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I've thought about skills a lot lately, and I feel that *some* of them should have other skills as *prerequisites*. For example, Craft (Poisonmaking) should definitely have either Heal, Profession (Herbalist) or Craft (Alchemy) as prerequisite to picking the skill. The same with Craft (Calligraphy) -- can't pick it without Linguistics. How about Craft (Cartography) -- or is it Profession (Cartographer)? You should definitely have Linguistics and Craft (Calligraphy) as prerequisites for it. How about Craft (Trapmaking)? If you want to create mechanical traps, in my opinion you should have Knowledge (Architecture and Engineering) or Knowledge (Dungeoneering) as prerequisites -- maybe even Disable Device?
Then I came upon another idea:
Perhaps *some* skills should be made into *Feats*? You cannot create potions without Brew Potion, so why should you be able to manufacture poisons or drugs? Therefore, maybe PF should have a feat called 'Craft Alchemical Items', which would let you create poisons, alchemical items, and drugs (Prerequisite: Int 13+, Craft(Alcehmy) 5 Ranks or Profession (Herbalist) 5 Ranks or Heal 5 Ranks). And perhaps that would work for Craft (Trapmaking), too -- not snares and "simple" traps, but for more "elaborate" and mechanical traps such that are found in dungeons? 'Craft Mechanical Traps' (prerequisite: Knowledge (Architecture and Engineering) 8 Ranks or Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 8 Ranks and Craft (Trapmaking) 8 Ranks). Therefore, the skill Craft (Trapmaking) would let you only make simple traps.
Now, I'm not saying that all Craft skills should work this way, but at least these two would make sense to me as Feats.
Any thoughts? Feel free to criticize! :)
That would certainly help soak up some of the extra feats that Pathfinder characters get, and put them back on even footing with 3.5 characters...
If you put Profession (Herbalist) into the Heal skill I am ok with this.
That would certainly help soak up some of the extra feats that Pathfinder characters get, and put them back on even footing with 3.5 characters...
Good point, I like that, but it seems complicated, I thought the whole point of PRPG was to simplified the system, not to add a new layer of complexity.
As far as I am concerned, the skill system could be replaced by simple professional skills (read profession). Everything else could be as simple as rolling a STR,DEx,Con... against a reasonable DC.
About heal and herbalist, in the medievil time, "mundane" healing was mainly achieved through herb concotions. So it's just natural that every decent healer knows much about herbary.
Furthermore, this will give the heal skill some other interesting uses, like concotions mixing, poison/antidote indentifing/mixing, and indetification of usable herbs in the wild.
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That would certainly help soak up some of the extra feats that Pathfinder characters get, and put them back on even footing with 3.5 characters...Good point, I like that, but it seems complicated, I thought the whole point of PRPG was to simplified the system, not to add a new layer of complexity.
Complicated? There won't be another layer -- those Item Creation Feats are already part of D&D and PF. My suggestion would simply add two new Feats to the list, which, in my opinion, would actually simplify and "clean up" the system. As Craft skills those two (Poisonmaking and Trapmaking) never actually made sense to me.
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About heal and herbalist, in the medievil time, "mundane" healing was mainly achieved through herb concotions. So it's just natural that every decent healer knows much about herbary.
Furthermore, this will give the heal skill some other interesting uses, like concotions mixing, poison/antidote indentifing/mixing, and indetification of usable herbs in the wild.
Very true -- which is also why you got +2 synergy bonus to your Heal checks from Profession (Herbalist). IMO using Heal for long-term care certainly requires you to use healing herbs and concoctions.