Skillcheck and Forcing Saving Throws

[Areia]

Hey there! I have a two-parter for anyone able and willing to help out.

1. Does the skillcheck check have a chance to succeed even when the PC being checked hasn't trained the skill? I expect it would simply roll against a given DC without any bonuses if the skill isn't trained, or might it just fail?
...I'm thinking to employ things like climbing, for example, in my area, but most PCs probably wouldn't (or even couldn't, I think, for some classes) have climb traned at such a low level. Is this a good way to get around this, or is even trying to get around this a bad thing?

2. Is there any way to check against a PC's saving throws? I'm looking to make some traps and such that from what I can tell are nonstandard and so could use a way more correct than checking pure stats to see if they can be avoided or not.

Ahem, guess that was more than two. As always, many, many thanks in advance for any help.

[Myn]

I've been doing a reflex save checks in some places as a sub for climbing.

Code: Select all

if save_reflex ( $n )

As for the saving checks, this is what I referenced:

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=10385&hilit=saving+throws

I haven't had much luck getting modifers to work very well, at least not that I could easily tell.

[Areia]

Perfect, that's exactly what I needed! That thread was really buried way down. XD

Thanks a million!

[Harroghty]

Checking against skills is a great way to implement non-standard events, but don't forget that you already have a hard-coded exit flag checking for climb and a traps system. These may end up being more onerous on low-level players, so use them judiciously, but trying to code some of this stuff from scratch is an exponential problem. Does climbing gear help your bespoke climb check? Can your custom traps be disarmed? By whom? How? etc.

I'm not saying you shouldn't make it from scratch, but I am saying that I've found it generally best not to try to reinvent the proverbial wheel unless it's really necessary.