Community:Fallout: V.A.T.S/Skills

Skill Checks
Anytime you wish to attempt any action of importance, you roll a skill check with the appropriate skill to resolve the outcome. You want to repair an old motorcycle? Roll repair! Sometimes it's not as clear, though. Say you wish to recall an old-world geography fact. Would that be science? Geography is a part of science, or Perhaps speech to just say what you believe convincingly, or maybe survival? In cases like these, don't worry if you don't have a skill that seems to match, tell your games Overseer what you want to do ask! An appropriate skill or alternative check can be provided to you.

As for trivial actions, even if very specific, they are never rolled for. i.e Picking a practice lock for entertainment, pressing a button, reading a book. However, if danger or threat is added to such an action, then the Overseer will call for a skill check they deem appropriate, or SPECIAL check if that suits best. i.e, The toy lock has a hidden explosive attached, The Button is surrounded by active electrical wires that could fry you, Combat is taking place around you, and you are trying to get through a robotic's manual to disable the sentry bot assaulting you all.

Skill checks are rolled with a D% (or a 100-sided die if you use online rollers) and your success is determined by rolling under your skill's current modified level. Failure is if your skill level is rolled over. Critical success and failure are also possible.

Skills have standard difficulties as the below chart, But penalties and bonuses anywhere above and in-between these difficulties may be levied at your character for challenges that don't cleanly meet these standards, up to the Overseer discretion.

Critical rolls
If you roll under your character's critical success range, Your success is exceptional and the Overseer will reward your roll with an appropriate benefit. Critical skill checks are not defined actions, and their benefits can be worked out between player and Overseer if the player has a special Idea in mind. If you roll above your critical failure range, Your failure is spectacular and appropriate consequences will follow.

Aiding skill checks
It's happened to everyone before. You're skulking through a prewar bunker, looking for goodies, and come across a safe. Unfortunately, it's rated VERY HARD and you simply don't have the skill to even attempt it. Luckily, you're not the lone wanderer anymore, you've got friends!

Any skill check that would be too much for one charter, or they would simply not even like to risk failure, can ask for aid. Only one person can aid a single check at a time, regardless of skill (unless they have the Extremely Helpful perk, in which case they can always aid). The Aider(s) first choose how much they would like to attempt to aid the roll and double that number for the penalty they take. i.e. Lilah the Glowing Ghoul wishes to give +30% bonus to Oz the Mr.Handy's barter check. Lilah rolls their own barter with a-60% penalty. If they succeed, they impart the intended bonus and Oz's transaction goes even smoother! However, there is a risk, for every degree of failure, they impose that as a penalty on the roll they tried to aid. i.e. Lilah end up failing her Barter aid by 32 degrees, and ends up spooking the Gun Runner merchant, flubbing Oz's deal.

If they critically succeed, they give an additional 10% Bonus. If critical failed, They roll they were aiding automatically critically fails as well.

Aiding another is almost always done with the same skill that is being aided (Lockpicking aided with another knowledge of locks). However, there may be time when another skill makes sense. i.e. A Medicine check being made to synthesize a cure, being aided by science, or a negotiated a hostage situation with speech, being aided by barter.) In these cases, if the Overseer agrees your skill would be eligible to aid, it may, though small penalties indicating the difference in fields, may be added on as the overseer sees fit.

SPECIAL Checks
SPECIAL Checks are much like skill checks but instead of being rolled on percentile dice (or d100), they are rolled on d10, and use your SPECIAL stats as the value that must be rolled under. SPECIAL checks, when called for, only have degrees of successes and failures, critical failure and successes are impossible.

SPECIAL checks cannot be aided the same way skills can, some SPECIAL checks can only be attempted by one character at all (An AGL check to perform a backflip) where others can be aided by as many characters as feasible (A STR check to lift rubble off of a survivor).

Checks like the latter (a Very Hard STR check), would be handled as follows. The check is Very Hard, so any character with less than 10 STR must roll a Very Hard STR check (at it’s -5 penalty), if they succeed, the penalty is reduced by 1. Any character with 10 or more STR does not need to roll, and automatically reduces the penalty by 1 if aiding. Then, the primary character making the STR check rolls with the adjusted Modifier.

Opposed Rolls
Characters often find themselves pitted directly against opponents in a contest of SPECIALs or Skills. In these times, characters may be called on to make opposed tests. To do so, each character makes their required roll and compares their degrees of success or failure. The opponent with the highest degree of success wins. Ties are won by the character with the highest Luck. (If they have the same Luck Stat, both must roll a LUCK check until someone's success is greater than the other.)

On rare occasions, like Sneak vs. Perception, an opposed roll may be required between a SPECIAL and a Skill. In such cases, a skilled individual has an advantage over someone just relying on natural aptitude. The opponent making the Skill test divides their degree of success by ten, rounding up. The result is then compared to the degree of success from their opponent.

