We've addressed this before.
Skills are very under-rated in d20 games and often many of them range from useless (Knowledge: Local) to incredibly overpowered (Use Magic Device).
Here are a few of my own house rules designed "set the record straight" and make skills more balanced and over-all useful in a combat and magic-oriented game.
Green = Good as is
Yellow = Edited a bit
Red = Removed or merged into another skill
Feats that boost 2 skills: Burn them. Throw them in the trash. Replace them with skill focus in whatever skill is more appropriate than the other for the character/creature.
Acrobatics: This skill is fine as is.
Appraise: Fairly useless skill. I say eliminate it and make it a part of the Craft skill. A successful Craft check of the right type of the same DC as the Appraise DC allows you to appraise an item.
Bluff: This skill is fine as is except for the "impossible" Bluff. A -20 should be for an "improbable" Bluff that is ridiculous (such as "No, I'm not some commoner, I'm the king in disguise."). A truly impossible Bluff would just autofail without magical mind control (such as "No, there's no dragon about to eat you. You're just seeing things").
Climb: This skill has very limited use. I'd say give a beef up just a bit. While climbing, you can make a Climb check instead of an Acrobatics check to avoid AoOs from movement. In addition, whenever you are pushed/pulled while adjacent to a surface that can support your weight or tripped while climbing, you can make a Climb check DC10 + attacker's CMB bonus (or whatever bonus hit your CMD) or same DC as your saving throw you failed to resist the movement. If you succeed, you move only half the distance the effect normally would've pushed you (minimum 0, or negate it if it was a trip attempt).
Craft: These skills are great, but overly specific. I say simplify crafts into 6 things: Alchemy, Device, Metallurgy, Stonemasonry, Tailoring, Woodworking. All crafts fall under one of these categories. In addition, you can use the Craft skill in place of the Appraise skill to appraise an item of the appropriate type.
Diplomacy: This skill is good as is except that the DCs should add the target creature's HD to the DC. Only drawback is that it's never worth sacrificing a standard action for in combat. I'd say doing so as a move (or half the time for other purposes) should be doable at a -10 penalty (unless you have that one feat).
Disable Device: This skill is good but overly specific and should mesh with Craft. Craft (Device/Traps/Mechanics) should be the same as Disable Device. I say merge them. If you can disable a mechanical device by meticulously figuring out how it works (instead of just smashing it with a hammer), you can build one too.
Disguise: This skill is overly specific and only useful in very rare situations. Just like Fly to Acrobatics, I say ditch it and make it a part of Bluff. Any bonuses that normally go to Disguise check, now go to Bluff checks made to pull off a disguise.
Escape Artist: Lovely skill. Sad that I don't see people invest in it more. Might be worth noting that tying someone up makes the Escape DC either 20 + your CMB OR 20 + your Escape Artist bonus (whichever is better) rather than CMB only.
Fly: This skill is horrible. There is no need for it as it is essentially just Acrobatics for when you're flying. I say ditch this skill and any bonuses that go to Fly checks go to Acrobatics checks made to resist falling or maintain flight.
Handle Animal: Lovely skill. But it should follow the same DC guidelines for rearing as Diplomacy since even animals can have varying attitudes towards someone based on the circumstances.
Heal: Useless in a game with magical healing everywhere. Here's a fix: Whenever you use magical healing, make a Heal check DC10 + double spell level. If you succeed, you get 150% normal healing amount. If you fail, you get only 50%. Make this mandatory and the skill is useful again. Of course all the healers will complain but screw them. Healers without heal skills deserve to suck. In addition, a character must use the Heal skill to craft potions that create any healing spell, not the Craft (Alchemy) skill. Optionally, it can be used to craft poisons or enhance the damage of poison- or disease-inflicting spells as well.
Intimidate: Lovely skill. Only drawback is that it's never worth sacrificing a standard action for in combat. I'd say doing so as a move (or half the time for other purposes) should be doable at a -10 penalty (unless you have that one feat).
Knowledge: Horrible. I love knowledge-based characters but this does nothing for a gamer that already knows the game really well. I say that a successful Knowledge check on any creature, object or area should allow you to analyze the target closely as a standard action (or move action at -10 penalty). If you do so, you gain a +2 insight bonus to attack rolls, saving throws and opposed skill checks against the target for 1 round + 1 additional round per 5 points you beat the DC (opposite of penalties created by Intimidate). Reactive checks probably don't do anything unless the GM says otherwise. Active checks are only allowed if the topic the character is pondering has any relation to the subject at hand (GM discretion).
Linguistics: Lovely skill. Can't say too many bad things about it.
Perception: This skill is fine as is. Very over-used thanks to Stealth.
Perform: Like Knowledge, skills, these suck. I say allow them to be used to inspire a single ally within range as a standard action to grant them a +2 morale bonus to attack rolls, saving throws and skill checks for 1 round + 1 additional round per 5 points that you beat the DC (DC10 + target's HD + Cha mod). Or move action at -10 penalty. Bardic Performance abilities should merely either stack with this or prolong the duration accordingly.
Profession: I hate how useless this skill is but also realize that it's necessary to represent "oddjobs" that have not already been put in the system as skills. I still hate it.
