Combined Skills, "Skill Trick" Variants, etc.


Skills & Feats


Many people have stated a dislike for the combined skills, particularly in the cases of Linguistics involving Forgery, and other things where it doesn't thematically fit for person with Skill A to automatically have Skill B as well.
What I might humbly suggest is the borrowing of the "Skill Tricks" system, modified to, instead, allow more uses for a given "generic" skill.

For example:

Skill: Linguistics
Represents Speak Language, Decipher Script, Detect Forgery

Relevant "Skill Trick Variant"
Forger: For a cost of X skill points, your character may now use their Linguistics skill for the purposes of creating forgeries

X skill points is suggested to be low, in the vicinity of 2 or 3, but no higher than 5. If this were used, I would further condense skills than they already are, and create more "Skill Trick Variant"s to buy increased functions.

Examples:
* Combine Fly with Arcobatics, require the player to buy the Fly function.
* Combine Bluff with Disguise, require the player to buy the "Create Disguise" function.
* Keep Spellcraft and Concentration together, require the player to buy the "Spellcraft" function.
* Separate Concentration, combine with Autohypnosis, require the player to buy the "Autohypnosis" function.

Merely an idea to consider.


I like this idea. From a player's standpoint, I like the broad skill headings, but it seems inappropriate that the sub-skills would always be the same. In a skill-based system, this could be handled by imposing a larger cost on the broad skills, and a much lower cost for specializing in a sub-skill. In D&D, 1 skill point is 1 skill point, so your suggestion is about the only way I can see to work out something similar.

Sovereign Court

Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber; Pathfinder Maps, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber

This would be a logical way to keep skills that are indeed useful and appropriate but, honestly, not used by most people - Forgery, Disguise, etc.

It also opens an easy way for individual DMs to add new Skill Tricks for their home campaigns without adding whole new Skills. For example, I think there should be an ability to Throw Voice/Ventriloquism. It never seemed big enough to be a skill, but making it a Skill Trick seems just about right.

This is somewhat similar to how some have suggested handling Perform and Knowledge skills.

Some Skill Tricks could cost 1 skill point, some could cost 2 points. It's a nice way to add varied cost to represent things that are harder to learn without screwing up the core skill-point system.

Community / Forums / Archive / Pathfinder / Playtests & Prerelease Discussions / Pathfinder Roleplaying Game / Alpha Playtest Feedback / Alpha Release 2 / Skills & Feats / Combined Skills, "Skill Trick" Variants, etc. All Messageboards
Recent threads in Skills & Feats