Depending on the situation, If both parties fail their rolls, garnering negative degrees of success, the better number may still result in victory. (i.e. even if both contestants in a tug-o’-war fail their Strength tests, the one who got fewer degrees of failure is still victorious.)

Concentration
Say you find yourself with a task just barely outside your capabilities range, and you feel it would be a shame not to try. Well, as long as you are not in combat, and you have time, you may concentrate on a skill check with all your focus.

You may concentrate up to half your base INT per day, and when you do, you add three times your Relevant effective special stat to the skill roll. (i.e. Your concatenate on a Speech check to lie your way into an NCR compound. Normally your speech skill is only 23, but you have CHA of 6, so you add a +18 bonuses to your skill, giving you the much better chance of a 41 speech check.)

100+ Skills and MAX SPECIALs
While low level players will not encounter this unless they are extremely specialized or grossly drugged up, skills can be raised to 100 and beyond. Some skills like lockpicking, repair and science have explicit benefit at milestones above 100, others do not. Regardless, one might notice that with a skill of 100, failure should be impossible. But the way 100+ skills are rolled, work slightly differently. And it is up to the Player to decide how to use them.

If a Character with 140 science attempts to hack into a Brotherhood security Network rate VERY HARD, they may choose one of two options. OR
 * Roll the Science check at 100 and take the Very Hard difficulty penalty of -50.
 * Split their score in Half and make two rolls at 70 and take the Very Hard difficulty penalty of -50 and take the Better result.

Barter
This mainly affect your buy and sell prices in game, but can also be used whenever some transaction is occurring, and you'd like to help or hinder it. Bribery and knowledge of economics are good secondary uses, such as knowing the value of a good and whether you're getting a good price or not.

Big Guns
This skill is mostly used as a combat skill for ranged weapons with either the Heavy tag, or SMG tag. It is a Strength based skill, as your ability to hold a powerful weapon steady as you fire is the main key to using it successfully. Big Guns also counts as a knowledge of Firearms and ranged weapons within it's category as well as knowledge of nonstandard weapons like artillery and cannons.

Energy Weapons
This skill is mostly used as a combat skill for ranged weapons with either Energy tag, or Gauss tag. It is a Perception based skill, as the near-recoiless weapons and their advanced firing mechanisms mostly really on teh user having a good eye and know where to point when they shoot. Energy Weapons also counts as a knowledge of weapons within it's catagory.

Explosives
This Skill is both used a combat skill for Ranged weapons with the Launcher tag, and arming and disarming explosives out of combat. It is a Perception based skill, as being able to predict, aim and keenly see the intricacies of explosives determines your prowess. Explosives also counts as a knowledge of explosives, explosive substances, how to build them and disarm them. Explosvies is also nominally a crafting skill.

Lockpick
This skill is mostly used out of combat unlocking and breaking into secure containers or buildings, exploiting weakness in their locks. It is a Perception based skill, as your ability to notice minuted changes in tension and weight are the key factors in being successful. Lockpick can also be used for disarming delicate (non-explosives) mechanical traps, as well as practical knowledge and history of locks and locksmithing.

Recovery
When lockpicking, if you fail a check, your lockpick or bobby pin breaks. But, based on the characters luck score, they can roll a d% and if they succed, the bobby pin or lock pick does not break.

Forcing a lock
Lockpicking takes time. Normally, it takes an amount of rounds determined by the lock difficulty, as in the table below. Often though, time isn’t on your side, maybe you're being shot at, and your options are limited. You can attempt to force a lock that you’d normally be able to lockpick open for the cost of 2 AP. The Difficulty is increased one step this way, but if you succeed, the action only takes one round. If you fail, the lock jams, and you must shoot or blow open the lock. You never recover bobby pins on forced locks.

Shooting a lock
Should stealth not matter to you, or you simply don’t have any bobby pins. There are other ways to break locks. On both doors and containers, you can use a firearm to break a lock. In this case, you take aim and fire. Breaking a lock this way is like rolling a Lockpicking check but with either Small Guns, or Energy weapons instead of Lockpicking, and the weapon must deal enough damage. The difficulty of the lock is increased by 10% this way, and anyone nearby is alerted to your wrongdoing. In addition, if your attempt fails, your shot warps the lock in a way to make it hold the container shut, and  you cannot attempt to Lockpick it or shoot it again. If a lock has previously been damaged by a forced lock pick, you can still attempt to shoot the lock open at an additional 10% difficulty. However, if both have failed, the only option left is ordinance.

Blowing open a lock
When all else fails, or when you just want to make an entrance, explosives are your friend. With explosive ordnance, you can blow open locks that usually you could never attempt, albeit in the noisiest and most destructive way possible.

