Brian: Attunement. In our rules, every spell ability in an item, power storing, recharging etc all require attunement skill. Plus, many althan/ka’ta’viir devices use mental interfaces which can be accessed with attunement. So even non spell-casters should have some ability, especially at higher levels.
Peter: Lore skills particularly those relating to herbs. Whether you use Herb Lore, Herbalism or Lore:Technical. I suspect that my game is a bit more hack and slash than Brian’s but being able to select the right herb and apply it is a key skill for my players.
We’ve re-written the herb rules and reduced it to 3 basic criteria:
1. Rarity. Finding herbs relies on foraging, survival or perception (if the herb is described to them and they are in the right biome).
2. Preparation. Difficulty modifier is based on the type of processing needed, if any: (distilled, steamed, steeped, paste, mulled etc). This uses the Herb Lore skill.
3. Application. Eaten, breathed, compressed etc. Herb Lore Skill.
The interesting part is that each criteria could be very different. So a very rare herb to find, might be easy to prepare and absurd to apply. Or an herb may be very hard to prepare but once prepared very easy to apply.
Seduction, ‘convincing people of your point of view’.
I think you are right but interestingly in RM2 Public Speaking and Seduction had a lot of cross over which was cleaned up in RMC.
RMC has this for public speaking: Public speaking: (Em/Pr) This skill provides a bonus for impressing, entertaining, or manipulating groups of people directly. Public Speaking applies to large groups, is often extemporaneous, and is used to manipulate the emotions or views of a crowd.
RM2 has this for public speaking: Public-speaking (Em/Pr) Bonus for impressing, entertaining, or manipulating other individual or groups.
For Seduction RM2 has: Seduction (Em/Pr) Bonus when attempting to emotionally, sensually, or sexually manipulate someone.
You can see that in RM2 both skills can be used on a one to one basis to convince them to your point of view. RMC on the other hand made it very clear that Public Speaking was for groups and Seduction for individuals. I agree that the skill of influencing people is important but in RM2 Public Speaking would be the better skill to have as it has a broader scope.
Riding and the appropriate Animal Handling skill. Amazing how many characters can’t actually Ride or take care of their mounts in a setting where horse/mule transportation is common and favored for covering long distances fairly quickly.
Agreed about the Lore Skills.
Anything that can add a bonus to Picking Locks(Lock Lore)/Disarming Traps(Trap Lore) or Monster Analysis(Fauna/Demon/Dragon/Religion/etc.) for weaknesses is TeH best.