Earth 10: Skills

I want the skills to be pretty broadly defined, but in the main they work by replacing the acting, effect or resistance stat with a similar aspect of the skill. This means, theoretically, that skills also need three ratings; not sure on that. But the applications of skills are pretty simple – if you’re trying something that is covered by the skill, use the skill instead of your stat.

I went through a designed a new list focused on what the character is trying to do, rather than necessarily how they do it, with a several different information gathering skills to go along with the combat and action skills. 

New Name	Factor	used for
Acrobatics	5	You may replace your Dex with Acrobatics for climbing, or your Influence to impress people with a gymnastics routine. If you choose to dodge in combat you may replace your Dex with Acrobatics for defense. When taking damage from falls you may replace your Body with Acrobatics to resist being hurt.
Combat	5	Pick one combat technique (such as Unarmed, Medieval weapons, Asian weapons, Firearms, Archery, etc.); you may use your AP in the skill to replace Dex or Str (or the base weapon damage) or Body (indicating parrying, blocking & rolling with attacks to reduce damage) each round. You may also buy it more than once to have skill in more than one technique, or increase the factor (by 3) to replace 2 stats a round
Connive	5	This is skill with deceptive thievery - it covers picking pockets, slight of hand, disguise, impersonation, forgery, grifting and other techniques. You may replace your Dexterity with this skill for any slight of hand, replace Int/ Will for producing forgeries or faked documents, and Infl/Aura when trying to disguise or impersonate. This can also be rolled to find contacts in the fields you're skilled at.
Influence	7	This skill lets you change people's decisions or behavior through social interaction. Replace your Infl/Aura with the skill when trying to convince people to do something. This can be becauser you're heartfelt and earnest or scary as hell (Superman v. Batman) but the mechanics are the same. This should not be used to do a 'tell me everything' to replace the Interview skill.
Interview	5	This is the skill for gathering information from talking to people, and it replaces your Infl/Aura when you do so. It functions a lot like Investigate but for people rather than things. It's not just getting people to talk but getting them to say things they don't realize they know, remember things they had thought were irrlevant, to expland upon their prior statements, and apply their own expertise to the questions at hand.
Intrusion	5	This is the ability to move about undetected and enter places despite security systems. You may replace your Dexterity with Intrusion when trying to avoid being spotted (normally this is Dex/Dex roll against potential observers Int/Will). You can replace your Int and Will with Intrusion as needed to spot and circumvent locks, traps and security systems. You can use Thief in place for Dex/Str to fit through tight places or escape binding.
Invention	8	This skill lets you invent things that mirror super-powers (and heck, doesn't everything mirror super-powers if you look at it hard enough?) It comes in three flavors - Gadgeteer for technological devices, Enchanter for magical devices and Ritual for ritual magic spells (which don't need a device but do need time). They let you replace you Int/Will or Infl/Aura with Invention when doing that creation, or when exploring how devices operate, and it can also be rolled to find contacts. You can buy this more than once (magical types often do).
Investigate	5	This is the key skill for analyzing clues and drawing accurate conclusions. It has several different types (Forensics for police procedure, Science for a flavor of high tech review, Divination for a check of magical factors) which each need to be purchased separately - science should then be flavored a bit for your preferred science. You may replace your Int/Will (or Infl/Aura for Divination) with Investigate when trying to figure out what happened somewhere and how it relates to the crime/mystery - each type will have differing situational efficacy. This Skill can also be rolled to find contects in the fields you're skilled at.
Medicine	5	This skill lets you heal damage to another character, and comes in three types - Physical, Mental and Spiritual - indicating the difference between biology, psychology & philosophy. You start with just one, and each you add increases the Factor by 1. This covers short term 'field' medicine, medium term 'surgery' and long term recovery, as well as giving you contacts in the fields of medicine.
Profession	3	This skill lets you do a job; you get to pick the job - reporter, soldier, truck driver, florist, insurance adjuster, lawyer, whatever - and replace any stats needed with the Profession skill when you use it. What Profession can't do is overlap any of the other skills, so if you job is as a police detective you likely also need Investigate and Interview, but those are the breaks. You may also use this skill when trying to find contacts in your field.
Vehicles	3	You may replace your Dex with Vehicles for operating one vehicle type (land, sea, air, space, animal). You may replace your Int and Will (or Infl and Aura) with the skill when it comes to repairing and modifying (or healing and training) the vehicles. You may add additional vehicle types at a +1 Factor for each (having all 5 is Factor 8)