I started doing some work on my Priest class variation today, but instead got distracted by the list of rogue skills my players were working from. They were a bit overstated and bulky, some were poorly described. It took me a lot of willpower to pare them down to the very basic concept of each one.

Many of these skills are fairly obvious by the description alone. I think Read Languages and Use Scroll needed clarification. Evasion and Deceive as well due to their combat uses. Mostly it needed to be done because we have two rogues in the group now and no clerics. It may be fairly obvious that the standard list of rogue skills is not being used here. Instead the various rogues classes each receive a unique number of primary, secondary, and tertiary skills that have 15/5/0 as initial values and 90/75/60 as skill caps. Per level they receive additional points as normal. It’s on the Rogue Class Skills page.

 

Pick Pockets – DEX – stealing or planting small objects on unaware creatures

Open Locks – DEX – unlock non-magical locks, each tumbler requires a roll

Remove Traps -DEX – determine and disable the trigger for an discovered trap

Move Silently – DEX – move silently while unencumbered and wearing light armor

Acrobatics – DEX- various acts of tumbling and jumping

Contortions – DEX – squeezing through narrow spots or reach hard to get things

Escape Artist – DEX – escape any sort of bonds or confinement

Evasion – DEX – if not making attacks, may roll to dodge incoming physical attacks. also used to dodge instead of some saving throws

Find Traps – PER – meticulously search the area for traps/pits/triggers

Hide in Shadows – PER – hide literally in shadows or keeping out of line of sight

Detect Noise -PER – if alone or when the group is quieted down, listening for small or distant noises

Shadowing – PER – the ability to follow someone undetected without losing them in a crowd

Tracking – PER – may follow tracks and foot prints, terrain bonus/penalties may apply

Sense Magic lesser of PER or INT – feel for the aura of magic on an object or surface

Read Languages – INT – passing familiarity with several languages gives a chance to understand the jist of a message

Forgery – INT – creating false or duplicate documents

Disguise – INT – mask your own appearance or copy that of a certain type of person

Use Scroll – INT – similar to read languages, has just enough intuition to trigger the scroll although unaware it’s true purpose

Mimicry – CHA – may copy and imitate specific voices or sounds

Deception – CHA – used on NPC’s to convincingly mislead them, used in combat to cause an one-time opening in an enemies defense