Note: many of the ideas here are originally by Tarkisflus and the Tome of Prowess, merely reorganized by me. So, a big thanks to Tarkisflux! Special thanks also to Amechra, for helping to organize the maths.
Skills
Every character gains skill points from his class, which can be spent on any skill, giving a character ranks in that skill.
There is a maximum number of ranks that can be bought in any skill depending on level, equal to the medium progression.
However, character may also wish to specialize in a sub-area of a skill.
Specialization is a special skill trick (see below) that applies only to a certain, more specialized subset of a skill. You gain a bonus of +1 and another +1 for every five character levels in that skill area, effectively changing your skill rank bonus to that of the high progression if you spend full points on the skill.
Players are adviced to work with their DMs in finding relevant sub-areas for specialization that are neither too broad nor too general.
Example: Findelwald the Scholar is level 9, so he can have up to 9 ranks in any skill. His player has bought 9 ranks in Occult, spending 9 skill points. However, as the character is an expert on other planes of existence, he specializes in Occult (The Planes). This changes his bonus to that of the high progression of level 9, +12.
When rolling skill checks, a d20 is rolled and the skill ranks, any relevant modifier and the key ability named after each skill below.
All skills give special abilities that are listed further down, which are gained when a character
Note for third edition players: there are no class skills anymore. Everyone can buy whatever skills he wants.
Acrobatics Dexterity. This represents a character's ability to tumble past his enemies, fit into small spaces and perform other, similar feats of dextrous movement.
Animals Wisdom. This represents a character's ability to gain an animal's trust or train them, as well as his ability to care for them and ride them.
Athletics Strength. A character's ability to climb, run, swim, jump and perform other extraordinary physical feats.
Concentration Wisdom. A character's ability to ignore pain and distracting events around him.
Deception Charisma. A character's ability to deceive others by lying, feinting or disguising their mannerisms.
Devices Dexterity. A character's ability to manipulate, repair or jam delicate machinery or pick locks.
Expertise Intelligence. A character's knowledge about street culture, current events and politics, noteworthy locals and other such applies knowledge.
Heal Wisdom. A character's ability to care for the wounds and ailments of others.
Insight Wisdom. A character's ability to prevent being deceived, as well as recognizing the mental state of others.
Intimidation Charisma. A character's ability to bend others to their will.
Investigation Intelligence. A character's ability to find tiny clues and find necessary information.
Linguistics Intelligence. A character's ability in forging documents and finding forgeries, knowledge about ancient manuscript and obscure languages, learning new languges.
Lore Intelligence. Knowledge of religious customs, dogma and hierarchies, history, nobility and other ancient and current events.
Occult Intelligence. Knowledge about distant planes, rare creatures and magical occurences and rituals.
Perception Wisdom. The ability to notice small details, detect hidden enemies and react to them quickly.
Persuasion Charisma. The ability to convince others of one's viewpoint through words and to make deals.
Sleight of Hand Dexterity. The ability to pick pockets, perform small tricks of legerdemain, and move small objects around without being noticed.
Stealth: Dexterity: A character's ability to move silently and covertly without being noticed.
Survival Wisdom. Practial knowledge about navigation, foraging in the wilderness, tracking, findign shelter and other such wilderness abilities.
Advanced Skills:
Advanced skills are bonus abilities or new uses of a skill that a character gets for investing a certain number of ranks in a skill. As soon as they have invested that many skill points, that advanced skill is added to their list of abilities.
Skill Tricks:
Skill tricks are unique applications of skills, much like advanced skills, and like them, they have requirements. However, unlike those, they must be purchased at a price of one skill point.
Individual Skills:
Acrobatics: (Dexterity)
SpoilerBasic uses:
Escape Grapple: The character may substitute an acrobatics check for your Combat Maneuver Bonus for the purposes of escaping a grapple. This action requires a standard action to perform.
Crawl quickly: a DC 15 acrobatics check allows a character to crawl at one-half his normal land speed as a move action, instead of one quarter his land speed.
Balance: a character can move over a narrow object such as a rope at one half their normal speed. The DC depends on the width of the object: between seven inches and a foot, the DC is 10. Between 2 and six inches, the DC is 15, and everything between 1 and 2 inches is DC 20. A slippery surface (such as from rain, ice or oil) increases the DC +5, while a surface that moves (a rope in the wind) increases it by another +2.
You are flat-footed while balancing.
