Promted by this topic on stackexchange.
Are skills considered "abilities"?
Skills represent some of the most basic and yet most fundamental abilities your character possesses. As your character advances in level, he can gain new skills and improve his existing skills dramatically.
Psychic Inception: The hypnotic stare and its penalty can affect creatures that are mindless or immune to mind-affecting effects (such as an undead or vermin). The mesmerist can also partially affect such a creature with his mind-affecting spells and abilities if it's under the effect of his hypnotic stare; it gains a +2 bonus on its saving throw (if any), and if affected, it still has a 50% chance each round of ignoring the effect. Ignoring the effect doesn't end the effect, but does allow the creature to act normally for that round.
Abilities isn't codified so I think it depends on the context of whatever is describing abilities.
No. Abilities refers to SLA, SU, and extraordinary abilities that are labeled as mind affecting effects.
It's important to note, that even if you considered skills abilities that none of them are mind affecting (mind affecting is an important defined word that is specifically included in spell or ability descriptions when it is considered to be mind affecting) so it wouldn't matter if abilities included skills since none of them are also mind affecting.
@Claxon
Those are defined as Special Abilities though.
none of them are also mind affecting.
According to this FAQ, Intimidate is.
Psychic Inception: The hypnotic stare and its penalty can affect creatures that are mindless or immune to mind-affecting effects (such as an undead or vermin). The mesmerist can also partially affect such a creature with his mind-affecting spells and abilities if it's under the effect of his hypnotic stare; it gains a +2 bonus on its saving throw (if any), and if affected, it still has a 50% chance each round of ignoring the effect. Ignoring the effect doesn't end the effect, but does allow the creature to act normally for that round.
"mind affecting spells and abilities".
I'd say you are good for intimidate.
But most skills don't affect minds.
@Claxon
Those are defined as Special Abilities though.none of them are also mind affecting.According to this FAQ, Intimidate is.
I forgot about that FAQ.
So basically you want to use Intimidate on something that would normally be immune.
I'm still not buying abilities refers to skills. I think it's sloppy writing that means special abilities.
Yep, it should work fine. It's an ability, it's mind-affecting, and it's something they're normally immune to. You're sticking the capacity to fear into them.
I agree Claxon.
related: As for the state thingy it still does not say it overcomes any immunities though unless I missed something.
edit: ignore my "related" comment
Yeah, and I might buy your argument Claxon, but looking through the rest of the rule -
'affect creatures that are mindless or immune to mind-affecting effects (such as an undead or vermin)"
Earlier sentence using wording "effects" helping remove the restrictiveness that one might normally hang on the word "Ability" used later.
Even said, there's nothing that really disqualfies a skill from being an ability, (just ask a rogue, most of his abilities are skills).
The point of the ability would be to allow affects on a normally mindless creature as if it had a mind, so I'd say intimidate qualifies.
Not me, it's the line of thought of one of the answers to the question.
My understanding is that whenever it says abilities it's talking about special abilities, or class abilities in the sense of abilities granted by your class.
But i do not ignore that his logic has some credit.
Food for thought:
Role: Rogues excel at moving about unseen and catching foes unaware, and tend to avoid head-to-head combat. Their varied skills and abilities allow them to be highly versatile, with great variations in expertise existing between different rogues.
Here it says "skills and abilities".
Ex-Paladins
A paladin who ceases to be lawful good, who willfully commits an evil act, or who violates the code of conduct loses all paladin spells and class features (including the service of the paladin's mount, but not weapon, armor, and shield proficiencies). She may not progress any further in levels as a paladin. She regains her abilities and advancement potential if she atones for her violations (see atonement), as appropriate.
So aparently, spells and class features are abilities.
Ex-Monks
A monk who becomes nonlawful cannot gain new levels as a monk but retains all monk abilities.
Here says "all monk abilities", but Unarmed Strike is neither Ex, Su or Sp. Same for the bonus feats.
