Who uses it? How do you use it?
My GM never calls for its use. Assumedly because it would bog the game down even more. Honestly I see his point. Just wondering if anyone has uses that make it fun to use/have.
What's it's use?
The only time i remember someone rolling that skill is when there was no-one present to cast detect magic in order to see if an item was magical or not.
A 2nd party trait my character has allows him to add his Appraise bonus to BAB.
.What. That sounds ridiculously broken. Skills are too easy to bump?
What's it's use?
The only time i remember someone rolling that skill is when there was no-one present to cast detect magic in order to see if an item was magical or not.
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/skills/appraise
Pretty much dead on accurate. But I know some creative folks make skills do other things.
Night of Frozen Shadows has a fun use of the skill. Unfortunately, it is hard to work uses in all the time. How many times can someone offer fake gems as a reward, or try to rip the party off on something they are selling? Even then, you are trading skill points for a bit of money here and there. Not exactly an earth shattering use of a skill point. Even for flavor, I'd probably grab a profession or craft instead.
A 2nd party trait my character has allows him to add his Appraise bonus to BAB.
I suspect either a typo or a critical misread. Surely the intention was to allow the character to add their BAB on Appraise checks — something that's fairly reasonable.
At any rate, I've specifically told my players that in all the years I've been GMing I've never once asked for an Appraise check. IMO it can just as easily be folded into existing Craft, Knowledge, and Profession skills.
I’ve played in groups that use the Appraise skill. True, most of the time it is a waste of time or ends up being handwaved anyway – for good reason.
There are times however when it is important. NPCs try to rip you off or you are bartering with goods instead of gold. Getting the full worth of art pieces, historical artifacts, exotic items, unique treasure and the like.
I remember we had one GM a long time ago (pre PF) that allowed it to synergize with perception checks vs disguise. I’m not sure if it was a houserule or what.
Frankly, I wish PF had rolled appraise into Profession – Merchant.
Funny, my Wizard just used Appraise last session to estimate the content of three chests of silver coin we found in an enemy army encampment (post-battle). Darned if I was going to sit down and COUNT the stuff, that'd take hours.
I agree that mostly it's used to get a decent ballpark on the market value of art objects and other luxuries. The thing about Appraise is that it's universally applicable. Someone with Craft: Blacksmith or Profession: Arms Merchant might be able to ballpark the cost of a magic sword, but with Appraise you can ballpark almost anything. Silver comb with coral inlay? Sure. Embossed leather saddle with gilded bronze grip? Sure. Dwarven carved mammoth ivory tobacco pipe? Not a problem.
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Here are some other uses we've found:
3.5 Epic:
Appraise
The character can sense magical auras in objects.
Detect Magic (DC 50)
The character can sense if an item has a magical aura. He or she can then use Spellcraft to learn more about the item as if he or she had already cast detect magic on the item. This requires a full-round action.
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Iron Heroes:
Find Weak Point: You can make an Appraise check as a standard
action to spot a gap in a foe’s armor. Make an Appraise
check opposed by your opponent’s base attack check. If you
succeed, your opponent suffers a –1 penalty to all armor
damage reduction rolls made against you for the rest of the
encounter. The target of this ability must be in your threatened
area. Your allies gain this bonus if you use a standard
action to describe the exact spot they must aim for to punch
through your foe’s armor.
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Book of Iron Might:
Appraise: Find Weak Point
The Appraise skill allows you to determine an item’s value as
you assess its quality, workmanship, and design. This expertise
extends to weapons and armor. You can use this knowledge
to identify weak points in a sword or a breastplate
when you are engaged with a foe.
Mechanics: As a full-round action, make an Appraise
check (DC 20) to pinpoint a weak spot in a foe’s weapon.
This foe must stand in your threatened area in order for you
to examine her weapon closely enough. If you succeed, you
gain a +2 bonus on a sunder attempt against the weapon.
You can also use Appraise against armor. Make an
Appraise check (DC 25) against a foe who stands in your
threatened area. If you succeed, you gain a +1 insight bonus
on attack rolls against this foe for the rest of the encounter.
For this check to be effective, your target must have an armor
bonus to Armor Class from a physical suit of armor. Your
DM may judge that certain protective measures, such as
bracers of armor, provide an armor bonus but are not subject
to this use of Appraise. As a rule of thumb, this Appraise
check works only against suits of armor, not magic devices
that offer similar protection in a different form.
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Book of Erotic Fantasy:
Appraise (Int)
New Use: You can assess a potential sexual
partner's stamina and skill. By studying a
target for at least 1 minute, you can make
some general judgments. The DC is 15 + the
target's level and a success reveals the following
information:
Stamina Rating
Incredible: CON 20+ or Endurance and CON 15+
Strong: CON 15+ or Endurance and CON 10+
Average: CON 10+ or Endurance and CON 8+
Poor: CON 9 or less
If the target has Perform (sexual techniques) or a sexually focused Profession:
Sexuality Rating
Incredible: Total mod to perform = 11+
Strong: Total mod to perform = 6-10
Average: Total mod to perform = 1-5
Poor: Total mod to perform = 0 or less
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Races of Stone:
Check: In addition to appraising concrete items, any character can appraise the quality of a performance. A successful Appraise check means that you estimate the approximate daily income a performer might be able to expect from a performance of this quality.
The character can also appraise a work being performed to determine its value, just as a physical item can be appraised.
Action: Appraising the quality of a performance requires the character to view and listen to the performance for 1 minute. However, appraising the actual work being performed (the entire song or poem, for example) requires the character to view and listen to the entire performance.
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I ran a campaign in which two PCs were constantly trying to out-Appraise each other: things like "Ah, this is Keolish elven wine, made from the green Celedan grape..." and the other guy immediately throws a check and adds "... mmmm, but the nose is slightly off; I believe the grapes to have been grafted onto a more common root stock, possibly planted in Ulek." I encouraged it by providing small XP awards, but also bonuses to Diplomacy with NPCs impressed by their abilities as connoisseurs. It's probably the only time I've seen people keep Appraise maxed out at the expense of other skills.