Mudfoot's page

Last session I got flack for apparently being a "generalist" wizard. He's a conjurer but I put a rank in all the knowledge skills. He's travelling the world to write a guide to fauna, a 'monster manual' if you will. He's also a trivia buff. :)

On a personal level, I like the idea of knowing whether or not my spell with be efficacious in a given situation so I figure lore is handy. I don't find that to be too generalist, but it was the label I got.

After I kept making knowledge checks the guy next to me berated me with:
"You should have played a bard."
"Play a bard!"
"I mean it, play a bard."

This is just weird. A wizard's class skills are Appraise, Craft, Fly, Knowledge (10 of them), Linguistics, Profession and Spellcraft. A 2nd level human wizard with 18 Int has 14 skill points. That's 2 for Spellcraft, 2 into Perception. Leaves 10 for...what? He can't fly yet so needn't put anything into it. Linguistics is even more Bardy than knowledge. Craft? Profession? Appraise? Really? So he might as well pack out the knowledges. And that's at a mere 2nd level and assumes that both FC points went to HP. So essentially, a wizard can't help but have the full set of knowledges.

Whether you can use the items or not, Bull's Strength would do the job just as well.

By all means let them do it if they think of it. But it need not affect the plot in any material way if you don't want it to. After all, it's not as though the number of deaths to power Karzoug's return is written down anywhere.

Likewise you might sunder a natural weapon. Hit the creature's claw, bash its teeth out, or whatever. Do enough damage and it effectively gains the Broken condition and so gets -2 to hit and basic x2/20 crit. As most natural weapons only get x2/20 crit anyway that's probably not so significant, but for those others it makes some sense - you've lopped the end off its spike or whatever.

Halt Undead also is an option. It's Medium range, so you don't have to move in close. At 7 rounds duration, it's a potential scenario winner. Still allows a Will save, though, and I believe just like Hold Person he could get a new save as a full-round action each round.

It would be wonderful, except that it's negated by the first attack. So it's fine if you need to take a breather, but little help in the fight unless you can CdG him. Not sure if you can CdG undead.

And he'd probably make his save anyway.

Guidance if you know it. It's rubbish (+1) but it's competence so tends to stack with things and you can cast it all day. Get a 1st level cleric to help.

Slow will drop his AC by 1 and have other benefits, but he'll probably make his save so I wouldn't bother unless he has mooks too.

Dispel Magic to take out his AC buffs.

Grease to make him flat-footed or drop his shield. His Reflex save is probably his worst.

Re your second question: the two disks would confer for a moment, tip you off and then assume the correct distances. Or if they did stay stable, they'd set off in some direction at their nominal top speed, probably keeping your body on the far side from the leading disk.

But otherwise, it's yet another one of the classic spells that's been around for 30 years without ever being cleaned up. Just house rule it and move on. It's not going to break anything. I suggest 30' + 5' per 2 levels.

I'm happy with it. It's not perfect (it's a complicated and cumbersome pain to DM), but nothing is perfect. But the support is awesome and the campaign setting superb.

It should probably reduce armour penalty by the same amount as well. Looks OK otherwise.

It's probably balanced compared to the normal stock rogue (though loss of evasion is a bit rough). But it's still very weak compared to other classes.

Hire some mercenaries. 2 characters of level 3 will have a hard time against a single ogre, even if prepared and you have the right favoured enemy.

At a guess, your cleric (12 con, 3xfavoured class hp) will have something like 23 hp and AC 20. A normal ogre (fancy weapons aside) will hit on a 13 for about 16 damage. This means that if you're relying on her to get in the way while you shoot (do you have Precise Shot?) she'll be dead in about 5 rounds against a single ogre, spells aside.

In the meantime your ranger will (PBS, rapid shot, MW bow, no FE bonus) need about 9 to hit for 1d8+3, so about 9 damage per round. The cleric will need about 13 to do 1d8+1 for 2 more. That's 3 rounds to drop an ogre. So against one ogre you should win (though it's risky). Against two, she's dead and you might be.

Sanctuary will have a DC of about 14 or 15, so an ogre needs 11 or 12. If there are 4 ogres, about 2 will ignore it, shove the ditherers out of the way and slaughter her.

What this means is that you need some meat shields. They'll die and/or run away, but better them than you. Based on domains and quoted motive (xp) I infer that your cleric is not Good.

