Spycraft
Description
Ability Score Used: Choose One Usable Untrained? No (Bailiwick) Armor Check Penalty Applies? No
Only Bards, Prowlers and Rogues may learn this bailiwick skill. No other class may place ranks in it unless they have an ability which specifically states they may put ranks into a bailiwick skill not normally offered by their class. A bailiwick skill is a new skill that represents the core competency of a style of adventure, and has many useful applications.
The Spycraft skill is an expression of your practical knowledge of all things related to the trade of intrigue. For each rank a character places in Spycraft, the character receives a free rank in Knowledge (Local). Note that no character may ever have more ranks in a skill than her character level. Furthermore, this skill may be used in place of Perception for detecting the location of hidden traps, if desired. It also replaces the role of Linguistics for the creation of forged documents, though Linguistics is still used to identify that a document is a forgery.
At the time the player places her first ranks in this skill, she must select one of her ability modifiers, and use that ability modifier as the key ability modifier for this skill. Once selected, this ability modifier may not be changed, except through the Character Retraining rules.
Regardless of which ability modifier is used, Bailiwick skills never suffer an armor check penalty.
Check
Spycraft is used to simulate your ability at intrigue, subtlety and streetwise. With Spycraft, you can notice traps, create forgeries, identify the properties of a magic item, and create new magic items. The DC for these uses varies.
| Task | Spycraft DC |
|---|---|
| Spot a hidden trap or hazard | varies by trap |
| Create a forgery | opposed by viewer's Linguistics check |
| Identify Enemy Leader | 10 + double CR of the encounter |
| Determine the properties of a magic item | 15 + item's caster level |
| Craft a magic item with the Creator feat | Varies by item |
Action
Spot a Hidden Trap or Hazard
Actively searching for traps is a move action. There is no automatic check for this unless you have the Trap Spotter rogue talent, or some similar ability.
Creating a Forgery
Creating a forgery can take anywhere from 1 minute to 1d4 hours per page.
Forgery requires writing materials appropriate to the document being forged. To forge a document on which the handwriting is not specific to a person, you need only to have seen a similar document before, and you gain a +8 bonus on your check. To forge a signature, you need an autograph of that person to copy, and you gain a +4 bonus on the check. To forge a longer document written in the hand of some particular person, a large sample of that person's handwriting is needed.
The Spycraft check is made secretly, so that you're not sure how good your forgery is. As with Disguise, you don't make a check until someone examines the work. Your Spycraft check is opposed by the Linguistics check of the person who examines the document to verify its authenticity. The examiner gains modifiers if any of the conditions are listed on the table "Detecting Forgeries" on the Linguistics page.
Identify Enemy Leader
Spycraft can be used to identify the leader in a group of enemies. This is a swift action, and has a target DC of 10 + the CR of the encounter.
Determine Properties of Magic Item
Attempting to ascertain the properties of a magic item takes 3 rounds per item to be identified and you must be able to thoroughly examine the object. Note that this skill may be used to assist another party member's attempt at determining the properties of a magic item, even if the other party member is using a different skill to make the check.
Crafting Magic Items
Spycraft is one of the skills which, when combined with the Creator feat, may be used to create new magic items.
Try Again
Spot a Hidden Trap or Hazard
No. You cannot retry an attempt to spot a hidden trap or hazard.
Create a Forgery
No. You cannot retry an attempt to create a forgery. Since the forgery check isn't made until someone is examining your work to check its authenticity, there is no opportunity to retry.
Identify Enemy Leader
No. If the check fails, it cannot be used until the next encounter.
Determine Properties of Magic Item
When attempting to learn the properties of magic items, you can only attempt to ascertain the properties of an individual item once per day. Additional attempts that day reveal the same results.
Crafting Magic Items
Yes, but resources used in the creation of the item are often expended and must be repurchased. Additionally, the process of the item's creation must be restarted from the beginning.
Epic Skill Uses
Note: All uses below require a minimum of 21 Ranks in the skill to use.
Forge Document Without Sample
(DC of Linguistics check to detect +50)
Tie unique knot
(DC opposed by escape artist) - knot is very difficult to untie, unless you're you.
Make unique mark
(DC opposed by spycraft (not linguistics))- unforgeable signature
Lay False Trail
(DC opposed by sense motive) - frame someone for something they didn't do, or lead investigators to a conclusion you desire (opposed by sense motive)