eliminated skill ranks. Instead, skill training will be part of the tiered talent structure. The first tier will grant a +4 competence bonus and unlocks trained-only uses of the skill. Additional tiers grant higher competence bonuses and various abilities. For example, high-tier Stealth might enable a character to actually turn invisible for short periods, or high-tier Perception might grant enhanced senses.

One final change is in terminology. I’m not fond of the term DC (difficulty class). I want many of my skills to utilize degrees of success, and I’d like a name that better reflects that. For now, I’m going to go with success threshold (ST); it’s clear and doesn’t conflict with any existing abbreviations.