Using Skills
Skills represent some of the most basic and yet most fundamental abilities you possess. As you advance in level, you can gain new skills and improve your existing skills dramatically. Learn about the range of individual skills here.
Acquiring Skills
Each level, your character gains a number of skill ranks dependent upon your class plus your Intelligence modifier. Investing a rank in a skill represents a measure of training in that skill. You can never have more ranks in a skill than your character level.
| Class | Ranks gained each level |
|---|---|
| Barbarian | 4 + odd Int modifier |
| Bard | 6 + odd Int modifier |
| Cleric | 2 + odd Int modifier |
| Druid | 4 + odd Int modifier |
| Fighter | 2 + odd Int modifier |
| Monk | 4 + odd Int modifier |
| Paladin | 2 + odd Int modifier |
| Ranger | 6 + odd Int modifier |
| Rogue | 8 + odd Int modifier |
| Sorcerer | 4 + odd Int modifier |
| Summoner | 4 + odd Int modifier |
| Wizard | 2 + odd Int modifier |
The number of skill ranks you gain when taking a level in one of the base classes is shown above. A few class abilities grant bonus skill ranks.
Proficiency and Training
If you have a true understanding of how to use a skill, you are proficient with it. You can gain proficiency through your race, your class, and your traits. Otherwise, lacking that understanding, even experienced users of a skill will fumble around, trying to teach themself, making errors based on a flawed understanding of the nuances of the skill — and you suffer the same -4 non-proficiency penalty you that applies to using a weapon you don't know how to use, for example. If you are not proficient in a skill, you may still use the skill, but the -4 non-proficiency penalty applies to rolls you make with that skill.
If you have zero ranks in a skill, you are considered to be untrained. If you have even one rank in a skill, you are trained. You can be trained but still non-proficient. You can be proficient but still untrained. Some skills simply cannot be used if you are untrained.
Skill Checks
When you use a skill, you aren't guaranteed success. In order to determine success, whenever you attempt to use a skill, you must make a skill check.
Each skill rank grants a +1 bonus on checks made using that skill. When you make a skill check, you roll 1d20 and then add your ranks and the appropriate ability score modifier to the result of this check. Skills can be further modified by a wide variety of sources, including your non-proficiency, your race, your traits, your class abilities, as well as by equipment, spell effects or magic items, and so on.
If the result of your skill check is equal to or greater than the difficulty class (or DC) of the task you are attempting to accomplish, you succeed. If it is less than the DC, you fail. Some tasks have varying levels of success and failure depending on how much your check is above or below the required DC.
Opposed Checks
Some skill checks are opposed by another creature's skill check. When making an opposed skill check, the attempt is successful if your check result exceeds the result of your opponent. If the result is a tie (both roll the same result), the game master may declare the result to be ambiguous, or that the contest continues, or that it is a draw. If one creature can be described as the attacker, then it is always fair for the GM to declare that the defender is the winner in a tie.
Examples of opposed checks include: A Bluff check is opposed by the target's Appraise or Sense Motive check. Stealth, Sleight of Hand, and Disguise are opposed by Spot (or Search if taking an action to actively oppose). Two characters arguing in front of a judge might make opposed Diplomacy checks. Two musicians in a battle of the bands might make opposed Perform checks. The game master is free to call for opposed checks whenever two creatures are striving against each other in a contest.
Opposed checks can also be pure ability score checks. Two fighters arm wrestling may make opposed Strength checks. Two sages racing to solve the same riddle might make opposed Intelligence checks. Two magic-users attempting to charm the same creature or command the same undead might make opposed Charisma checks.
Taking 10 and Taking 20.
A skill check represents an attempt to accomplish some goal, usually while under some sort of time pressure or distraction. Sometimes, though, a character can use a skill under more favorable conditions, increasing the odds of success.
Taking 10: When your character is not in immediate danger or distracted, you may choose to take 10. Instead of rolling 1d20 for the skill check, calculate your result as if you had rolled a 10. For many routine tasks, taking 10 makes them automatically successful. Distractions or threats (such as combat) make it impossible for a character to take 10. In most cases, taking 10 is purely a safety measure — you know (or expect) that an average roll will succeed but fear that a poor roll might fail, so you elect to settle for the average roll (a 10). Taking 10 is especially useful in situations where a particularly high roll wouldn't help.
Taking 20: When you have plenty of time, you are faced with no threats or distractions, and the skill being attempted carries no penalties for failure, you can take 20. In other words, if you make d20 rolls enough times, eventually you will get a 20. Instead of rolling 1d20 for the skill check, just calculate your result as if you had rolled a 20.
Taking 20 means you are trying until you get it right, and it assumes that you fail many times before succeeding. Taking 20 takes 20 times as long as making a single check would take (usually 2 minutes for a skill that takes 1 round or less to perform).
Since taking 20 assumes that your character will fail many times before succeeding, your character would automatically incur any penalties for failure before he or she could complete the task (hence why it is generally not allowed with skills that carry such penalties). Common “take 20” skills include Disable Device (when used to open locks), Escape Artist, and Perception (when attempting to find traps).
Ability Checks and Caster Level Checks: The normal take 10 and take 20 rules apply for ability checks. Neither rule applies to concentration checks or caster level checks.
Aid Another
You can help someone achieve success on a skill check by making the same kind of skill check in a cooperative effort. If you roll a 10 or higher on your check, the character you're helping gets a +2 bonus on his or her check. (You can't take 10 on a skill check to aid another.) In many cases, a character's help won't be beneficial, or only a limited number of characters can help at once.
In cases where the skill restricts who can achieve certain results, such as trying to open a lock using Disable Device, you can't aid another to grant a bonus to a task that your character couldn't achieve alone. The GM might impose further restrictions to aiding another on a case-by-case basis as well.