17 odpowiedzi w tym temacie

[Naeryna]

Is taking skill focus good idea? I was thinking about skill focus heal or skill focus survival or skill focus concentration for spellcasters. Which skill focus do you recommend?

[Jfoxtail]

For role play purposes - yes. If you can imagine your primary PC antagonist as.....

 

....primary spell caster is a woodsy "hedge wizard" living off the land for example (skill focus survival) that makes perfect sense. Perhaps he/she is part Fey heritage...

 

...Or perhaps your Cleric/Favored Soul is really wandering disciple and lay healer of the poor (skill focus heal) ... with a certain amount of eccentricity or anti-establishment ...(making no judgement or allusions to real life please and thanks)

 

However I don't think you will accrue much benefit from a "power build perspective" and it may be deemed a waste of feat....from other players perspectives.

 

i.e. skill focus concentration/spellcraft are probably better if you want to build a metamagic Arcane Scholar of Candlekeep.

[Arkalezth]

Skill Focus-Bluff for feinters is the only one I'd really recommend, PRC requisites aside. SF-Concentration (which eldritch knights get for free, BTW) or SF-Disable Device may have some use, but I'd normally spend my feats elsewhere. And I suppose another use is for non-class skills that you want to keep as high as possible (like the above example with a wizard taking survival, assuming no multiclassing). You definitely don't need something like SF-Heal on a cleric, not even for RP reasons.

There may be some other strange example where some SF may have some purpose (SF-UMD at low levels, perhaps), but in general, bluff for feinters is the only one that's really worth it.

[Naeryna]

I was thinking about Bard with wisdom 8 who want some points in heal, so he puts some points in heal and takes skill focus heal - does it have any effect?

Or rogue/bard with skill focus spot, so I can do teamwork feats.

I don't like multiclassing my spellcasters, so I won't taking any PRC with those.

 

I know it good to have Listen/spot, search and hide/MS on party leader, but is there any other skill, like diplomacy or spellcfraft or UMD or heal (for non healers) that is worth maximazing, but not worth loosing skill points for (especially if skill isn't class skill or PC doesn't have that much skill points).

[Arkalezth]

I was thinking about Bard with wisdom 8 who want some points in heal, so he puts some points in heal and takes skill focus heal - does it have any effect?

It has the same effect as putting 3 points on heal: Healing kits will heal 3 more HP per use. Not worth the feat, IMO.

Or rogue/bard with skill focus spot, so I can do teamwork feats.

I'm not certain about this, but I don't think skill focuses or any other modifiers besides the base skill ranks count for the purpose of accessing teamwork benefits.

is there any other skill, like diplomacy or spellcfraft or UMD or heal (for non healers) that is worth maximazing, but not worth loosing skill points for

This doesn't make a lot of sense. If a skill is worth maximising, then it's worth spending points into it.

The usual is splitting the skills between your team members. You can have, for example, a ranger with OLM skills, a bard with conversation skills, a cleric with heal, etc. It's better to have each class focus on their strengths, rather than trying to make them a bit less mediocre at other things.

[kevL]

I was thinking about Bard with wisdom 8 who want some points in heal, so he puts some points in heal and takes skill focus heal - does it have any effect?

It has the same effect as putting 3 points on heal: Healing kits will heal 3 more HP per use. Not worth the feat, IMO.

 

plus DC vs Poison/Disease, right? i think maximized healers are pretty buff ... especially in the middle of combat, a strong shot from a Healing Kit changes my mind from "I might not do this" to "heh, no problem!"

 

/opinion
 

... but is there any other skill, like diplomacy or spellcfraft or UMD or heal (for non healers) that is worth maximazing, but not worth loosing skill points for

 

what skills are definitely worth (or not worth) maximizing? For me, rogue always maxes his skills. Caster always maxes Concentration ...

[Arkalezth]

plus DC vs Poison/Disease, right?

Yes, that too (I don't think poison can be healed with kits, but I may be wrong), but you're pretty much guaranteed to cure it if you use a kit out of combat.
 

i think maximized healers are pretty buff ... especially in the middle of combat, a strong shot from a Healing Kit changes my mind from "I might not do this" to "heh, no problem!"