Otherwise, get information. Half the battle is knowing what you're up against. Tracking will tell you whether there are 3, 13 or 30. Spying (invisibility on the ranger) might tell you more.

Caltrops are a fine place to start, though they don't work well on soft ground [RAW it makes no difference, but your DM might think otherwise]. Similarly, getting your meat shields to carry a load of logs, branches and other junk to clutter up the cave and impede the ogres' exit would help.

so why not have a polearm?

Because it weighs 12 lbs and will cost you 2000gp or more to enchant. If you're so desperate to get Reach, just buy a few dozen potions of Enlarge Person, which will come out cheaper in the long run.

If the human is black as well (from Garund) it'll seem a lot more normal, if obviously unique. Shalelu might know about drow, but you can cover that up easily enough.

If you want full consistency between the APs, you'd better buy SD or ask about it in the forum to see the full story on the drow; it might be best if the PC was raised without any knowledge of the truth, just to keep it from the player.

I'm coming to believe that all damage should multiple on crits, including sneak attacks, vital strike and elemental weapon damage. None of them is OP as it stands, and this is only something like +10% to the DPR of that individual property, so I can't see why not.

One notable thing is that undoubled sneak attack is pretty pathetic for Coup de Grace, which is an auto crit. So a 2nd level 12 Str rogue with a dagger might do only 2d4+1d6+2, average 10.5. woot. He'd be better off just jabbing a longspear (3d8+3=16.5) into the guy, without sneak attack.

Combat Expertise

Prereq: INT 13
Benefit: You gain a +1 insight bonus to your CMB and CMD. When your base attack bonus reaches +4, and every +4 thereafter, this bonus increases by +1, up to a maximum bonus equal to your intelligence bonus.

+1, best so far.

Add a few side quests to bump up the XP and loot a bit. And expect a few deaths. But you will feel the lack of an arcane caster badly.

Rogue: I do like the first 4; I have the same for JOAT but without the Int bonus. Not sure about strike with precision. Other talent upgrades I have are
* Skill Focus (any, multiple times)
* +2/+2 skill feats (any, multiple times)
* xxx Feint
* xxx TWF
* xxx Steal
* xxx Dirty Trick
* Agile Maneuvers
* Dastardly Finish.
* Powerful Sneak is +1 damage per die with Sneak Attack, no penalty
* Stand Up doesn’t provoke an AoO
Advanced Talents
* Polymath: He considers all skills to be class skills.
* Deadly Sneak is +1 damage per die with Sneak Attack, no penalty

Also
* Cynical: a rogue is inherently distrustful. At 3rd level he gains a +1 bonus to saving throws against charms and illusions. This increases by +1 every 3 levels (6th, 9th, etc).
* Slippery Combatant: a rogue’s BAB is equal to his level for purposes of calculating CMD.
* Backstabber: a rogue gains +4 to hit instead of +2 when flanking.

Fighters: Not convinced about Discipline. You might as well just give them a good Will save, and the skill bonus is just clutter. I changed Bravery to a flat +1 per level.
Yes, 4 skill points, but I give them Acrobatics and Heal.
Otherwise, free Vital Strike or Cleave at 8th, Gt Cleave or IVS at 13th, GVS at 18th. Helps with the Must Full Attack problem.

I've not tackled monks because there are none IMC, but I'm starting with:
Full BAB.
Gain Leaping Kick at 1st level: as Vital Strike on unarmed attacks if moving at least 10’
Improved Leaping Kick as Improved Vital Strike at 7th level.
Greater Leaping Kick as Greater Vital Strike at 13th level.
I expect more will be needed, but it encourages mobility.

The first version is simply too good (compare to weapon focus). If the build points are available for use on Int, everyone will take it. If not, sucks to be you. Paladins and monks need not apply.

The second is OK, but doesn't really belong in featland because it doesn't do anything at all by itself.

In both cases, what breaks it most is scaling by Int. If all you want is something to denote expertise in combat with an Int prerequisite, it need not scale.

Otherwise, it's a matter of defining what you mean by expertise: general competence and experience? knowledge of a specific technique? hidden secrets of the mystic eastern masters?

It makes a brief difference at 5th level where you get to take Vital Strike and do a bit more damage on every hit (for one level!), but as VS is pretty poor anyway, that's not exactly gamebreaking. There are a couple of similar situations where the BAB requirement assumes the existence of multiple attacks. Imp TWF, for example: at 5th level you'd get one main attack and two offhand. Odd but OK. And likewise at 10th.

