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As preface, let me clarify that me and my fellow DM ("we") have three considerations in mind when we tinker with skills, all roughly equivalent in importance to us: realism, playability, and utility. Choices we've made try to balance those three things; accordingly, in some cases we've sacrificed some realism to aid in playability and/or utility. Or vice verse.
For example, in combining Climb, Jump, and Swim into Athletics, we sacrificed some realism in favor of both utility (Athletics is now on par with other skills) and (to a lesser extent) playability (only one number to remember for athletic stuff).
On the other hand, we subdivided Perception again, although into categories (active "Observe" and passive "Notice") that we found more realistic. This change also reflects a nod to utility, as we felt Perception as a unified skill was Just Too Good.
And so on.
These rules have been playtested in two separate mid-level games for a couple of months, now. They are working well, with the possible exception that in continuing the trend toward consolidations, we've pushed skill-monkeys into the "too good" realm. IMO, the fix for that is to lessen the skill points available at the high end, while raising them at the lowest end. I.e., instead of the current 8-6-4-or-2 scheme, I'd like to try 7-5-4-or-3. But we have not tried that yet.
Also note that we've left "background skills" (Knowledge, Craft, Profession, and Perform) alone. IMO, these skills are highly campaign dependent, and I think that in the final edition of the rules, that should be made very clear to players and DMs. I'm not sure that attempting to balance these skills along the same "triangle" of utility, realism, and playability as the more active skills is worth the effort, if it can be done at all.
So, these are the changes that are in use in our campaigns:
ACROBATICS, CLIMB, JUMP, and SWIM
Pathfinder -- Combined Jump with Balance and Tumble into Acrobatics. Left Climb and Swim alone.
Change -- Removed Jump from Acrobatics, and combined Climb, Jump, and Swim into Athletics, which is STR-based.
APPRAISE
Pathfinder -- Gave better rules and the additional use of identifying magical items.
Change -- Folded Appraise into Observe.
CONCENTRATION
Pathfinder -- Folded Concentration into Spellcraft.
Change -- The skill formerly known as Concentration is now a caster level check, modified by spellcasting attribute.
DISABLE DEVICE
Pathfinder -- Combined Open Lock and Disable Device into one DEX-based skill.
Change -- Disable Device is INT-based.
KNOWLEDGE (LOCAL)
Pathfinder – Made no change to this skill.
Change – All characters get a +2 circumstance bonus on Knowledge (local) checks for their area of origin, and can exceed the normal limit of DC 10 for untrained Knowledge (local) checks about their home region. Note that this will be based on utility, rather than on geographical size ... so, for example, a PC from Sharn would get the +2 for the city alone (and not the nation of Breland), while someone from the Eldeen Reaches would have the +2 for that whole region. If you have any questions on where your +2 applies, speak to the DM.
LINGUISTICS
Pathfinder -- Combined Forgery, Decipher Script, and Speak Language into Linguistics.
Change -- Speak Language works the same as in 3.5. Linguistics also works with spoken communication, at +5 to the DCs. As with getting the meaning of a text, this takes one minute per conversational exchange. It can be done at more normal conversational speed if the PC takes a -10 to the Linguistics check. Failing a check by 5 or more is a miscommunication. Finally, you can identify a language, spoken or written. DC is 10, going up with rarity and complexity.
PERCEPTION
Pathfinder -- Combined Spot, Listen, and Search into Perception. Also added other senses (taste, touch, smell).
Change -- Divided Perception into two skills, one active and one passive: "Observe," which is INT-based, and represents actively looking for something, whether it be traps, a weird taste or smell, or a clue at a crime scene; and "Notice," which is WIS-based and covers all of the same things. Observe also includes picking up the tell-tales of a truly valuable item (Appraise), and Notice also includes the ability to get a sense of when someone is trustworthy or evasive (Sense Motive).
In general, Notice DCs will be unchanged from Perception DCs, and Observe DCs will be 5 lower than Perception DCs. To balance that out, Notice is always a free action or even no action at all. Observe, on the other hand, will generally take at least a move action, and using Observe will generally be noticeable by people paying attention to you. Notice cannot be used to detect a trap with a DC higher than 20.
Classes with Observe as a class skill are bard, ranger, rogue, and wizard. Classes with Notice as a class skill are barbarian, druid, ranger, rogue, bard, paladin, and monk. Races with bonuses get them to both skills.
RIDE and HANDLE ANIMAL
Pathfinder -- Made no change to these skills.
Change -- Fold Ride into Handle Animal (CHA-based). The only core classes that don't have Handle Animal are bard, cleric, rogue, sorcerer, and wizard.
SENSE MOTIVE
Pathfinder -- Pretty much left Sense Motive as is.
Change -- Folded Sense Motive into Notice.
SLEIGHT OF HAND and BLUFF
Pathfinder -- Made no significant change to these skills.
Change -- Folded Sleight of Hand into Bluff.
Assist Bonuses
Pathfinder -- Pathfinder got rid of synergy bonuses, but still allows Aid Another to assist with skills.
Additions -- First, any reasonable skill can be used to assist with another skill use. For example, Knowledge (history) could be used to assist with a Linguistics check to identify an ancient language. Second, you can assist yourself. (In practice, this works out kinda like on-the-fly synergy bonuses.) It might take extra time, but that won't often matter. Third, assist bonuses from the same skill don't stack. Two people can search a room with Observe and get a +2 bonus. A third person just duplicates effort.
Comments welcome.
-- Jeff