A skill trick is a new way to use a skill, which lets you do something that other people can’t do, even if they have as many ranks in the skill as you do.
Learning a skill trick costs 2 skill points. Whenever you acquire skill points (e.g., when you gain a character level), you can choose to spend some skill points to acquire skill tricks instead of using them to buy ranks in skills.
You can learn any skill trick, as long as you meet the prerequisite and can afford to spend 2 skill points. (Learning skill tricks is optional: you can choose not to spend skill points on skill tricks.) If you later no longer meet the prerequisite for a skill trick, you can’t use it again until you once more qualify. (You don’t lose the skill trick; you still have it, but you can’t use it while you don’t meet the prerequisites.)
A skill trick is like a feat: you either know it or you don’t. You can't select any skill trick more than once (and the effects of most skill tricks are such that selecting one multiple times would be meaningless).
The Gain Skill Trick feat allows you to learn any skill trick for which you qualify, without spending skill points. Also, a thief can select the Skill Trick thief talent to gain any skill trick she qualifies for, without spending skill points.
Characters of the rogue class group gain the ability to select one bonus skill trick for every four levels in rogue classes that they have. These bonus skill tricks are in addition to any skill tricks bought with skill points (or the Gain Skill Trick feat, or the Skill Trick thief talent).
Each of these bonus skill tricks need not necessarily be selected as soon as the character gains the ability to select one (i.e. when the character gains a the requisite level in a rogue class); the character can choose to learn the bonus skill trick at a later time, which can be any time he gains a new character level. (The rogue must still qualify for any bonus skill trick she selects.)
Typically, performing a skill trick is either part of another action or an action in itself. Each skill trick’s description specifies what sort of action, if any, is required. Using a skill trick does not provoke attacks of opportunity unless its description specifically states that it does (or it involves an action that would normally provoke AoOs, such as moving out of an opponent’s threatened area).
Some skill tricks can only be performed once per encounter. If such a skill trick is used out of combat, it can be used once per minute.
The following skill tricks are available in the Worlds of Adventure campaign.
Description.
Prerequisite: Whatever.
Benefit: Whatever.
Special: Whatever.
You can perfectly imitate a small habit or idiosyncrasy of a person you impersonate in order to throw off suspicion.
Prerequisite: Disguise? 5 ranks.
Benefit: When impersonating a particular individual, you can eliminate the normal Insight? bonus granted to a viewer familiar with that individual. The effect extends to all viewers.
Using this trick requires no special action, but you can maintain the deception for only 1 hour per day.
You can brace yourself against walls to leave your hands free.
Prerequisite: Athletics 8 ranks.
Benefit: If you succeed on an Athletics check to ascend or descend either a “chimney,” where you can brace against opposite walls, or a corner where you can brace against perpendicular walls, you can suspend yourself momentarily. Until the end of the next round, you can use your hands freely for any other purpose (including attacking) without risk of falling. At the end of the next round, you fall from the wall unless you either succeed on an Athletics check against the normal DC (made as a move action), or have succeeded on another Athletics check to move up or down the wall as normal.
Example: Ember the monk succeeds on a DC 20 Athletics check to scramble up 10 feet (one-quarter of her speed) into a corner formed by two typical dungeon walls. Using Corner Perch, she then braces her legs against the walls and uses her remaining standard action to draw and throw a shuriken at a bugbear on the ground below her. On her next turn, still braced in the corner, she draws her quarterstaff and attacks an ogre that has moved next to her, gaining an advantage due to high ground. At the end of that round, she drops from the wall rather than attempting to hold her position. Since she has the slow fall class feature, Ember takes no damage from the drop.
You can leap out of the saddle onto a foe.
Benefit: If your mount has moved at least 10 feet in this round and you succeed on a fast dismount (see the Ride? skill description), you can use a standard action to attack an adjacent opponent as if you had charged that opponent.
You can slip free from the grasp of a larger enemy with ease.
Prerequisite: Medium or smaller size, Escape Artist? 8 ranks.
Benefit: If your opponent is larger than Medium, you gain a circumstance bonus on your Escape Artist? check to escape a grapple or pin. The size of the bonus depends on your opponent’s size, according to the following table.
| Opponent Size | Escape Artist Bonus |
|---|---|
| Large | +4 |
| Huge | +8 |
| Gargantuan | +12 |
| Colossal | +16 |
Special: You can only use this trick once per enemy per encounter.
You can follow a successful escape with a swift attack.
Prerequisite: Escape Artist? 8 ranks.
Benefit: When you escape a grapple, you can make a single melee attack with a light weapon as a swift action against the opponent that was grappling you. The opponent is considered flat-footed against this attack. You must have the weapon in hand at the beginning of your turn in order to use this trick.
Special: You can only use this trick once per enemy per encounter.
You lean left, go right, and leave a whole group of enemies holding the bag.
Benefit: You can use Bluff? to feint in combat against more than one opponent. Make one Bluff? check opposed by separate Insight? checks for each opponent. For each opponent after the first that you wish to affect, you take a cumulative –2 penalty on your Bluff? check.
Special: You can only use this trick once per encounter. You can only use this trick when using the Bluff? skill to feint, not when using a different skill to feint.
You've learned to swim properly.
Benefit: You can apply your training bonus to Athletics checks made to swim. (You get a training bonus to swim checks even if you have no ranks in the skill.) See Athletics for details.
You spot inconsistencies in people's stories, and know exactly how to talk to people to sniff out lies and deception.
Prerequisite: Gather Information 8 ranks.
Benefit: You can roll twice on any Gather Information check made to gather information, and receive the information for both results. This takes the same amount of time as one check. If the lesser of the two checks reveals false information, you is aware of it.
False information is not revealed in this way if the people you question do not know it to be false.
Special: You can only use this trick once per day.