Inspire Courage (Su): A 1st level bard can use his performance to inspire courage in his allies (including himself), bolstering them against fear and improving their combat abilities.
So, increasing their chance to hit an attack is a boost to their "combat abilities".
These shrewd magic-users seek, collect, and covet esoteric knowledge, drawing on cultic arts to work wonders beyond the abilities of mere mortals.
So, mere mortals do have abilities.
Monster Lore (Ex)The inquisitor adds her Wisdom modifier on Knowledge skill checks in addition to her Intelligence modifier, when making skill checks to identify the abilities and weaknesses of creatures.
So, could inquisitors identify that a certain monster is really good at lying or hiding? Or an extremelly fast runner or swimmer? Or that they know everything about religion and can answer all their questions about an evil cult?
Role: The slayer is elusive, and good at finding the opportune time and location to strike. Combining the deadliest talents of rangers and rogues, a slayer's abilities are all about getting into combat, dealing with a target, and then getting back out again.
Downtime Terminology
This section explains the basic game terms for the downtime system. It uses existing character abilities (such as skill checks and saving throws), familiar resources (such as gold pieces), and new resources specific to the downtime system. Together, these allow you to accomplish tasks.
So saving throws and skill checks are character abilities, for downtime at least.
All characters gain the abilities listed on the table below when they reach the appropriate level. Decrease character wealth by level to half the normal amount.
Automatic Bonus Progression lists a bunch of stuff as abilities.
Elven Battle Training (Combat): When you are wielding a traditional elven weapon as defined in the feat, you can spend 5 stamina points to make one additional attack of opportunity with that weapon. This stacks with additional attacks of opportunity granted by this feat, Combat Reflexes, and similar abilities.
So combat reflexes is also an ability.
Basically it is not a game term, and just like "precision damage" it probably should have been codified to avoid situations like these.
I wouldn't make much of the rogues "skills and abilities".
A lot of his abilities are increases on skill checks etc.
I think "abilities" is a general catch-all for any character trait that allows a character to do something.
More quotes:
Each character is better at some things than he is at other things, granting him bonuses based on his skills and abilities.
Most die rolls in the game use a d20 with a number of modifiers based on the character's skills, his or her abilities, and the situation.
When your character has earned enough experience points, he increases his character level by one, granting him new powers and abilities that allow him to take on even greater challenges.
So two references of "skills and abilities" and one reference where skills (which also increase) are a new "power and ability".
It's just clearly not a technical term. Trying to use it like one would be incorrect IMO.
Action: An action is a discrete measurement of time during a round of combat. Using abilities, casting spells, and making attacks all require actions to perform. There are a number of different kinds of actions, such as a standard action, move action, swift action, free action, and full-round action (see Combat).
Caster level represents a creature's power and ability when casting spells. When a creature casts a spell, it often contains a number of variables, such as range or damage, that are based on the caster's level.
Classes represent chosen professions taken by characters and some other creatures. Classes give a host of bonuses and allow characters to take actions that they otherwise could not, such as casting spells or changing shape. As a creature gains levels in a given class, it gains new, more powerful abilities.
A check is a d20 roll which may or may not be modified by another value. The most common types are attack rolls, ability checks, skill checks, and saving throws.
Extraordinary Abilities (Ex): Extraordinary abilities are unusual abilities that do not rely on magic to function.
Feat: A feat is an ability a creature has mastered. Feats often allow creatures to circumvent rules or restrictions. Creatures receive a number of feats based off their Hit Dice, but some classes and other abilities grant bonus feats.
So a feat is definitely an ability.
AHA!
Skill: A skill represents a creature's ability to perform an ordinary task, such as climb a wall, sneak down a hallway, or spot an intruder. The number of ranks possessed by a creature in a given skill represents its proficiency in that skill. As a creature gains Hit Dice, it also gains additional skill ranks that can be added to its skills.
Thus, a skill is an ability.
Yeah, that was right there on the PRD's page about skills.
But thanks for the quotes, that clarifies that even further.