Skills can be used outside of combat for a variety of purposes and they grant auxiliary combat bonuses.[1] The five core skills are Stealth, Athletics, Lore, Mechanics and Survival. Every class gains initial proficiency bonus in two skills, but not limited to them. Non-combat skills are gained separately from combat skills(Abilities, Talents) and they do not use the same resources.
Description
Non-combat skills do not use the same resources as combat skills. You don't spend the same stuff for a non-combat skill as you do for combat skills. Some don't use anything at all to use, so you will never find yourself unable to blast an opponent if you get caught sneaking.
Combat can be avoided with non-combat skills. There will often be ways to avoid fighting. Examples: standard methods of talking your way out of a fight or sneaking around an encounter, but there will be other ways too. Perhaps you can re-sanctify a desecrated cemetery to prevent any further undead from rising, or maybe figuring out a way across a ruined bridge will always avoid the bandits on this side of the river.
Skills can be used in both scripted interactions and conversations, but they will be less common in conversations.[2]
The advancement of skills will probably be weighted, so increasing only one skill is not particularly efficient, though it will give you the highest score possible. If you divide your points between many skills, you won't be dramatically behind the specialist. But you'll be less likely to pass any threshold checks, but you also have higher skill scores on average and so more combat bonuses.[3]
Skill Types
- Learning Skills - This includes finding out previously unknown information, like the location of a town or a hidden door, or uncovering secret knowledge, like a potion recipe or the true name of a demon, or maybe knowing a good place to gather materials like ore or herbs.
- Traveling Skills - Skills that improve movement capabilities (such as sneaking around some ruins), or traveling across the world map faster or more safely, or even teleporting directly to destination. And skills like unlock and disarm that remove barriers like locks or traps.
- Item Skills - The alternatives to looting are the means to make new items, buy them, steal them, or supply NPC with materials or recipes to make them for players.
- Companion Skills - Non-combat abilities that interact with your companions, giving ways to recruit them, improve their usefulness, and keep them from dying (or even worse, disliking you!).
Skills
| Skill | Description |
|---|---|
| Stealth | Stealth allows characters of any class to attempt to avoid being seen or heard. It is used automatically whenever the character is in Scouting mode. The higher the character's skill, the closer they can get to enemies before being detected. |
| Athletics | Adventuring is tiring work. Traveling, fighting, and scrambling up fallen statues can take its toll. The Athletics skill counters the effects of accrued Fatigue, allowing characters to go farther and fight longer before they suffer penalties. In conversations and scripted interactions, Athletics is used for physical feats like climbing, swimming, and jumping. |
| Lore | Lore represents a character's accumulated miscellaneous knowledge and trivia, often of occult or esoteric topics. In combat, it helps characters learn about enemy defenses and capabilities. Each time a character attacks an enemy, their Lore skill helps contribute to revealing their defenses and, for common enemies, filling in their Bestiary entries. |
| Mechanics | Traps and locks can be a problem for even the toughest adventurers, draining their resources and maiming or killing those who are unfortunate enough to trigger an unseen floor plate. The Mechanics skill makes it easier to open locks and find and disable traps. Additionally, any character can use the Mechanics skill to place traps of their own. The higher the Mechanics skill, the more accurate the trap. In conversations and scripted interactions, Mechanics can be used to activate or disable a variety of machines. |
| Survival | Survival allows characters to make better use of the food and potion items they find. The higher the character's Survival skill, the longer the duration of such items. Survival can also be used in conversations and scripted interactions that involve wilderness challenges or specialization information. |
Skill Bonus
Every class gets a bonus in two skills.[4] Skill bonuses are constant and are on all levels the same value.[5]
| Skill bonus\Class | Barbarian | Chanter | Cipher | Druid | Fighter | Monk | Paladin | Priest | Ranger | Rogue | Wizard |
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| Stealth |  |
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| Mechanics | |
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| Survival | |
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