So it's fine in reality.

IMC the archer ranger 2 gets good value out of WF-longbow, on the basis that he's always going to use one. In terms of DPR he's probably have been better off with rapid shot, but that will come next level. Or maybe Quick Draw. He won't take WF for his melee weapon (currently a battleaxe) as he's not so attached to it and will probably drop it when a magic weapon turns up.

The rogue 2 will take WF-dagger when he can spare the feat, but as he has finesse and huge dex he's already the most accurate in melee, so it can wait. Doesn't do any damage (1d3), but he does hit.

Much depends how memorable it was before. I'll assume that all the NPCs can stay the same.

Goblins can be plonked anywhere with essentially the same stats, so you just need to tweak anything very memorable from last time; the druid and his firepelt may want to be changed, as might Stickfoot and the warhorse. Ripnugget and Bruzathmus are fairly generic and the bunyip is optional.

I'd put it in an old Thassilonian tower somewhere in Shank's Wood. The only open entrance is high up in the trees, and to get there you have to traverse various flimsy rope ladders and bridges. You can keep the same druid & firepelt, but he commands a mob of wildcats or weasels. The natural way in starts by going through the kennels; the refugees are variously camped in the undergrowth or in the canopy. The lower storeys of the tower are blanketed by thorns so not easy to climb. You can replace the bunyip with a beartrapped, vicious hungry animal of your choice under a flimsy part of the rope bridge.

So cue lots of derring-do swinging through the branches, fighting on swaying rope bridges under arrow fire and other shenanigans. Could be tricky to DM as an extremely 3D running fight, but could equally be awesome. Goblins (being goblins) will do all manner of stupid things (jumping unreasonable distances, stopping to investigate birds' nests for eggs, cutting the wrong end of a rope bridge); encourage the PCs do do likewise.

Then use Thistletop essentially as-is, though you might want to adjust the map if the players have a good memory. Whilst they might realise that they've seen it before, it's just a matter of keeping it a) fresh and b) sufficiently different that they can't metagame.

As the PCs will only be about 3rd level, they won't have any special abilities that'll break it.

Taking it inland means that you might want to change the hermit crab; instead of an outlet to the sea, use a big well or flooded lowest level and put something else in there.

Wall St?

I find that, when it comes to volume, people like to include a lot of empty space for some reason

I don't know if the RAW is supposed to include empty space. This can get silly; a physicist would argue that everything is 99.9999999999% empty space. A different physicist would say that the space isn't empty; it's full of air. Or photons and virtual particles. Speaking as a GM, I'd be quite happy to allow you to shrink a pavilion which is packed up into a 10 cu ft bundle, but not so happy about shrinking it when it's erected even though it's the same thing.

Humans can have a volume of as little as 1 cubic foot, and never more than 3

A cubic foot is 28.3 litres. So 3 cu ft is 85 litres, meaning about 85kg. That's only 187 lbs which exactly Bob's Average Man. 1 cu ft is 62 lbs, probably about the size of a 10-year-old. Big fat people can easily get to 5 cu ft. The record, according to wikipedia, is 22 cu ft.

A lot of people underestimate what stone shape can do as well.

As for Stone Shape, the range is Touch. One might argue that 15 cu ft might be a stick 1" by 1" by 2160 ft, but that would be a bit extraordinary for a 3rd-level spell. The only limit on this is the "no fine detail" phrase, without which one might claim a stick 0.001" x 0.001" x 2000 miles ending in a 2" thick wall 5 ft by 7 ft. Which is silly. I'd rule that you have to be able to touch (or at least manually circumscribe) the entire volume of the thing you're shaping.

Depends on the geography - where are your PCs? And have they ever been there before? Canon B2 is near the Worldwound, so it's a long way from Sandpoint.

1) Sandpoint is the nearest significant town. The PCs have a bunch of treasure, so they want to go and spend it. Or a Thassilonian relic, which Brodert Quink might be able to ID. Or an heirloom of the Scarnetti or Foxglove families, for which they would pay well.

2) The goblins in B2 are connected to those likely to attack Sandpoint, and have some inkling thereof.

3) The Miscellaneous Evil Cultists in B2 are connected to Nualia somehow.

4) The PCs find a caged magic butterfly. Aligned LG, identifiable (KR DC 15) as sacred to Desna. If released, it flutters all the way to Sandpoint just in time for the festival. Being a butterfly, it doesn't go fast and the PCs can easily keep up.