If you have grenades or mines on you, and a way to secure it close to the lock (duct tape, rope, cloth) you may make an average difficulty explosives check instead of Lockpicking. However, the ordinance on hand must up to the task and deal enough damage to blast in the lock. In combat, this action takes 3AP.

If the check succeeded, the lock blows open. If it's for a door, what's left of the door can now be opened. If it's for a container. Roll another explosives check at the DC for the type of lock you broke. If you succeed this second check, the contents are undamaged. Otherwise, they become broken, and if the object doesn't have a condition track, it is destroyed. If you fail to blow open a door, you may try again. However, if you fail by more than 20 degrees whenever using explosives this way, the explosion occurs regularly with its full aoe, potentially hitting you and your allies.

Medicine
This skill is mainly used outside of combat for administering Chems and Meds, as well as performing more advanced medical procedures. It is an Intelligence based skill, as your knowledge and expertise in medical sciences and practices determines who successfully you can recall and implement them. Medicine also acts as knowledge of medicine and is nominally a crafting skill. Medicine directly affects how much health any given character recovers from healing items like stimpacks.

Melee Weapons
This skill is mostly used as a combat skill for all melee weapons. It is a strength based skill, as being able to hit hard or parry such a hard hit with your strength is key to being successful with this skill. While it can be used a general knowledge skill of Melee fighting styles and weaponry, having a high Melee weapon skill grants players special moves they can be used with certain weapons.

Repair
This skill is mainly used outside of combat for fixing equipment and machinery, breaking down or building traps and crafting items and mods. It is an intelligence based skill, as being able to memorize blueprints, solve engineering issues on the fly and do it all without hurting yourself requires an exceptionally knowledgeable mind. It also can act as a general knowledge of mechanics and directly affects how effective you are at healing Health damage to robots.

Science
This skill is mainly used outside of combat for Hacking into terminals, turrets and robots and bending them to your will. It is an intelligence based skill, as having a solid basis in STEM subjects, computers science and their theoretical application all require a studious mind. Science also acts as a very important crafting skill.

Hacking
Unlike Lockpicking which requires a bobby pin or lockpick for each attempt, Hacking attempts are based on the difficulty of the security system and your total skill in science. Attempting to hack an object takes as long as it would to pick a lock of equal difficulty, though unlike a failure with lockpicking, when you run out of attempts, the terminal shuts down into safe mode.

You may still attempt to hack into it again, but it's difficulty increase by two steps. If it was already at VERY HARD, then additional steps count as an increase of 15%.

Small Guns
This skill is mostly used as a combat skill for ranged weapons with either the Pistol tag, Rifle tag or SMG tag. It is an Agility based skill, as your ability to quickly and accurately aim and fire is the main key to using this skill successfully. Small Guns also counts as a knowledge of Firearms and ranged weapons within it's category, as well as knowledge.

Sneak
This skill is used almost equally in and out of Combat for moving and acting undated. It is an Agility based skill, as your ability to stay light and flexible on your feet is what determined whether you will succeed. Sneak can also act as general knowledge of stealth tactics. Stealth Gameplay is expanded in its own section.

Speech
This notorious skill is mostly used outside combat to convince morons that you're king of the wasteland and to convince the intelligent that you're not a moron. Speech is a Charisma based skill and your smile, body language and ability to use words as weapons is what determines whether or not you could sell the Brooklyn Bridge to a waster who's never even heard of Brooklyn. Speech can also count as a general knowledge of rhetoric and communication.

Survival
This skill is mainly used outside of combat for knowing how to build fires, what’s actually flammable and makes good fires, and what's actually flammable but will cause you all to asphyxiate. It is an Endurance based skill as, your ability to weather the hard wastes and learn the lessons of survival as scars along your body determines whether or not you repeat those mistakes. Survival is mainly a crafting based skill, but also counts as a general knowledge of outdoorsmanship as well as local flora and fauna.

Throwing Weapons
This skill is mostly used as a combat skill for ranged weapons with the Throwing Tag. It is an Agility based skill as your ability of aiming and hand-eye coordination is key, making sure when you throw a grenade it doesn't land at your own feet. Throwing Weapons as skill affects just your ability to hit a target, and not the distance thrown. It is displayed in the throwing weapons description and is modified instead by your strength.

Unarmed
This skill is mostly used as a combat skill for weapons with the unarmed tag. It is a Strength based skill as your ability to hold your ground, throw your opponent's weight off and punch really, really hard is what determines whether you succeed. Unarmed as skill also act a general knowledge of hand-to-hand fighting and practices. Having a high Unarmed skill grants players special moves, they can be used with certain unarmed weapons.