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I know there are many threads and posts on skills but in light of the evaluation of the skills system going on I wanted to weigh in.
I love the new skills and combinations please keep them (except I agree that open lock and disable device should be combined and sleight of hand kept separate - also not hot on the name Theft for a skill but can live with it).
I like how the skills are structured and would like to keep cross-class skills (and probably will in my game anyway). I also like not having skills points and this is something else I will probably keep in my game even if it changes but I would rather it was kept, i.e. Trained skills get 1d20 + level +3 + ability bonus. This is not a loss of skills points (a bit less flexible) but the actually progression of how well they do over their career is about the same. The level +3 is what they get when they take 4 ranks and keep pumping points into the skill. Granted when the skill is very high someone cannot move points into another skill but your system lets them add skills in a more liberal way than the previous system and I like it.
The part I would change is how many skills PCs receive over their careers. I think that new skills should not come so often. For the rogues maybe and next probably bards, rangers and possible barbarians. After that I think that fighters are the feat masters and specllcasters are the king of that realm and those classes probably receive fewer skills over time than the aforementioned. (I have not play tested this yet or even made a build so I may be off base with this one but it seems to be a wizard with 10 skills is a bit much).
Also, I would not adjust the rogue too much from where it is. I love them getting access to a spell or two as they progress and it makes so much sense to me. In 3.5 this is the one thing that I was looking for in my rogue and did not even get it. I thought the next rogue I built would have to be a sorcerer on the side just to get access to a couple of spells to help his rogueness - not magic missle, not any attack spells but spells that help him do his true job.
Thank you Jason for these rules and taking time to hear from us.
I feel the same way Shem.
You should check out the Scaled variant that Jason posted in the [Design Focus] Skills thread. It basically does what you suggest.
Fighters, Wizards, Clerics, Paladins, and Sorcerors get 2 +int mod skill choices at 1st level. Druids, Barbarians, and Monks get 3 +int mod choices at 1st level. Bards, Rangers, and Rogues get 4 +int mod choices at 1st level.
Fighters, etc get an additional choice every 4 levels.
Druids, etc, get an additional choice every 3 levels.
Rogues, etc, get an addtional choice every 2 levels.
My players added the ability to chose minor class skills to add options and dabbling in lesser skills. Thus you can spend 1 skill choice to gain two class skills at cross-class levels (called minor class skills). Later you can spend a second skill choice to upgrade two minor class skills to class skill levels.
I'm in the process of converting my campaign to run on this system and converting is a peice of cake. Very little math involved and the results (at least at 6th level) closely match what we achieved with the OGL point system.
Another point to consider is that taking a one level 'dip' into rogue is probably too good (Rogue 1/Fighter X), which your option actually alleviates.
not bad arne . I would still like every ones to be base of 4 +int mod, sept the bard ranger and rogue having 6. nice work on scaling.
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This is very, very similar to my alpha skill proposal here.
It works out very similar, with 2-skill classes getting a new skill every 4th level.
Really, take a look at it, I think it's an elegant solution that covers all concerns. ^___^