I'd imagine that the PCs would be at least 3rd level by the time they'd done B2, so you'll need to beef up the first chapter (especially the first episode) a bit.

Not only do you have to divide the xp between the PCs, but you have to divide the treasure too. So the difference between 4 and 5 PCs is pretty minimal. If you need to, just plug in another mook or two here and there.

But note that there are some places (Thistletop is a classic) that can easily slaughter PCs, so be careful with what you add. The PCs being a tiny bit over strength isn't likely to be much of an issue.

It only says that there have to be observers, not that they are observing you. After all, if there were no observers you wouldn't need stealth at all. It's simply that they could observe you were you to step out of your current concealment.

In any case, the RAW mechanism works, so I'd go with that.

What's your Charisma? What other PCs are there?

On the face of it, yes, in that Leadership is generally regarded as being a Bit Too Good. But your DM and other players might not appreciate it.

I'd dump Rapid Shot unless you're planning on using revolvers, but I've never played a gunslinger so I may be wrong.

Is Cleric of Cayden actually a thing? :o

Well, yeah. It's a cleric. Spells and domains and stuff. Of Cayden Cailean. You know, him, the one you profess to follow.

The monk dips suggest that you want decent Wisdom, which is good for clerics. And if you have a hand free, that's quite useful for casting spells. You'll be getting a bit MAD, but that's a given with monks.

I'd probably leave the dip for a few levels depending on what Monk you're taking and what armour you wear; somewhere in the 5th-8th region. It also depends on what other PCs are in the party.

I'd take the one level dip in cleric of Cayden. Take Travel for the +10' move, Agile Feet and Longstrider which are absolute gold dust with cherries and cream on top. Otherwise Chaos (the domain power is pretty good for 1st level) or Strength (Enlarge Person and the power is OK). You don't need a whole lot of Wisdom as you won't be casting offensive spells. And then of course you get to play with wands and scrolls, which is never a bad thing. And you get to take advantage of all those Personal buffs.

Bel Ashrati: The Ashrati are a somewhat osctracised group of foreigners (think gypsy Jews) who provide certain services that are otherwise frowned on. The Bel Ashrati are a semi-formal group who protect the Ashrati, or take revenge when an Ashra is robbed or attacked. Or (as others might allege) they are a band of thieves and thugs. Red headband. Kukri, lasso, sling. Warriors, rogues, monks.

But if you do spend all your money on one weapon, just one Disarm and it's gone. Or a grapple and it's useless. Or a flying target. And so on. I'd rely on a caster with Greater Magic Weapon and buy a +1 Holy weapon. The main Alignment DR you'll see is on evil outsiders, so Holy will be more useful in such cases than the extra +1. Get the caster a Pearl of Power if necessary. Then spend the change on a bow, arrows, a belt, etc etc.

Of course a 12th level character's RAW WBL is 108k, so it's a reasonable assumption that he has much of this anyway, but you can get +1 to hit and +1 damage in much cheaper ways than +18k on a weapon.

You don't talk about government, so I'll assume a feudal system with a Duke and assorted lesser nobles. Various merchant guilds. A squabbling council of the rich and noble, who appoint officials and the judiciary.

The Marsh Rangers, commonly known as the Bogtrotters, keep an eye on the various denizens of the Beldam, maintaining a few causeways and watchtowers a couple of miles into the swamp. Longbow, swords, axes. Warriors, fighters, rangers, experts, druids.

Silver Hawks: the Duke's personal guard regiment, predominantly concerned with protecting him and his palace. So called for their highly polished hawkshead helmets. Lots of bluster and swagger, but of little proven ability (mostly Warrior 1 or Aristocrat 1). Breastplate, heavy shield, longsword, spear.

Guild Proctors: Sponsored by the guilds. Concerned with crimes against trade, the guilds, etc. Police the markets and protect warehouses. Have powers of arrest. Will investigate crimes, but normally only bother if bribed or a merchant is affected. Moderately corrupt. Studded, light mace, net, light crossbow. Warrior 1-3, some experts, some others.

Judiciars: Concerned with those who have been arrested. Guard the prisons, courts, judges. Executioners. Breastplate, halberd, shortsword.

@Mudfoot - I'm not familiar with the term "kit" as you're using it

Kit = equipment.