Slip bonds: the character may escape ropes or other simple bindings by making an escape artist check opposed by ?*. This action requires one minute to perform.
Stand up: a DC 15 acrobatics check allows the character to stand up from being prone as a swift action instead of a move action.
Advanced Uses:
1 rank:
Move past opponent: the character can move through an opponent's threatened space without provoking an attack of opportunity by succeeding on an acrobatics check opposed by that enemy's CMB check.
Survive fall: a character can threat a fall as if it was shorter than it actually was for the purposes of falling damage by succeeding on an acrobatics check. A result of 20 treats the fall as if it was 10 feet shorter. Every ten points of success past 20 treates the falls as if being another ten feet shorter.
3 ranks:
Extremely tight space: a character can slip through a space narrower than their own shoulders, but wider than their head
Slip manacles: manacles and other complicated bonds (usually anything fit over a humanoid character's wrist, but smaller than the hand) can only be escaped by trained escape artists. This requires an acrobatics check of DC 30 or higher, depending on the manacles used. This action takes one minute to perform. Increasing the DC by five points allows it to be performed as a full-round action.
6 ranks
Agile running: if the character has six or more ranks in acrobatics, they retain their dexterity modifier to AC while using the run action.
Run up walls: running up walls requires the run action. The character must move at least twice their base land speed on normal, flat ground. Following this, they can run up to their land speed up any vertical or almost vertical surface, provided they end their movement on flat ground again.
7 ranks:
Balance on extremely narrow surface: the character can balance on any object, no matter how thin, as long as it can hold their weight, with a DC 30 acrobatics check.
9 ranks:
Squeeze through impossible space: the character can move through a space smaller than their head with a DC 40 acrobatics check.
Walk on liquid: the character can walk on liquids or similar surfaces that would not normally bear their weight, such as sheets of paper or brittle branches, with a DC 40 acrobatics check.
12 ranks:
Move through magical barriers: the character can move through walls of force, as well as any abjuration barrier that would normally stop them from walking through and allows spell resistance (such as an antiplant shell), witn acrobatics check of 20+the effect's caster level.
*We don't have an equivalent of Use Rope anymore. Did we ever say what that would be for tying someone up?
Animals
Spoiler
Basic Uses:
Befriend: You may use the animals skill just as you normally would hte persuasion skill, but on animals instead of intelligent creatures, to improve their attitude towards you or push them to an action they would not normally do voluntarily.
Riding: Usually, riding an animal requires no check, but requires one hand.
Guide with Knees: You can react instantly to guide your mount with your knees so that you can use both hands in combat. Make an Animals check DC 5 at the start of your turn. If you fail, you can use only one hand this round because you need to use the other to control your mount.
Stay in Saddle: You can react instantly to try to avoid falling when your mount rears or bolts unexpectedly or when you take damage. This usage is a DC 5 check that does not take an action.
Advanced uses:
1 rank:
Leap: You can get your mount to leap obstacles as part of its movement with a DC 15 animals check. Use your Animal modifier or the mount’s Acrobatics modifier, whichever is lower, to see how far the creature can jump. If you fail your animals check, you fall off the mount when it leaps and take the appropriate falling damage (at least 1d6 points). This usage does not take an action, but is part of the mount’s movement.
Spur Mount: You can spur your mount to greater speed with a move action. A successful Animals check DC 15 increases the mount’s speed by 10 feet for 1 round but deals 1 point of nonlethal damage to the creature. You can use this ability every round, but each consecutive round of additional speed deals twice as much damage to the mount as the previous round (2 points, 4 points, 8 points, and so on).
Control Mount in Battle: As a move action, you can attempt to control a lig mount not trained for combat riding while in battle with a dC 15 animals check. If you fail the Ride check, you can do nothing else in that round.
Teach Tricks: see here for a list of tricks and how to teach them.
3 ranks:
Cover: with a DC 15 animals check and a move action, you may use your mount as cover while riding until the beginning of your next turn. This requires both your hands.
Fast Mount or Dismount: You can attempt to mount or dismount from a mount of up to one size category larger than yourself as a swift action and a DC 20 animals check, provided that you still have a move action available that round. If you fail the Animals check, mounting or dismounting is a move action. You can’t use fast mount or dismount on a mount more than one size category larger than yourself.
