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Rogues' Skill Mastery allows them to do this if they choose the appropriate Knowledge skill for it.
The Aura of Perfect Order stance (Devoted Spirit 6) lets them "Take 11" once per round on any d20 roll.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Emperor Tippy
By level 20 though, you aren't capturing a wizard. A character lives to level 20 by being the most ruthless, lucky, capable, and paranoid bastard around. A wizard is throwing around a 30+ Int score and has, entirely in character, planned contingencies for his contingencies. He may well be running around with flat out total immunity to harm, he does not walk outside without an entire bevy of defensive magics around him and enough magic items to buy himself a nation.
There are lots of classes which get some form of Skill Mastery; see the Lists of Stuff. Many forms of Skill Mastery are specific to particular skills, but none of them are specific to the various Knowledges. Still, there are a lot of them which are user-selectable like the Rogue ability.
Spoiler
Skill Mastery - aka "Take 10"
Rogue 10
Rogue 1, Changeling substitution level, Races of Eberron, Diplomacy/Bluff/Gather Info/Intimidate/Sense Motive
Ranger 13, Half-elf substitution level, Races of Destiny, select 3+(Int mod) skills
Swashbuckler 13, Complete Warrior, jump/tumble
Invisible Blade 4, ecl 9, Complete Warrior, bluff
Exemplar 1, ecl 11, Complete Adventurer, 1+Int and a new one each level
Dread Pirate 8, ecl 13, Complete Adventurer, balance/climb/jump/tumble
Dungeon Delver 3, ecl 10, Complete Adventurer, select 3+Int
Nightsong Infiltrator 6, ecl 13, Complete Adventurer, climb, disable device, open lock, search
Thief-Acrobat 4, ecl 8, Complete Adventurer, balance/climb/jump/tumble
Evangelist 4, ecl 9, Complete Divine, select 1+Int from list
Temple Raider of Olidammara 9, ecl 14, Complete Divine, select 3+Int
Urban Soul 6, ecl 13, Races of Destiny, balance/climb/jump/move silently/tumble
Artificer 13, Eberron Campaign Setting, spellcraft and Use Magic Device
Warlock 4, Complete Arcane, on Use Magic Device checks
Shade Hunter 6, ecl 11, FR: Champions of Ruin
Dervish 1, ecl 6, Complete Warrior, jump/perform/tumble
Cyre Scout 8, ecl 11, Eberron: Dragonmarked, survival
Deneith Warden 8, ecl 12, Eberron: Dragonmarked, sense motive
Savvy Rogue, feat, Complete Scoundrel, "take 12" on skill mastery
Court Herald 10, ecl 17, Power of Faerun, selet 3+(int mod)
Darkrunner 8, ecl 12, Lords of Madness, balance/climb/escape artist/jump/swim
Naberius, vestige, ecl 1, Tome of Magic, diplomacy
Hoardstealer 8, ecl 13, Draconomicon, 3+Int
Dantalion Vestige (Binder 8, or a similar Binder/PrC build) provides a +8 unnamed bonus on all Knowledge checks. The vestige's other abilities are pretty useful as well, especially if you take the Scion of Dantalion prestige class.
Draconic Knowledge Invocation (Dragonfire Adept 1 or Warlock 1): +6 bonus of Knowledge and Spellcraft checks for 24 hours. (Dragon Magic p.80)
Divine Insight spell: 5 + caster level insight bonus to one check.
Improvisation spell: Caster level/2 luck bonus to one check.
Trivial Knowledge: Whenever you make a Knowledge check or a Bardic Knowledge check, roll twice and use the better result. Requires that you be a Gnome. Races of Stone pg 145.
Mantle of Second Chances: Reroll one die once per day. No reason you can't have several, and swap them out each combat. 6,000 gp, DMG II pg 269.
Knowledge Devotion feat: Make a Knowledge check to gain a scaled insight bonus (up to +5 if you can hit 36 or higher) to hit and damage. Complete Champion pg 60.
Lunatic Insight feat: You are considered trained in all Knowledge Skills, and gain a +2 (untyped) bonus to Initiative and Mind Effecting abilities. Heroes of Horror pg 123.
Collector of Stories skill trick: +5 bonus on Knowledge checks to identify the weakness of monsters. Complete Scoundrel p.85
Paragnostic Apostle: OK Knowledge based PrC - synergizes well with Archivist, and grants Lore ability. Complete Champion p.94.
Make Your Own Luck Feat: Expend a luck reroll to reroll any skill check. Note that Luck uses are very limited unless you invest heavily in it, and Luck abilities generally suck, so this is more of an NPC option. (Complete Scoundrel, p.79)
Masterwork item: +2 bonus to any Skill check.
Book of All Knowledge: +10 insight bonus to a Knowledge check, after persuing the book for 2d4 hours. Complete Champion p. 142.
Tome of Worldly Memory: +5 competence bonus to a Knowledge check, after persuing the book for 1 minute 3/day. If you have 5 ranks in the skill in question, it only requires a standard action. Magic Item Compendium p.190
Item Familiar: Scaled bonus (Class level + 3) to any one Skill check, though you have to sacrifice twice as many Skill ranks. Unearthed Arcana.
And as a side note, Taking 10 is mathematically inferior to just rolling a d20. Taking ten always adds +10. Rolling d20 gives you an expected average result of 10.5. So you should only Take 10 when you know that a result of 9 or less will fail, and that there is no benefit to a result of 11 or higher. Thus, it's useful for fixed DC's, but not useful for opposed DC's, or in situations where a higher result might give you better options.
The skillful moment spell from Dragon Magazine spell collection .pdf allows one to count the next skill check made as if a 20 had been rolled, as long as the skill check is made the round after the spell is cast (standard action, first level spell). Could be useful to combo it with a rod of metamagic (quicken), perhaps, particularly for purposes of Knowledge Devotion and similar effects that scale with DC. Also nice because there is no bonus type associated with the effect, so it stacks with everything.
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In my dreams, I am currently a druid 10/wizard 10/arcane hierophant 10/warshaper 5. Oh, and add on the werewolf hit dice...sheesh, getting too strong.
Unless of course you're at least +11 higher than them.
I think that falls under "9 or less will fail". Also, good luck determining your opponent's modifier before an opposed roll.
__________________
Quote:
Originally Posted by Emperor Tippy
By level 20 though, you aren't capturing a wizard. A character lives to level 20 by being the most ruthless, lucky, capable, and paranoid bastard around. A wizard is throwing around a 30+ Int score and has, entirely in character, planned contingencies for his contingencies. He may well be running around with flat out total immunity to harm, he does not walk outside without an entire bevy of defensive magics around him and enough magic items to buy himself a nation.
taking 10 on physical skills and UMD is what it's usually used for- because those things are fixed DCs, where (In the cas of UMD) rolling a 1 is an auto-fail.
Knowledge checks is a bit out of left field, but doable.
No, it's not. However, if you roll a natural 1 and also fail the check, there are consequences. But if you roll a natural 1 and succeed, you simply always succeed.
As a side question.. do you get the special +2 bonus to described under 'Activating Blindly' when you are 'activating a wand' after having done it successfully before?
Yes, succeeding at least once previously gives you +2 to Activate Blindly. You can't activate a wand via Use a Wand unless you've successfully identified the spell contained therein first. Knowing that it causes heat damage when you point it and Activate Blindly still doesn't tell you if it's a wand of Fireball, or Aganazzar's Scorcher, or Burning Hands with Maximize Spell applied to it; you need spellcasting knowledge (a successful Spellcraft check)) to nail down the actual spell.
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Taking 10 on Skill Checks in Combat?