You haven't posted the characters or their kit, so it's a bit hard to say exactly. But I'd upgrade their existing kit to some extent by adding extra plusses to weapons, armour and buffs, bumping CLs on wands and scrolls and so on. After all, a D&D-type PC is defined to a large extent by his kit, so it ought to be essentially the same kit. Then add anything that seems like a major omission and let them pick a modest toy each in the 10k range.

I think the real problem here was the way the incorporeal aspect was handled. The spectres probably wouldn't have been able to communicate with each other when in the wall (how? they're not telepathic), and probably wouldn't all have been within 5' of the target. Though I don't have the map, so it's possible. So I doubt they'd have been able to emerge together. the best they could do is have 2 ready an action to come out when the first emerged, and then that's just a move action so no attack. So on the surprise round, one attacks at best.

Bear in mind that in 1e, spectres were downright terrifying. There was no way to recover a level except adventuring (and levelling in 1e took far longer than in PF), and Restoration was a 7th level spell. That fixed one level.

And get (or make) a wand of Detect Undead. 750 or 375 gp well spent. As soon as you spot the sarcophagi or get the idea you're entering a tomb, the stick comes out.

Tuoni is listed as CN in the 1e DDG; Tuonetar (his wife) is CE. Both are very death-oriented, but not magic.

Nobody has mentioned Glorantha yet. Thanatar. Really. Chaotic god of death. As a Doomed Rune Priest of Thanatar (especially a Horn of Atyar) you get to carry your enemies' shrunken heads around with you as enslaved allied spirits. If you can pick up a copy of Cults of Terror, it's got acres of text on Thanatar. Chaotic Evil, in case you hadn't guessed. Chaos, Darkness, Death, Knowledge. Shortsword.

Also from Glorantha, Zorak Zoran. Death and darkness, but really for trolls. Not particularly evil or chaotic. See Cults of Prax.

Bump up the number of opponents a bit. In general this means adding mooks. Because the amount of treasure and xp doesn't change (unless you change it) your PCs will be half a level behind and a bit short of gear, so it will tend to balance itself somewhat, especially against fixed DC problems. Besides, the PCs will make a noise, get in each others' way and soak up area attacks.

So if the encounter is nominally with a 3rd level wizard and 5 gnolls, it's now a 4th level wizard and 8 gnolls.

You'll probably want to be strict about rules like soft cover and precise shot so the casters and archers can't waste the opposition while the melee types hold the line.

On which note, can anyone explain what this sentence from the PRD means? It's on the Equipment page, weapon qualities, critical:

Extra damage over and above a weapon's normal damage is not multiplied when you score a critical hit.

There's no mention of its referring to precision damage or bonus dice, which does make it somewhat odd.

It's not a terrible build, so long as he multiclasses into fighter or paladin pretty soon, and has that as his favoured class. And trades out those feats for something better. And casts Aid and Bear's Endurance on himself a lot.

But yeah, your player is being a dick. One crit and he's down. And if he's the only cleric in the party, he may well be staying down.

As a rule, numerical additions multiply on a crit and bonus dice do not. Exceptions are inconsistent design.

This is indeed the rule, but one wonders why it need be like that. Would it be so broken to change it? Let's look at where bonus dice come from:

* Sneak attack
* Elementally enhanced weapons (flaming, etc)
* Vital Strike, etc

Anything else? None of the above are exactly overpowered, and Vital Strike is positively derided as a trap. So I don't see any good reason why dice shouldn't be multiplied. Except that the 20th level TWF rogue with 2 flaming handaxes of speed might have to roll up to 288d6 per round, if he gets stupidly lucky.

And I'd let other precision damage like a Duelist's Precise Strike multiply too, unless someone can give me a good reason why not.

LoTR is not PF; Gandalf is not a PF wizard. You can't sensibly correlate the two to find a level, just as real life can't be expressed in levels. Classes and levels are a clumsy abstraction designed to produce a good game, not an accurate description of real life or any other unreal life outside a hamfisted D&D fanfic. So that sort of argument gets us nowhere.

But back to the OP's point: the existence of substantial monsters like Linnorms, dragons, giants, aboleths and even ogres means that there are a significant number of characters of at least 8th level kicking around. Without them, half of civilisation would be rolled over in a moment. If we take Golarion's equivalent of Conan (supposedly 10th level, but the greatest fighter in history) as the highest we'd ever see, much of the world simply doesn't make sense.

