I'm just getting back into the game and I don't remember which skills are : [essential, useful, limited, or useless to a group] if feeling super helpful [which class skill best serves] Also have a few specific questions on these... Appraise- Do you only need one party member with this skill? Bluff- What does feint an opponent in combat do? Diplomacy- Is this and other social skills only needed by the group's "speaker"? Hide- I generally just march my groups into rooms then deal with w/e is in the room. Is this a skill I need to start taking advantage of? Intimidate- NPC conversation only? Listen/Search/Spot- Are these passive or click to use?
as far as I've been reading (which isn't everything, just the stuff in the in-game help), here's what I've discovered. Appraise: Only the character talking to a merchant uses his skill. I haven't noticed any increase in sell price or decrease in buy price for having extra characters with appraise, but I only tried this once at the start of the game, then restarted with only one character with appraise. Bluff: Feint causes an opponent to be flat footed against you until the end of your next turn. I don't know if it applies to anyone else attacking the target, though. This can allow a rogue to feint and then unleash sneak attacks the next round. Diplomacy/other social skills: see Appraise. It is only used by the person talking to the NPC. I found this part somewhere else on the forums, but I can't remember where. Hide/Move Silently: this allows a sneaky character to get into an area to scout ahead so you know what monsters are there before you send in your party. You can mimic this with the Invisibility spell, but some monsters can see through it. It can be useful, or not, depending on your play style. I don't use it myself, but I'm sure there are posts about how to use it somewhere. Listen and Spot help you detect sneaky enemies, though I'm not sure how many there are in the game. Search is usually something you have to use through the radial menu, but some races (elves and dwarves, maybe others) get automatic usage in some instances. Dwarves get automatic searches with stone, and elves get automatic searches for secret doors.
From the SRD Intimidate, Sense Motive and Diplomacy are only needed by your party's spokesperson. Demoralizing enemies isn't implemented in ToEE and enemies will never attempt any feints on the party. Hide is useful for scouting ahead and checking what encounters may be awaiting for you. You can also use it to move some of your toons into a more advantageous starting position before combat begins. Listen and Spot are automatically used. For Search its both. It is automatically used but if you use it through the radial menu it'll have a much higher chance of success.
Appraise automatically uses the highest score found in the party, so you only need one to have it. Sneaking can be very useful for reconnaissance, if you want to go that way. Some maps/scenarios lend themselves to it.
Listen helps you win initiative on surprise rounds (at least the manual says so) and is the second most important universal skill IMO besides tumble. That is good to know. Are there any other non combat skills that NPC's can utilize like survival or conversational skills to help the party? I found that NPC's can't initialize dialogue with other NPCs.
Great info here. Several questions to follow but I'll start with these... 1) In conversation that shows the option for a skill, does that mean it has already passed the DC or is it still pending a DC? 2) How about others rankings of universal skills. Seems Tumble and perhaps Listen 3) Skills that only one party member needs? Appraise and what else?
1. It just means that that skill is being invoked via script. The check is made in the script, but while it tends to be 'passed' it doesn't have to be, and sneaky writers sometimes exploit that. For example, a player might have a dialogue response of "give me the keys, you ____sucker" that is scripted only to be available if your diplomacy skill is 10 or over. Or 10 or under. And regardless, either could lead to a favorable or unfavorable dialogue node.
I'm quite fond of tumble for anyone who isn't wearing plate armour or equivalent. I can't say I've noticed if maxed tumble as a cross-class skill is effective in avoiding AoO, but my fighters and wizard ls either don't have much else to spend skill pts on or have them left over after maxing concentration and spellcraft. I have to admit I don't really know how listen and spot function- something to do with initiative? Likewise I don't know if sneaking affects initiative; beyond the first few levels invisibility is available for recon and seems infallible. Plus unfortunately I now know what to expect pretty much everywhere anyway at levels where blundering in would be a disadvantage.
At max I have 2 fighters w/cleric or a fighter, cleric and fighter sub class that wear armor, and since you can find 3 sets of elven chain early on I've yet to go the heavy armor route just yet for them. As such, all of my characters learn to take a tumble- it's saved their hides on more than one occasion...:thumbsup:
Yeah. I figured in my complete first play through I'd be well served using these skills but after you've seen it you'd know when you "needed" to use it.
As far as NPC it is a waste toy put any skill points in dialouge/faceman type skills, but other passive/semi-passive skills such as Survival/Track and Search they still come in useful. Also just like appraise you only need one person have survival/track skill also the computer will use the highest skill in the party when it comes to avoiding random encouters and distances between you and the enemy during random encouters.
Long time since been here,lol. Redoing TOEE. Dialogue skills are tied to the dialogue files,you need a certain skill level to trigger various conversations per each encounter. Based on this you only need enough points(skill+bonuses) to complete all the dialogue options,ie Zuggotomy requires Sense Motive =>10 to discover her deception etc. So for your PC you need one PC with all below to be most effective(best Rogue/Bards) Diplomacy Sense Motive Intimidate Bluff Gather Information And another with Appraise(or with the above),as not a conversation skill. Appraise is max 19 points. As discussed 40% +3% per point to 97% max cost.
Regarding appraise, don't forget to pick up the eye glasses (at the start) and a merchant scale (from the Traders). Both add +2 to the skill, and stack with each other.
Adding to this,for Diplomacy,I forgot to add: Black dress/suit: +2 Diplomacy. #Merchant scales are stackable..^_*
