See also: Skills
Some situations may make a Skill easier or harder to use, resulting in a bonus or penalty to the skill modifier for the skill check, or a change to the skill check's DC. It's one thing for Kelko, a Rodian Scout, to hunt down enough food to eat while he's camping for the day on Endor, using a Survival check. Foraging for food while crossing 100 kilometers of Tatooine's Jundland Wastes is an entirely different matter.
The GM can alter the odds of success in four ways to take into account exceptional circumstances:
- Give the skill user a +2 circumstance bonus to represent circumstances that improve performance, such as having the perfect tool for the job, getting help from another (see Combined Attempts), or possessing unusually accurate information.
- Give the skill user a -2 circumstance penalty to represent circumstances that hamper performance, such as being forced to use improvised tools or possessing misleading information.
- Reduce the DC by 2 (or assign penalties to an Opposed Check) to represent circumstances that make the task easier, such as having a friendly audience or performing work that doesn't have to be perfect.
- Increase the DC by 2 (or add bonuses to an Opposed Check) to represent circumstances that make the task harder, such as having a hostile audience or performing work that must be flawless.
Circumstances that affect your ability to perform the skill change your skill modifier. Circumstances that modify how well you have to perform the skill to succeed change the DC. A bonus on your skill modifier and a reduction in the check's DC have the same result- they create a better chance that you will succeed. But they represent different circumstances, and sometimes that difference is important.
For example, Deel Surool the Twi'lek Scoundrel wants to befriend a group of Trandoshan thugs drinking in a cantina. Before beginning his performance, Deel listens to the Trandoshans so that he can judge their mood. Doing so improves his chances of taking the right approach when introducing himself, giving him a +2 bonus to the skill modifier for his Persuasion check. The Trandoshans are in a good mood because they recently received a sizeable payoff, so the GM reduces the bonus they receive for an Indifferent Attitude to +0. (Deel's attempt at diplomacy isn't better just because the Trandoshans are in a good mood, so he does not gain a bonus to add to his skill modifier.)
However, the leader of the gang, a Human bounty hunter, has been unable to locate the Wookiee he's tracking, and he's suspicious of Deel. (Didn't the datafile suggest the Wookiee was often seen in the company of a Twi'lek?) He gains a +2 bonus to his Will Defense to resist being persuaded (in addition to the normal +2 for being Indifferent).
Deel rolls a 6 and adds +8 for his skill modifier (including +2 for his impromptu research). His result is 14. The Trandoshans have a Will Defense of 13, so Deel's skill check result is high enough to shift their Attitudes to Friendly, but not their leader (Will Defense 16). The Trandoshans applaud Deel Surool and offer to buy him drinks, but their leader eyes him suspiciously.
Time and Skill Checks[]
A skill's description tells you whether using a skill is a Standard Action, a Move Action, a Swift Action, a Full-Round Action, or a Free Action. Some Skills can take minutes or hours to use.
In general, using a skill that requires concentration (and thus distracts you from being fully aware of what's going on around you) provokes an Attack of Opportunity from an opponent if you are within that opponent's threatened area when you attempt the skill check.