Ride: Lovely skill but overly specific since it's essentially just a combination of Acrobatics, Climb and Handle Animal. I say merge it with Handle Animal except for the "stay in saddle" part should be under Climb and "fast mount" should be under Acrobatics. Mounted Combat and similar feats require 1 rank in Acrobatics, Climb and Handle Animal per 3 ranks in Ride that they would normally require (starting with Handle Animal, then Climb, then Acrobatics).
Sense Motive: This skill is fine as is. Very over-used thanks to Bluff.
Sleight of Hand: This skill overly specific. It represents a combination of a combat maneuver (steal something) and another skill (Stealth while not being noticed). There's no need to have the skill at all. Instead, pickpocketing someone should just be a Steal attempt (via the Steal combat maneuver) and doing so unnoticed should be a Stealth check (Stealth skill). Unlike every other attack in the game, Steal should be the one exception to "attacking auto-negates stealth). A failed CMB attempt fails to grab the item but doesn't auto-reveal you. A failed Stealth check reveals you, but if you still succeeded in the Steal attempt, you still have the object in your hands. Most of these checks are made against a flat-footed target (either because you are hidden via Stealth or because you have Bluffed them into thinking you only bumped into them on accident or that your friendly hug was genuinely affectionate).
Spellcraft: Lovely skill but overpowered as it applies to ALL magic. I hate that a Druid with Spellcraft can successfully identify an obscure Wizard spell and vice versa. I say eliminate this skill and instead have characters make Knowledge checks to identify spells.
Knowledge (Arcana) identifies arcane spells.
Knowledge (Dungeoneering) identifies racial abilities used by aberrations and oozes and traps.
Knowledge (Engineering) identifies magical runes used to enhance or power mechanical devices and spell-like and special abilities of constructs.
Knowledge (Geography/History) identifies divination spells that seek out knowledge of the past or lay of the land.
Knowledge (Local/Nobility) identifies the special abilities of any individual identified by the knowledge check (so-and-so is a wizard that likes to use a lot of fire magic).
Knowledge (Nature) identifies druid/ranger spells.
Knowledge (Planes) identifies all calling, summoning and teleport spells of any spell list.
Knowledge (Religion) identifies cleric/oracle/inquisitor/paladin spells.
Oh yeah, and Geography/History and Local/Nobility should be merged as such because they're pretty much the same thing on different scales. Engineering should probably be merged with Devices, but I'm not sure. Iffy on that.
Stealth: This skill is fine as is. Very over-used thanks to Perception.
Survival: This skill used to suck but now that anyone can track without the feat, it's okay. Could use a little boost but can't think of anything at the moment. Maybe by spending 1d4 hours "getting a lay of the land" one can research information about the local wilderness and wildlife the same way Diplomacy can be used to gather information? Yeah, I think that would be good. In this case "dangerous aid" or "aid that could result in punishment" would merely be trying to get information that requires risking unnecessary random encounters.
Swim: This skill has very limited use. I'd say give a beef up just a bit. While swimming, you can make a Swim check instead of an Acrobatics check to avoid AoOs from movement. In addition, whenever you are pushed/pulled/tripped while swimming, you can make a Swim check DC10 + attacker's CMB bonus (or whatever bonus hit your CMD) or same DC as your saving throw you failed to resist the movement. If you succeed, you move only half the distance the effect normally would've pushed you (minimum 0, or negate it if it was a trip attempt).
Use Magic Device: This skill is ridiculously overpowered. I say, change all the DCs to 20 + crafter's Caster Level and make all "activate blindly" attempts have a 50% miss chance before a check is even made. Upon a roll of 1-50 on the d%, the check autofails and causes a scroll mishap: http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-...rolls#scroll-mishaps.
Also, I think this should seriously be an Intelligence-based skill, but I know Charisma has it rough as is so I'll leave that part be.
NEW SKILL CHART
Strength
-Climb
-Swim
Dexterity
-Acrobatics
-Escape Artist
-Stealth
Intelligence
-Craft: Alchemy, Devices, Metallurgy, Stonemasonry, Tailoring, Woodworking.
-Knowledge: Arcana, Dungeoneering, Engineering, Geography/History, Local/Nobility, Nature, Planes, Religion.
-Linguistics
Wisdom
-Heal
-Perception
-Profession
-Sense Motive
-Survival
Charisma
-Bluff
-Diplomacy
-Handle Animal
-Intimidate
-Perform: Comedy, Dance, Keyboard, Oratory, Percussion, Sing, String, Wind.
-Use Magic Device
Human Rogue with 14 INT and favored class bonus to skill ranks gets: 12 skill points per level.
As a rogue, they cap out Acrobatics, Climb, Craft (Devices), Bluff, Escape Artist, Knowledge (Dungeoneering), Knowledge (Local/Nobility), Stealth and are still left with 4 ranks for other skills and are considered a "good" rogue by proxy of these skill choices.
An orcish fighter with 8 Int who chose hit points for favored class has only 1 skill point per level. A tough choice between Intimidate and Climb.
This message was last edited by the GM at 13:30, Tue 15 Apr 2014.
