[I'm not at this stage trialling any changes to skills specifically. However, some skills or skill uses relate to things that are not yet in play, or need to work a bit differently because of other experimental rules. Therefore please bear in mind the following notes when reading the skill rules from the SRD.]
All references to the following should be disregarded as they are not yet in play:
Ignore references to character classes (Ranger and Rogue) in association with the following skill-related features, experimentally being handled as feats:
Treat all references to Armour Class or Reflex save as being to Evasion (except as noted below under Jump).
The following notes apply to individual skills:
Decipher Script
Other languages are not yet in play. However, archaic writing, exotic dialects, specialist jargon, ciphers or other cryptic texts may be found. This skill can also be used to make out the fuller meaning of incomplete texts, including texts that were abbreviated or otherwise elliptic to start with, and texts that have since become damaged or split. DCs will typically be in the range 5 to 15, but sometimes higher, especially if the obscurity is deliberate or the damage severe.
Forgery
Disregard the references to different languages and illiteracy.
Handle Animal
For nonlethal damage read resilience damage.
For Intelligence 2 read Intelligence modifier -4. For Intelligence 1 read Intelligence modifier -5.
Heal
Because of my changes to hit points and healing, use the following revised section on long-term care:
Long-Term Care
Providing long-term care means treating a wounded person for a week or more. If your Heal check is successful, the patient recovers body points or ability score points (lost to ability damage) at twice the normal rate: twice base Fortitude save bonus plus Constitution modifier (and 2 as a minimum if that calculation comes out to one or less) per week, and if necessary 1 modifier point of ability damage per night of rest, or 2 modifier points per 24 hours complete rest. Healing is still reduced in the usual proportions if the injured character does not rest fully each day.
You can tend as many as six patients at a time. You need a few items and supplies (bandages, salves, and so on) that are easy to come by in settled lands (and can be found in the wild with a Survival check, typical DC 15, or a Knowledge (nature) check, typical DC 20). Giving long-term care counts as light activity for the healer. You cannot give long-term care to yourself.
Also, add the following section to the Heal skill description:
Pick-Me-Up Care
Providing pick-me-up care means aiding a person to recover from the exertions and minor injuries of combat or other hazards. If your Heal check is successful, the patient recovers resilience points at twice the normal rate for a single ten-minute rest: base Fortitude save plus Constitution modifier all doubled (or 2 if that calculation comes out as zero or less). You can attempt this check only once per day per patient.
You can tend as many as six patients in an hour. You need a few items and supplies (bandages, salves, and so on) that are easy to come by in settled lands (and can be found in the wild with a Survival check, typical DC 15, or a Knowledge (nature) check, typical DC 20). Giving pick-me-up care counts as light activity for the healer. You cannot give pick-me-up care to yourself.
Jump
As speed is not necessarily divisible by 10, use speed modifiers of -3 for every 5ft below 30ft, and +2 for every 5ft above.
As there is no longer a Reflex save, use Climb check to grab the edge when you nearly make a jump.
Knowledge
Because I'm rewriting all the creature descriptions and assigning skills and DCs to know key information about each creature as part of that, the text in the Knowledge skill description on knowing about creatures needs to change a bit. Also, because magic and other fantastical elements are largely Not Yet In Play for initial playtesting, the three fields of knowledge (arcana), (religion) and (the planes) are of limited use individually and I should merge them into one for now. Therefore, replace the whole Knowledge skill description with the following:
Like the Craft and Profession skills, Knowledge actually encompasses a number of unrelated skills. Knowledge represents a study of some body of lore, possibly an academic or even scientific discipline.
Below are listed typical fields of study.
Check
Guideline DCs for answering a question within your field of study are: 5 (common knowledge); 10 (fairly basic); 15 (somewhat little-known); 20 to 30+ (advanced or obscure knowledge).
In many cases, you can use this skill to identify monsters and their special powers or vulnerabilities. Monster descriptions (for the GM only) detail the relevant fields of study, the information available to each for each creature, and the DCs for specific pieces of information. The notes above on the relationship of fields of study to different facets of creature knowledge are guidelines.
Action
Usually none. In most cases, making a Knowledge check doesn't take an action - you simply know the answer or you don't.
Try Again
No. The check represents what you know, and thinking about a topic a second time doesn't let you know something that you never learned in the first place.
Synergy
Untrained
An untrained Knowledge check is simply an Intelligence check. Without actual training, you know only common knowledge (DC 10 or lower).
Swim
Holding your breath is for a number of rounds equal to your Constitution modifier plus five, all times four. For nonlethal damage read resilience damage.