I'm trying to gather a list of all the spells that can replace or even be better than skills in certain areas.
I've got
Stabalize - well just incase you really can't make that heal check or cast any more magical healing...
Cure Wounds - any magical healing is better than first aid, and it works better and faster than treating deadly wounds with the heal skill
Heal - heals ailments and afflictions
Neutralize Poison - actually cures the person of poison
Remove Disease - can actually remove diseases
Any healer in a world with Pathfinder rules should be a divine caster.
Knock - always opens any locked doors not protected by magic, better than lock-picking with disable device.
Invisibility - gives a +20 to stealth and you can hide anywhere and be given total concealment. This gets even better with Greater Invisibility where you can attack and still remain invisible.
Silence - It doesn't give any bonuses directly, but it does make everything silent and gamers and GMs who try to have some consistency in their games will understand how total magical silence is better than trying to move silently with stealth.
Rogues should make use of the UMD skill.
Spider Climb - you don't even need to make climb checks when under this spell
Jump - a +20 to jump checks
Find Traps. Its a divine spell.
Detect Secret Doors.
Heal is still useful as no one spell fully replaces it; the only real boost I would give it is that instead of allowing it to heal hp once per day, I would make it a number of times equal to the target's Con modifier per day.
In general, I haven't found that spells can truly replace skills directly. They can make good substitutes, and in some cases, can have a greater effect, and even occasionally bypass the need for a skill, but the cost of them is always higher than if the skill was used, and they are limited resources, where the skills generally are not. The spells aren't bad by any means, but to say that they can fully replace skills is a bit of a stretch. The only area I would say that spells could replace a skill is the Heal skill, and that's because the skill does not actually directly remove damage most of the time, and it takes longer, which means that most PCs don't bother with it when magic works faster, and they usually have ready access to healing magic of some kind. Even then, though, for the majority of the world, and even for the PCs, the Heal skill can do a lot for a much lower cost than what spellcasting costs in terms of resources, with time being the sole exception.
RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32
|
Knock - always opens any locked doors not protected by magic, better than lock-picking with disable device.
Knock is no longer automatic, it now gives you CL+10 on a Disable Device check.
Find traps is only a small Perception bonus and the Trap Spotter talent. Acute Senses is much better and works for all Perception checks.
Fly obviates the need for a lot of mobility skill checks, like Climb, Acrobatics, and often Swim. It comes with it's own set of needed skill checks though.
Neutralize poison and remove disease are also no longer automatic - they have a caster level check. A cleric with high Wis and max ranks in Heal is better off using the skill in some (not all) circumstances.
Really, a lot of the "skill replacement" spells have been changed in PF to be less automatic.
Knock - always opens any locked doors not protected by magic, better than lock-picking with disable device.
Knock is no longer automatic, it now gives you CL+10 on a Disable Device check.
Find traps is only a small Perception bonus and the Trap Spotter talent. Acute Senses is much better and works for all Perception checks.
Fly obviates the need for a lot of mobility skill checks, like Climb, Acrobatics, and often Swim. It comes with it's own set of needed skill checks though.
Neutralize poison and remove disease are also no longer automatic - they have a caster level check. A cleric with high Wis and max ranks in Heal is better off using the skill in some (not all) circumstances.
Really, a lot of the "skill replacement" spells have been changed in PF to be less automatic.
If you replace a skill with a caster level check, you're still replacing it.
If you replace a skill with a caster level check, you're still replacing it.In a technical sense yes, but often the caster level check is worse than rolling the skill check. I interpreted the OP to be about spells that make skills obsolete.
Nah, I know that spells are resource hogging one shot things. The existence of the spell doesn't make the skill obsolete, it just makes the need for certain magic casters to not need that skill.
Also, Neutralize Poison and Remove Disease use caster level check to get rid of the poison or disease; the most the heal skill can do is give the person inflicted a +4 to their saving throws.
Ah, what spell was it that gives you a bonus to swim? or was it a swim speed?
