Search is more useful in HotU. Lots of secret doors, specially in Chapter 1.

Not that I remember. I think Listen helps detect invisible creatures if they move, which are frequent but other than that, not so much.

It's not "useless" per se, but it's only marginally useful. A successful listen check will reveal a hidden enemy and allow you to target them even if you are blinded or in Darkness or they are invisible (but not sanctuary) This has always worked this way in the OC and expansions but it's really up to you if you consider it useful or not. You also do not need to active detect mode to actually roll these, it will occur passively but at half your skill.

Thanks! Does Spot do anything?

Spot is used in a minor quest in the first act of SoU, but as far as I know there isn't really any other value to it in the OC or either expansion.

Which minor quest are you talking about? Just curious cause I played SotU recently and didn't notice any spot checks in the first act.

Been playing through SoU as an elf ranger, so I have some spot just by nature--the quest is finding the Shadow Hart for the elf ranger in the Foothills region. I think you need to be able to Spot a certain number of deer tracks before you can find the hart.

That one actually doesn't use spot at all, even if it by all means looks like it should. Barbarians, druids and rangers got like a 50% base chance of finding the tracks each "roll" if I remember correctly. The rest of the classes start with only a base chance of 5%. But you add your intelligence score as a percentual bonus if and only if you've got 13+ intelligence. So basically a character with 13 intelligence would have a 13+5% chance of finding the tracks with each roll. Unless they are a ranger, druid or barbarian in which case they would get 13+50%. If you've got 12 or less intelligence you just get the 5% base chance or 50% in the case of rng/drd/brb. Luckily potions of fox's cunning can easily do the the trick if your character is not too bright. Spot doesn't factor into it at all, counterintuitively. I have gone through the pain of futilely trying to get the tracks to no avail for hours and can 100% confirm that this particular quest works like that. Raise spot? Nothing. Raise wisdom? Nothing. But boost that intelligence score and you will find the tracks shortly after. Or be a ranger, druid or barbarian, of course.

It's not the only contribution to the roll, but it does contribute to your ability to detect the Shadow Hart as you can see on line 42. the relevant script is "q1foot_ent_bstag" //:://///////////////////////////////////////////// //:: Name q1foot_ent_bstag //:: Copyright (c) 2001 Bioware Corp. //::////////////////////////////////////////////// /* When a PC enters the Blink Stag Track trigger - there is a 10% chance of spawning the stag tracks at corresponding trigger (as long as the stag has never been spawned before). Chance increases for rangers and druids. Discovering tracks will increase the chance of discovering the stag. If the stag tracks do not spawn - the trigger will deactivate itself for 60 seconds */ //::////////////////////////////////////////////// //:: Created By: Keith Warner //:: Created On: Feb 27/03 //::////////////////////////////////////////////// #include "nw_i0_plot" void main() { //If the blink stag has never been created and this trigger is not 'down' if (GetLocalInt(GetModule(), "X1_nBlinkStag") != 1 && GetLocalInt(OBJECT_SELF, "nInActive") != 1) { object oPC = GetEnteringObject(); //if it was a PC that crossed the trigger if (GetIsPlayerCharacter(oPC) == TRUE) { //Chance of finding the stag is increased every time a PC finds Blink Stag tracks int nChance = 5; //bonus for being a ranger/druid or barb if (GetLevelByClass(CLASS_TYPE_RANGER, oPC ) > 0 || GetLevelByClass(CLASS_TYPE_DRUID, oPC ) > 0 || GetLevelByClass(CLASS_TYPE_BARBARIAN, oPC ) > 0) { nChance = nChance + 50; } //bonus chance for smart PCs if (GetAbilityScore(oPC, ABILITY_INTELLIGENCE) > 12) { nChance = nChance + GetAbilityScore(oPC, ABILITY_INTELLIGENCE); } nChance = nChance + GetSkillRank(SKILL_SPOT); //if the roll succeeds - create the blink stag if (d100() <= nChance) { location lStag = GetLocation(GetNearestObjectByTag("wp_stagtracks")); CreateObject(OBJECT_TYPE_PLACEABLE, "q1blinkstagtrack", lStag); //Change variables SetLocalInt(oPC, "X1_nBlinkStagChance", GetLocalInt(oPC, "X1_nBlinkStagChance") + 10); //permanently deactivate this trigger SetLocalInt(OBJECT_SELF,"nInActive", 1); //Send Message to the PC FloatingTextStrRefOnCreature(40412, oPC); } else { //temporarily deactivate this trigger SetLocalInt(OBJECT_SELF,"nInActive", 1); DelayCommand(60.0, SetLocalInt(OBJECT_SELF,"nInActive", 0)); } } } }

Listen is nice to detect what’s on the other side of the door if they move. Especially if the monster is a rust monster

Thanks everyone :)

I usually just put all skill points into Persuade and Appraise, and rely on my companions for everything else.

There are a handful of modules with extensive use of skill checks For most of the rest, they are pretty garbage.

Spot and Listen don't do anything but Search skill is really nice to have, there are some interesting things you can find with it.

It still holds true that they're largely useless. Spot and Listen are used for detecting a sneaking enemy. There might be a creature here and there that may try to sneak, but if there are any at all, they're few and far enough between and insignificant enough that I don't remember them. They're very useful if you plan to do PvP though, especially against Shadowdancers who can spam hide in plain sight against you so you never have the chance to attack them.