[Tweak] Disable Device / Open Locks and armor check penalty

[Locworks]

Alpha 2 Designer Notes: Unchanged Skills, p. 52
As of this release of the Pathfinder RPG, the following skills have not changed from the way that they work in the 3.5 ruleset: [...]<no Disable Device>[...]

Alpha 3, p. 53
Table 5–3: Altered Skills
<no Disable Device>

Alpha 3, p. 57
Disable Device
(Dex; Armor Check Penalty; Trained Only)
[...]

Note
- The Open Locks skill was merged into Disable Device.
- It doesn't appear that the sabotage/disarm traps aspect of Disable Device has changed from the 3.5 rules.
- Disable Device and Open Locks: Under the SRD, neither of these skills suffered an armor check penalty.

Tweak
Remove Armor Check Penalty from these skills or confirm that the Disable Device skill now has an armor check penalty.

[Mosaic]

Disable Device was an Intelligence based skill before so it wasn't an issue. Open Locks has always been Dex and that carried through to new, merged skill.

Personally, I'm okay with the new Disable Device (and Ride) having armor check penalties. A little of it is a logical argument - a guy in heavy armor has his movements restricted and won't be able to open a lock or spring a trap as well, a guy in heavy armor can't do as many trick while riding (those jousting dudes don't move very much, they pretty much just sit there and fall). But mostly, I just appreciate a unified system so I don't have to look up which skills take an armor check penalty and which don't. Dex skill? Str skill? Armor check penalty!

[Locworks]

Mosaic wrote:

Disable Device was an Intelligence based skill before so it wasn't an issue. Open Locks has always been Dex and that carried through to new, merged skill.

I've missed the ability change. Thanks for that. New tweak coming up. :-)

[DracoDruid]

+1

[Locworks]

Locworks wrote:

I've missed the ability change. Thanks for that. New tweak coming up. :-)

New tweak:

[Tweak] Disable Device/Open Locks - INT-based instead of DEX

[Mosaic]

Lockworks wrote:

New tweak:

Disable Device/Open Locks - INT-based instead of DEX

In that case I'd agree 100% that an armor check penalty would be inappropriate. I still like the armor check penalty to all Str and Dex skills though...

BTW, if Pathfinder doesn't go with Int for Disable Devices as you suggest, maybe there could be a feat that switches from it form Dex to Int (like the one that allows Intimidate to be Str rather than Cha), call it Problem Solver or Mechanical Wiz or something. I think key-ability switching feats have a lot of potential, although they might need a little something more to make them worthwhile, an additional +2 to skill checks maybe.

Edit: Damn, just saw the new thread. Will re-post there.