What Mysterious Stranger said, though you might as well try to have fun while you've got him. So 10=8 Con, 13=15 int, elf wizard. You'll have 3 hp and AC11-12 so when you get bored (ie, you run out of spells) you can either shoot arrows or legitimately wade into melee with your longsword.

One thing that would help is to allow multiple special effects from the same sneak attack. RAW, only one applies regardless of how many you can do. As none are particularly exciting on their own, you need to apply more than one for the rogue to compete. Admittedly, rainzax's ones above are better than those in the Talents.

Are we agreed that the rogue is fairly competitive at low levels? This is before magic trumps skills and before the disparity in BAB and saves gets large enough to matter.

I like the general idea, but would try to emphasis the theme. Of course you might have a different theme in mind.

I'd allow multiple combat tricks, but restrict them to Roguey feats. Notably Imp/Gtr TWF, Feint, Steal, Dirty Trick, Dodge, Agile Maneuvers, Dastardly finish. Deadly Sneak becomes +1 per die, no penalty. Very Deadly Sneak (advanced) is another +1.

I wouldn't go with full BAB, but I would give full BAB for CMD like the monk. And +4 to hit when flanking rather than +2.

Unsure about canny defence. Something like that is needed, possibly as a talent.

Good Will is OK, but I'd go more thematic, a bit like the fighter's Bravery. But that's weak too, so:
Cynical: a rogue is inherently distrustful. At 3rd level he gains a +1 bonus to saving throws against charms and illusions. This increases by +1 every 3 levels (6th, 9th, etc).

And to allow the rogue to be the best skill monkey like God intended, talents include:
* Skill Focus (any, multiple times)
* +2/+2 skill feats (any, multiple times)
* Jack of All Trades (Ex): He can use any skill, even if the skill normally requires him to be trained.
* Polymath (advanced): He considers all skills to be class skills.

Not only does the shield not need to absorb the blow, but sometimes it prevents the blow from being attempted entirely. It's the abstraction again. If you never get an opening because the opponent always has his guard up, there's no point attacking. Watch a typical fencing or martial arts bout: there's a lot of probing and fudging going on without actual contact. D&D/PF abstracts all that into one roll.

No, archetypes do not work as "mix and match replacements". You either take an archetype (the entire archetype), or you don't.

But read it carefully. You have to take the entire archetype, unless you take multiple archetypes in which case you can mix and match to your heart's desire. Admittedly, this means you can't do this trick to a basic rogue, only to another archetype. Which is a bit silly. I think it was silently retconned to allow mix-and-match for base classes too, given the Superstar 2013 archetype round. I suppose that's another question someone could FAQ, were it really that important.

The halfling rogue IMC dual-wields daggers; as he has the River Rat trait, he does 1d3+1 damage with them which is more than the 1d4 he'd do with a shortsword, so it's no penalty there. And no finesseable weapon other than a rapier or Elven Cheese Knife (which takes a feat) does more than +1 damage over a dagger anyway, so it's moot in melee for many characters. About the only disadvantage is less damage with missiles and rays, which I agree does sometimes matter.

Because the ability doesn't replace anything, it's unclear what level it applies at, or whether one has to take it at 1st or can wait to take it later.

Archetypes are designed on a mix-and-match basis: each feature replaces something in the basic class, so you can, for example, switch out a Crossbowman's (default) Bravery for an Archer's Hawkeye.

The Knife Master archetype does 1d8 sneak attack with daggers. Fair enough, very nice. But as far as I can make out, this ability doesn't replace anything. So what's to stop someone dropping this ability in to any other archetype mix?

If nothing else, it gives the rogue a badly needed bump, albeit minor, given the need to use daggers.

Make your first level feats Fast Learner and Skill Focus (Use Magic Device).

Not much point in UMD at 1st level. I wouldn't even put any points into it until about 3rd-6th, depending on your Cha & treasure. After all, at 1st you haven't got any magic items to use and your chance of success is going to be pretty feeble anyway. But when you do use it, pump it for all it's worth.

A big part of the issue is what the other classes in the party are. If there's a fighter, a sorcerer and a cleric, all non-human who dump Int, then you will feel useful. In fact you'll feel absolutely vital, because you'll have 4/5 of the skill points in the whole party.

OTOH, if the other PCs are a ranger, a wizard and a druid, you'll be a forgotten afterthought because they can do almost everything you can do, and probably better.