Mounted Combat: Once per round as an immediate action, when your mount is hit in combat, you may attempt an animals check to negate the hit. The hit is negated if your animals check result is greater than the opponent’s attack roll. (Essentially, the Ride check result becomes the mount’s Armor Class if it’s higher than the mount’s regular AC.)
6 ranks:
Attack from Cover: while using your mount as cover, you may have one hand free and use it to perform actions such as casting spells or attacking, if you succeed at a DC 20 ride check.
12 ranks:
Improved Attack from Cover: if you succeed on a DC 25 ride check you may use your mount as cover as a swift action instead of a move action, and you can have both hands free.
Athletics (Strength)
Spoiler
Untrained Uses:
Climb: You can climb up walls, which are, for purposes of climbing, defined as any incline steeper than about 60°. The DC for climbing depends the steepness of the surface, with further modifiers for circumstances. Apply all appropriate modifiers in order:
{table=head]Steepness|DC
Slope|0
Hanging Rope|15
Vertical|20
Overhang|30
[/table]
{table=head]Handholds|Modifier
Knotted Rope*|-20
Rope*|-15
Ledges wide enough to stand on (Rigging, wall with windows)|-10
Hand- and footholds (tree, craggy rock)|-5
Perfectly smooth (polished metal, glass)|+15
[/table]
{table=head]Various|Modifier
Chimney (3 walls)|-10
Corner (2 walls)|-5
Slippery (Oil, rain, ice)|+5
[/table]
*These modifiers apply only when the rope is in a position so that someone can brace themselves against a wall. They do not apply to climbing a hanging rope.
Jump: you may jump over or across obstacles. You may either make a high jump or a long jump. Jumping requires a move action to perform, and you may not jump further than your movement speed in one action (if you jump further, you complete your jump on your next turn).
With a high jump, you may reach a height equal to your body height plus one quarter your acrobatics check, in feet.
With a long jump, you reach a distance equal to one half your athletics check in feet. As part of a long jump, you may spend another move action to gain a running start. Your jumping distance increases another two feet for every five feet moved as part of that move action.
Advanced Uses:
1 rank:
Swim: Make an Athletics check once per round while you are in the water. Success means you may swim at up to one-half your speed (as a full-round action) or at one-quarter your speed (as a move action). If you fail by 4 or less, you make no progress through the water. If you fail by 5 or more, you go underwater.
If you are underwater, either because you failed an Athletics check or because you are swimming underwater intentionally, you must hold your breath. You can hold your breath for a number of rounds equal to twice your Constitution score plus ten, but only if you do nothing other than take move actions or free actions. If you take a standard action or a full-round action (such as making an attack), the remainder of the duration for which you can hold your breath is reduced by 1 round. (Effectively, a character in combat can hold his or her breath only half as long as normal.) After that period of time, you must make a DC 10 Constitution check every round to continue holding your breath. Each round, the DC for that check increases by 1. If you fail the Constitution check, you begin to drown.
The DC for the Athletics check depends on the water, as given on the table below.
{table=head]Circumstance|DC
Calm Water|10
Rough Water|15
Stormy Water|20
Flood, hurricane or similar|30
[/table]
Swimming against a strong current is especially difficult further halves your movement speed and gives you a -2 penalty on your athletics check. Having one hand full while swimming imposes a -1 penalty for a light object (anything about the size if your hand) or a -2 penalty for a larger or especially heavy object. These penalties double if both hands are full.
3 ranks:
Rapid running: you may run at five times your movement speed instead of four times when using the run action.
Hands-free climbing: you may have one hand free while climbing, to hold a tool such as a weapon (tools needed for climbing such as picks or ropes don't count). This gives you a -5 penalty on your climb check.
6 ranks:
Rapid swimming: you may move at one-half your movement speed as a move action, or your movement speed as a full-round action when swimming. This increases all swim DCs by 5.
9 ranks:
Improved Rapid swimming: you may move at your movement speed as a move action or double your movement speed as a full-round action when swimming. This increases all swim DCs by 10.
Concentration (Wisdom)
Spoiler
Basic Uses:
Concentrate: you can perform intense mental actions such as casting a spell, concentrating on a spell or using certian skills while being distracted by various external factors. If you fail your check, that action also fails.
Check: you only need to check for the same factor once, even if it goes on for a long time, or you repeat the same action many times during the same external disturbance. (Such as casting the same spell repeatedly during a storm).
Action: this check is made as a free action as part of another action, such as casting a spell.
