Skills Ranking

[AyumiAmakusa]

This alone will make many disregard the integrity of this post

Anyway, no new comers will take this post seriously. Besides, I think ranking skills based on what you generally feel is useful is fun. It may not be accurate but who cares?

[ddobard1]

Right. I didnt explain quite well, what i mean is that when i started whatever the race, the class, or the build i would always put points in Swim and Heal, so i could deal with aquatic environments, and heal better. LOL!

[KillEveryone]

My take.

UMD - For anyone that can up it a reasonable amount. Most gear only needs a 20. Scrolls need higher but if I'm only able to take half ranks then I'm doing it for weapons and items, not scrolls.
Spot - Good for anyone so they can see the mobs sneaking. Difficulty check is low for most stuff.
Balance - Good for anyone so they can get up quicker.
Jump - Only needs to get to 10. After that an arcane or ranger can cast the spell if jump is really required. There is a clickie that will get this skill up so you don't have to bother the caster.
Concentration - Casters need a good concentration if you don't have quicken.
Search - Rogues are the only ones that really need this for the traps. Secret doors can be found with a clickie that anyone can use.
Haggle - Everyone can use this but it is probably the least important.
Diplomacy - OK sometimes but it does have a cool down and you can also fail your check.
Bluff - I've never used, even on a rogue. I'll use diplomacy since it hits more targets.
While hide and move silently are nice, most groups don't let you use them. If you have enough skill points or solo a lot and can afford those skills then these are nice to have.

Perform - Only taken on bards but this is very important for songs and fascinate.
Open lock and Disable Device - Good skills and important but can only be taken by rogue.

Swim, heal, repair - These are joke skills.
Listen - Almost as bad as swim. A Spot check is fairly low so anyone can spot stuff even taking half ranks. Listen is a bit more difficult to see since it is a red flash when someone walks where spot you will see where the shadow of the mob is. It does at least do something.

So I would say that it depends upon what you can attain with what skill points you are alloted and what you want to do with your character. A non-human cleric with an 8 INT is only going to have few skill points and a small selection of class specific skills so what skill do you think they are going to choose. A rogue and wizard will have a lot of points so they are able to choose quite a lot, even skills that are not class specific.

[ddobard1]

The idea is to sort the 20 skills from your perspective. Choose your criteria for instance the classes that you prefer, and order the 20 skills only once. Lets evalute the result that we attain. Ty.

[ddobard1]

Balance is the leader and Repair the last!
To add your vote to the poll order the 20 skills once. Just that. Ty.

[Glenalth]

It's hard to do this as there are some that are must have's due to power and others that are must have's due to character build. Most of my characters are melee types with a lot of skill points, this is reflected a bit in my list.


Use Magic Device (Cha)
Jump (Str)
Spot (Wis)
Balance (Dex)
Intimidate (Cha)
Listen (Wis)
Concentration (Con)
Search (Int)
Diplomacy (Cha)
Hide (Dex)
Move Silently (Dex)
Disable Device (Int)
Tumble (Dex), This would have been higher but nerfs make it less useful. I wish they would just make all the status effects that remove tumble grant a penalty on a sliding scale.
Open Lock (Dex), Replaced by an arcane with Knock in many circumstances.
Haggle (Cha), I find myself unwilling to give up skills that are useful during gameplay for something that is only useful for filling my bank.
Perform (Cha), for my characters, totally worthless but I have no bard.
Bluff (Cha)
Swim (Str), Useful in only a few situations currently. Wish it was used for the underwater combat
Heal (Wis), Replaced by potions
Repair (Int), Replaced by potions

[ddobard1]

Use Magic Device is the new Yellow Shirt!
Repair is the Car Broom!
To add your vote to the poll order the 20 skills once. Ty.

[ddobard1]

As was antecipated the less useful skills are: Repair, Heal, and Swim.

All the others look fine. May be add other uses to these skills to make all the skills valuable!

[jwdaniels]

Okay, I'll bite. If I didn't have to list all 20 to fit the rather rigorous rubric for this poll, I likely would have stopped after Jump.

Skills that are extremely useful:
Use Magic Device (Cha)
Search (Int)
Intimidate (Cha)
Disable Device (Int)
Perform (Cha)
Spot (Wis)

Skills that are extremely useful but can be replaced by other ways:
Open Lock (Dex)
Concentration (Con)

Skills that can be useful but not in all situations and need not be maxed:
Haggle (Cha)
Balance (Dex)
Jump (Str)
Listen (Wis)

Skills that have a use but aren't nearly as worthwhile as the ones above:
Diplomacy (Cha)
Tumble (Dex)
Bluff (Cha)

Skills that are pretty much never worth taking:
Hide (Dex)
Move Silently (Dex)
Swim (Str)
Heal (Wis)
Repair (Int)

[ddobard1]

Edited.
I totally disagree. I always regret for don't have enough skill points for Hide and Move Silently, after Balance, Listen, Perform, UMD, and Bluff. And you can check the ranking doesn't postpone those skills.

[PurdueDave]

My 2 cents. I ignored dialogue options and such.

Use Magic Device (Cha): many characters will derive a lot of benefit from this if it gets high enough and all characters derive some at a moderately high level
Perform (Cha): mandatory for a unique class ability
Disable Device (Int): mandatory for a unique class ability
Search (Int): mandatory for a unique class ability
Jump (Str): very useful to everybody, generally few ranks necessary to hit the cap assuming a you get a high caster level jump spell
Spot (Wis): useful to everybody for seeing stealthed mobs and occasionally traps
Balance (Dex): a few ranks and an item are useful to everybody, high ranks are useful to some
Concentration (Con): useful to folks using scrolls or casting without quicken
Tumble (Dex): enough ranks to generate a positive modifier without buffing is useful and high ranks are useful to a few characters
Open Lock (Dex): very useful occasionally
Intimidate (Cha): critical to some character builds as an aggro lock, useful to anyone wanting aggro but unable to generate AOE aggro in other ways
Diplomacy (Cha): useful to anyone wishing to shed aggro
Listen (Wis): similar to spot but game mechanics make it less desirable
Move Silently (Dex): very useful for sneaking
Hide (Dex): very useful for sneaking but easier to buff than move silently
Bluff (Cha): may be useful for pulling, sneak attacking with it is useless because of game mechanics of activation
Haggle (Cha): a little useful for everyone but no impact to play in quests
Swim (Str): not critical to play in quests but it does at least do something
Repair (Int): trumped by purchased items from level 1 on...higher than heal because wizards get it as a class skill and it has a name that sounds more useful
Heal (Wis): trumped by purchased items from level 1 on