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Pathfinder Second Edition

Compendium

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Chapter 4 - Skills

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While your character’s attributes represent their raw talent and potential, skills represent their training and experience at performing certain tasks. Each skill is keyed to one of your character’s attributes and used for an array of related actions. Your character’s expertise in a skill comes from several sources, including their background and class. In this chapter, you’ll learn about skills, their scope, and the actions they can be used for.

A character’s acumen in skills can come from all sorts of training, from practicing acrobatic tricks to studying academic topics to rehearsing a performing art. When you create your character and as they advance in level, you have flexibility as to which skills they become better at and when. Some classes depend heavily on certain skills—such as the bard’s reliance on Performance—but for most classes, you can choose whichever skills make the most sense for your character’s theme and backstory at 1st level, then use their adventure and downtime experiences to inform how their skills should improve as your character levels up.

A character gains training in certain skills at 1st level: typically two from their background, a small number of predetermined skills from their class, and several skills of your choice granted by their class. This training increases your proficiency ranks for those skills to trained instead of untrained and lets you use more of the skills’ actions. Sometimes you might become trained in the same skill from multiple sources, such as if your background granted training in Survival and you took the ranger class, which also grants training in Survival. Each time after the first that you’d become trained in a given skill, you instead allocate the trained proficiency to any other skill of your choice—though if the skill is a Lore skill, the new skill must also be a Lore skill.

Skills, Key Attributes, and Actions
Skill  Key Attribute  Untrained Actions  Trained Actions
Acrobatics
Dexterity
Balance [one-action]
Tumble Through [one-action]

Maneuver in Flight [one-action]
SqueezeE

Arcana
Intelligence
Recall KnowledgeG [one-action]
Borrow an Arcane SpellE
Decipher WritingE, G
Identify MagicE, G
Learn a SpellE, G

Athletics
Strength
Climb [one-action]
Force Open [one-action]
Grapple [one-action]
High Jump [two-actions]
Long Jump [two-actions]
Reposition [one-action]
Shove [one-action]
Swim [one-action]
Trip [one-action]
Disarm [one-action]
Crafting
Intelligence
Recall KnowledgeG [one-action]
RepairE
CraftD
Earn IncomeD, G
Identify AlchemyE
Deception
Charisma
Create a Diversion [one-action]
ImpersonateE
Lie
Feint [one-action]
Diplomacy
Charisma
Gather InformationE
Make an ImpressionE
Request [one-action]

Intimidation
Charisma
CoerceE
Demoralize [one-action]

Lore
Intelligence
Recall KnowledgeG [one-action]
Earn IncomeD, G
Medicine
Wisdom
Administer First Aid [two-actions]
Recall KnowledgeG [one-action]
Treat DiseaseD
Treat Poison [one-action]
Treat WoundsE
Nature
Wisdom
Command an Animal [one-action]
Recall KnowledgeG [one-action]
Identify MagicE, G
Learn a SpellE, G
Occultism
Intelligence
Recall KnowledgeG [one-action]
Decipher WritingE, G
Identify MagicE, G
Learn a SpellE, G
Performance
Charisma
Perform [one-action]
Earn IncomeD, G
Religion
Wisdom
Recall KnowledgeG [one-action]
Decipher WritingE, G
Identify MagicE, G
Learn a SpellE, G
Society
Intelligence
Recall KnowledgeG [one-action]
SubsistD, G
Create ForgeryD
Decipher WritingE, G
Stealth
Dexterity
Conceal an Object [one-action]
Hide [one-action]
Sneak [one-action]

Survival
Wisdom
Sense DirectionE
SubsistD, G
Cover TracksE
TrackE
Thievery
Dexterity
Palm an Object [one-action]
Steal [one-action]
Disable a Device [two-actions]
Pick a Lock [two-actions]

D This skill action is used during downtime.
E This skill action is used during exploration.
G This is a general skill action, with a description appearing on the listed page number instead of in the skill’s entry.

Attributes

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