Matthew Downie |
So, to use magic items you need the "use magic device"(generally).
Nope. Only specific types of magic item - generally scrolls, wand and staffs. (And even then, only some of the time - a wizard can use wands of wizard spells without any UMD skill, for example.)
As for what a Fighter would do with the skill - wands of spells that boost your fighting ability or defenses are pretty good. Mirror Image, for example. But it takes a lot of skill ranks to be able to do that.
baradakas |
Take a look at the things that you can do with the Use Magic skill:
Activate blindly
Decipher a written spell
Use a scroll
Use a wand
Emulate a class feature
Emulate an ability score
Emulate a race
Emulate an alignment
In general, as Matthew said, these are only relevant to "devices" rather than weapons and rings and such. So if a longsword is +1 or +2 Mighty Cleaving, anyone can use it, and if you're a fighter, you'll be good at using it.
There are some cases where this would come into play with weapons or other "non-device" magic items, though. For instance, a weapon with the Holy ability would cause an evil character to lose a level if they picked it up. So they could use the Use Magic Device skill to emulate a good alignment, thereby bypassing this restriction. It's an ill-advised ploy, as you'd have to make the check every time you picked it up. But it illustrates a special case where your concern would be valid.