Okay, my earlier "broken out" post got eaten, and then un-eaten. So I'll try again for topic #2, and then clean up my post in the "General Likes/Dislikes" thread.
DROP SKILL SYNERGIES AND SPEED BONUSES TO SKILL CHECKS
Besides being a min-maxer's paradise, these are yet another thing that slows down character building, for very little real benefit. Lose 'em!
SKILL CALCULATIONS
Instead of...
Untrained 1d20 + Ability modifier + racial modifier
Trained Class Skill 1d20 + Character level + 3 + ability modifier + racial modifier
Trained Cross-Class skill 1d20 + 1/2 (character level +3) + ability modifier + racial modifier
I would recommend the following formulae or something similar to them:
Untrained: 1d20 + Ability modifier + racial modifier
Trained Class: 1d20 + 4 + level + Ability modifier + racial modifier
Trained Cross-Class: 1d20 + level + Ability modifier + racial modifier
Cross-class skills will take a hit at low levels and get a big boost at high levels, but again there's less math (especially when creating high level skill blocks, always a 3.5 bugaboo). Trained skills will still always be better than untrained, as well.
-The Gneech
Count my vote in for dropping synergies as well. They're just extraneous features.
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I agree that skill synergies can go (my players never remember them anyhow).
I disagree about the simplified math - I honestly think that they're fine the way they are. Dividing by two isn't actually that much more difficult than what you've proposed.
My primary concern is that with the rate of picking up new skills, even with Cross Class skills a lot of the more skill focused characters will end up feeling very similar unless they take some of the skill boosting feats.
This is increased by the folding of some of the redundant skills into each other - don't get me wrong, I houseruled Listen and Spot into Perception, and Hide + Move Silent into Stealth a long time ago, but this resulted in some skill glut on the part of min-maxers who don't take Craft/Profession because 'there's no game benefit'.
I agree on the removal of skill synergies, while interesting, it really DID slow down character creation and, even worse from a publishers point of view, monster/NPC generation.
I'd simply prefer them marking those synergies out better...synergy bonuses are a nice way to boost an existing skill without having to reach for those ubiquitous Skill Booster items. Basically, the one time you need to think of them is when you get a connected skill to 5 ranks. Then you write them +2 on your sheet for the synergized skill and add them into the total. Then you're done again.
Fiddly temporary bonuses are a much bigger headache, because nobody likes to write some +1 from somewhere on his sheet for 5 rounds or so. ;)
Synergies must DIE!
