RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32, 2011 Top 16
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General - much less useful to not have more DCs embedded in skill descriptions. Reading that the GM will set the DCs isn’t helpful. I want to be able to know the DC to recall knowledge, climb things, pick different lock qualities, etc.
Balance - for a failure, when do you fall vs. when do you stay stationary and waste your turn?
Squeeze - 5 or even 10 feet of squeezing taking a minute seems excessively long. Even untrained people can move faster than this in tight spaces.
Arcana - description says you can use it to know about alchemy and theories about alchemy, however, the skill use of identify alchemy is under craft. Shouldn’t identify alchemy also be possible using arcane?
Identifying or learning a spell table - Price in table should indicate it’s for learning spells only. First read suggests it may be a price to pay for things to be identified by an NPC.
Read Magic - so now magic needs both reading the magic part and reading the language it’s in? And now this doesn’t require magic to decipher at all? So a non spellcaster trained in arcana can read magic? That makes it seem like it’s not actually magic. Perhaps decipher magical spell or text is a better name?
Grapple - how do you maintain a grapple? The way the skill use is written is that you grab a creature - but if you’re already grabbing them you surely can’t grab them again. Do you have to free action let them go and grab them again? Can you use the grapple action to maintain a grapple rather than only initiate one? Is there any difference in the DC if you’re maintaining?
Climb and Swim - shouldn’t there be a bonus to distance moved based on speed that doesn’t cap out? What if your speed is 80 or 100?
Disarm - Why is disarm a function of athletics and not acrobatics? Disarming someone is a finesse and skill based move, not a brute strength move like shoving or grappling. This also makes all combat maneuvers under a single skill. You can only actually disarm on a critical success? That seems exceedingly challenging. Why is it so much harder to disarm than to trip or grapple?
Crafting - so if you know how to make a wooden ladder, you’re equally as good as making a sword, a castle, a ship, and a tapestry? Please return to having crafting of specific types. The complete in 4 days if you pay the full amount needs to go away or be heavily modified. Items of exacting artistry, complexity, or cost shouldn’t be able to be made in 4 days period, whether they’re a suit of plate mail (which often took master craftsmen months or over a year to create in real life), a ship (which would take months or longer from a team of craftsmen) or a castle or cathedral, which could take (years or decades).
Create a diversion - shouldn’t you be able to use this to create a diversion for someone else, not only for yourself? Can you do this to provide a penalty to creature’s Perception for other activities, like if you or your ally tries stealing from them?
Make an impression - attitudes should be all listed here , rather than in the conditions section of the book 200 pages later, and mixed alphabetically with all other conditions.
Treat disease and treat poison - can you or other doctors re-try this infinitely (or twice for disease) if you keep failing or critically failing?
Nature - seems odd that you can be trained in it and good with animals and plants and that gives you knowledge of all magic items.
Command an animal - so you have to spend an action for every single action an animal does? Seems that once you get an animal doing something, you shouldn’t need to repeat this - once your attack dog attacks, you shouldn’t need to keep telling it to attack - it will do that on it’s own.
Perform - Not a fan of the skill applying to all performance types. Also, should have more concrete effects for success and critical success - like +2 on make an impression, etc.
Stage a performance - this is the same as practice a trade, why repeat all those rules?
Performance example - so Lem finds the chance to perform in a celestial realm? How does he get there? This seems extreme for a downtime earning cash activities. If it isn’t, then can you stage a performance for a free plane shift?
Recall knowledge - be more descriptive on what “creatures with divine significance” means. Does this still include undead? If so, say it.
Subsist on the streets and Survive in the wild - how long does this take? The entire day? Seems that would be too much and you'd never be able to get anything done.
Conceal an object - not clear on why/when you make the roll or the observer does. Why does them seeking reduce your outcome to your average DC like you rolled a 10? Opposed roles make much more sense.
Hide and Sneak - Is it correct that you need 2 actions to become unseen? First you need to hide to become sensed, and then you need to sneak to become unseen? Also, if someone is blind or you’re invisible, an auto-20 seems weird, can’t they hear you? I’d think a large circumstance bonus like +10 makes more sense, since you could trip with a roll of a 1 and make a lot of noise, or you could stay super sneaky and roll a 20 for an effective 30. How does it work if you attack from sneaking and you’re unseen? Rules say that as soon as you do anything other than Hide or Sneak you become seen - which would make your target not flat footed and you have no advantage. Should this happen only after you complete the action? Not super clear on the language.
Conceal an object vs. palm an object? Are these identical but different skills? If not, what’s the difference? Do you first palm the object, then conceal it? How long does palming it last?
Thievery - if perform lets you work a profession, then thievery should be able to also by committing crimes. Underworld lore really doesn’t cut it if you can’t pick a background with his lore (such as campaign specific ones which don’t fit your concept.)
Grab/Grapple: the Grab action to "maintain" a grapple is the mundane equivalent of Concentrate on a Spell.
As far as I can tell. Also, in a lot of situations grapple is not very useful (eg. I ran a simulation of a Cave Bear vs. my Ch3 character and went "oh, this attack has Grab. What does that do? Oh I spend an action, auto-succeed, the target is grappled, that limb can't make attacks and I get a...+4 bonus on damage because that's what Cave Bears get when they grab someone? I think I'd rather just keep claw swiping...").
My group's GM did the same double-take about Grab during a session two-three weeks ago. Realizing it took an action and did almost nothing useful he didn't bother.
I think the Grabbed condition needs some work.