Unused Skills

[Rainswept]

So I was looking through some older threads, and I came across a suggestion I made that I think deserves its own thread.

There are tons of skills players can choose from that end up being 100% useless in NS4 (many of them in regular NWN in fact) and I think there are some creative ways we could implement some of them.

For instance, the threat level indicator is missing from NS4 because it was deemed metagaming, so how about we link it to a skill or even opposing skills and make it a roll. Someone suggested Lore vs Bluff. Spot or Appraise etc might work also, Intimidate might make your CR appear higher etc.

I'd certainly love having intimidate cause hopelessly lower level monsters to run from me instead of attacking. It's always annoying to have to stop and kill Anticans on the way to the RK nexus, etc.

Maybe enough persuade/diplomacy can turn red things blue.

I'd love to hear more suggestions like these from other players.

[Tru3Fals3]

intimidate actually does have a use for barbarians, it applies to their fear aura dc.

[weasel423]

Ooooo and the Ride skill to stop falling off the darn dragons

[Amoenotep]

over the past months i've noticed alot of players don't know what concentration is...they build this high ac char and don't use the concentration skill......lol..there goes what 6ac atleast?

[arvut]

I'd love to see more changes to those useless skills and the ride skill idea would be great indeed =)

Someone suggested Lore vs Bluff. Spot or Appraise etc might work also, Intimidate might make your CR appear higher etc.

Spot is required to see a hidden character (Hide), while Listen is required to detect someone sneaking up on you very silently (Move Silently) iirc. This might have been changed in ns4 but I doubt it, there is even a boost on spot when casting true seeing so I bet it does atleast something if it has been modified

Appraise however would be wonderful for ammo shop'o'holics, and since the shoppingsystem in Aetheria is partly conversationbased then im sure it could be installed somehow.

I'd love to see the conversing skills to be more useful aswell. But that would most likely require more NPC quests with long conversations aswell. (which ofcourse would be great, we need more worldwide npcbased quests anyway)

The bluff vs lore idea sounds interesting, but I'm afraid I do not fully understand it so it would be great if you could add some more detail on that.

[Daltian]

over the past months i've noticed alot of players don't know what concentration is...they build this high ac char and don't use the concentration skill......lol..there goes what 6ac atleast?

No amount of concentration will ever protect you from char with taunt. Way too many skill modifiers on gear that give taunt. Not that my bard is complaining or anything, just pointing it out.

[cRaZy8or5e]

over the past months i've noticed alot of players don't know what concentration is...they build this high ac char and don't use the concentration skill......lol..there goes what 6ac atleast?

Yeah if they want to taunt they will. I still max it to prevent those who don't spend a lot on taunt from taunting my characters but a bard with 20 ranks, his song, crafted belt and some rings can still taunt just about anyone on the server that isn't con based or has epic sk focus concentration.

[Daltian]

For every 10 points invested in ride, give 1 x 5 turns of expeditious retreat.

[Lokey]

Appraise is used in stock modules, implementation is dumb (% off prices). Not an exciting skill in PnP, unless you're really fond of Trap the Soul.

Craft X weren't used, crafting needs help because my off the top of my calculations for making trade skill items aren't so hot. (Exception: traps.)

Bluff is redundant with Taunt (taunt ability is part of bluff in PnP), guess they wanted something skill based for barbs to do...which as usual was a bad decision.

No sense motive!

Persuade = diplomacy I guess. (Glibness is an abomination of a spell.) Tends to be very very overused in modules.

Ride is new, and mounted feat that adds ride/5 ac is insane.

Everything else has value I think, though mileage may vary. Skills are checked in some places. I know we talked about skill checks at one point, I think we came to the conclusion that we didn't see much to do with them that didn't suck.

[Carejo]

Having made probably the first Barbarian to utilize the pure class bonuses, let alone the only character I ever see to use taunt, I can say it's worth it. And Tep is dead on, when he talks about no one getting concentration.

To think, I can run up and insinuate your mother is less than a saint, and because of it you're weakened. I can only say my inspiration comes from Sean Connery, playing celebrity Jeopardy.

[Amoenotep]

concentration is a con based skill...helms give it as does some mage gear, its reasonably balanced against taunt until a bard uses it. the point of adding concentration to a melee build...do you really want them to max their ac drop to you? i know i don't like that

[diddy33]

i know i've asked this before, but i never tested it. does taunt and curse song stack?

[VagaStorm]

Ride is new, and mounted feat that adds ride/5 ac is insane.

I think thats an appropriate amount. The problem is that you don't loose dodge and dex ac when you stuck in a saddle...

[Daltian]

i know i've asked this before, but i never tested it. does taunt and curse song stack?

Yes.

[Ryddwillow]

Having made probably the first Barbarian to utilize the pure class bonuses, let alone the only character I ever see to use taunt, I can say it's worth it. And Tep is dead on, when he talks about no one getting concentration.

To think, I can run up and insinuate your mother is less than a saint, and because of it you're weakened. I can only say my inspiration comes from Sean Connery, playing celebrity Jeopardy.

This might sound great on forums but I would not try taunt on another pure fighter or barb that is built right -- you might be disappointed,