{table=head]Circumstance|DC
Loud noise, such as howling wind or nearby festivities|5
Rough Weather, such as high winds, sleet, strong rain|5
Motion, such on a horse, a speeding cart or ship in a storm|10
Harsh weather, such as hail, sandstorms|10
Violent Motion, such as a galloping horse or a small boat in rapids|15
Taking damage during the action|10+damage dealt
Other violent hostile action, such as being grappled|Opponent's CMB check.
[/table]
Advanced uses:
1 Rank:
Ignore Painful wounds: you can ignore pain with a successful concentration check, temporarily negating all penalties to any checks or movement speeds. You still suffer all other effects of these effects might have.
This can include certain spells which deal enormous pain, which can be ignored with a successful concentration check against the save DC of the spell +5, or caltrops, which can be ignored with a successful DC 18 check.
A successful check as a free action at the beginning of your turn allows you to ignore the effects of pain for one round. You can repeat the check at the beginning of your next turn, but its DC is increased by +1 for every round after the first during which you attempt this. If you fail your check to ignore one instance of pain, you may not attempt to ignore it again.
Memorize: you can perfectly memorize long passages of text or numbers. A DC 15 check allows you to memorize an entire page worth of text as a full-round action.
6 ranks:
Ignore conditions: if you suffer from any of the conditions on the table below, you may ignore their effects for one round with a successful concentration check made as a free action at the beginning of your turn. The condition does not go away, and its effects return at the beginning of your next turn. You may try to make another check to ignore the same condition again during the next turn, but the concentration check DC increases by +1. If you fail your check against any effect, you may not try to save against it again.
The base DC for this is either 15, or the save DC of the spell or ability which imposed the effect on you in the first place.
You may ignore the following conditions:
Unsteady, Fatigued, Shaken, Impaired, Hindered, Stymied, Bloodied.
9 Ranks:
Ward off death: You may try to act normally while maimed or dying with a concentration check taken as a free action.
With a DC 25 check, you may act without taking damage while maimed.
With a DC 30 check, you may take your full competent of actions in a round while maimed, and avoid taking damage.
With a DC 30 check, you may try to take a single standard or move action per turn while dying. Doing so means you may not take a fortitude save to recover this turn, and take one point of damage.
Skill Tricks:
Spoiler
Agile Charge
Requirements: Acrobatics 6 ranks, Athletics 6 ranks
You may run or charge across difficult terrain, though doing so still slows you to half speed. Additionally, you may make a single turn of up to 90° during a charge or run action.
Breath Meditation
Requirements: Athletics 3 ranks, Concentration 3 ranks
You know a special kind of meditation that allows you to hold your breath for much longer times than normal. Effectively, you can now hold your breath for twice as longs as normal for your constitution score.
Dextrous Runner:
Requirements: Acrobatics 3 ranks, Athletics 3 ranks
You do not lose your dexterity modifier to armour class while running.
Meditation of Unending Air
Requirements: Athletics 5 ranks, Concentration 9 ranks, Breath Meditation
You can hold your time almost indefinitely by slowing your metabolism. Rounds during which you take no move, standards or full-round actions do not count towards the maximum amount of rounds you can hold your breath for.
Meditation of the Burning Soul
Requirements: Concentration 6 ranks
You can exist comfortably in cold conditions (between 0 and 40° Fahrenheit) without having to take any saves against the cold, and you gain a +5 competence bonus on all saves to avoid the effects of cold exposure.
Meditation of the Icy Soul
Requirements: Concentration 6 ranks
You can exist comfortably in hot conditions (between 90 and 110° Fahrenheit) without having to take any saves against the heat, and you gain a +5 competence bonus on all saves to avoid the effects of heat exposure.
Specialization
Requirements: at least 1 skill rank
You may buy a specialization in a subarea of any skill for which you have at least 1 rank. In that area, you gain a bonus of +1 and another +1 for every five character levels to your skill rank bonus.
Special: You may learn this skill trick more than once. Every time, you must specialize in a different topic, though you may specialize in the same skill more than once (e.g. you may have both Specialization (Occult: The Planes) and Specialization (Occult: Aberrations).
Wild Empathy:
Requirement: Animals 5 ranks
Animals naturally trust you. Their attitude towards you is improved by one step. (Normally from indifferent to friendly with wild animals, but hungry predators may improve from hostile to unfriendly).