/opinion

Agreed, but one thing is max heal vs. zero heal, and another is the SF feat. Three points more or less are not going to make a huge difference, and there are usually better feats to take. Except at very low levels, I guess, but your HP is low then.

Now, I'm not saying that you're gonna end up with a gimp if you take SF. But a few exceptions aside, it's generally not worth it and/or better than the alternatives, IMO.

[kevL]

agreed.

[Naeryna]

 

 

 

 

what skills are definitely worth (or not worth) maximizing? For me, rogue always maxes his skills. Caster always maxes Concentration ...

 

 

UMD, lore, buff, heal as non-class skill (bard/rogue), spot as non-class skill (bard) in SOZ, survival, appraise, tumble... - mostly because I want to invenst so much skills, but don't have enough points.

 

 

If I multiclass bard he will need extra points in perform, since I can't put points in perform if I take any other class, even thou PC has few bard levels.

[kevL]

what's that cross-classing feat -- Able Learner. perhaps it's better than SF here

 

 

 

... am sure that's a whole new debate,

[Naeryna]

Able Learner doesn't help at all with perform - I'm only able to put points in perf if I'm taking bard level that moment. If I'm bard/barb and I take barb level, I can't put points in perf. I guess answer to this could be only pure bard, but I only use one inspiration (ins courage)...

 

 

Able learner doesn't increase skill points, also.

[Arkalezth]

Yeah, perform is an exception and it can only be increased in bard levels or, for some reason, invisible blade.
 

UMD, lore, buff, heal as non-class skill (bard/rogue), spot as non-class skill (bard) in SOZ, survival, appraise, tumble... - mostly because I want to invenst so much skills, but don't have enough points.

Well, like I said, spread the skills among the whole party. Also, you don't have to max all of those (and listen is a bard class skill that could substitute spot, but then again, a bard/rogue with able learner can max spot).

But let's be clear: What characters do you have in your party, and what do you want that rogue/bard to do exactly? If you want that character to have the OLM skills, traps/locks skills, bard skills, and still be good in combat... maybe you're trying to do too many things with a single character.

[kevL]

it sounds like SF:Perform is a bit more appealing, then, for a cross-classed Bard

/note.

[Naeryna]

But let's be clear: What characters do you have in your party, and what do you want that rogue/bard to do exactly? If you want that character to have the OLM skills, traps/locks skills, bard skills, and still be good in combat... maybe you're trying to do too many things with a single character.

 

My party - Rogue/bard as party leader, Cleric with animal domain, sorcerer and yuan-ti swashbuckler.

 

I want my bard to be skill-monkey, decent fighter and shooter, good overland map guy and caster.

It's true - I'm trying too many things with single character, and it's not possible. I just feel so frustrated.

[Arkalezth]

Well, a rogue 1/bard x with 14 INT and Able Learner could max 8 skills (9 if human) and still have a few points to spare at level 1. Concentration, perform, open lock, disable device, search, spot or listen, hide or MS, survival at half ranks, and 5 points in set trap for the bonus to disable device. Plus lore for free. If human, you can also take spellcraft, UMD or whatever, or a bit of each. If you never cast in the middle of combat and just stick to buffs, perhaps you can even do without concentration.

Back to the original question, I guess SF-Survival could have some use in this particular case, but you're not going to have a lot of feats to spare, especially if you want to be an archer.

An alternative is multiclassing the swashbuckler with ranger and making that character your OLM leader. Swashbuckler doesn't gain much after level 3 anyway, except for Weakening and Wounding Critical, but you have to wait until 14 and 19 for them. Considering it's a yuan-ti, you may not even reach those levels with that character in SOZ.

it sounds like SF:Perform is a bit more appealing, then, for a cross-classed Bard

/note.

Not really. The amount of perform you need depends on the amount of bard levels you have, so there's no use in increasing it on non-bard levels.

[kevL]

ach.

[kevL]

is Leadership feat still available? extra companion ...

[Arkalezth]

Yes, if any of your characters (henchmen included, I think) has it, you can hire a second henchman.

It also improves bard inspirations with Kaedrin's pack, but not in the vanilla game.