First things first: This is a house rule for my PRPG games, so I didn't want to put it in the actual design forums, but I wasn't sure where else to put it. If this isn't the appropriate spot, my apologies and let me know where to re-post it. Thanks!
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Anyway, one of the things I've been stewing over for my own personal set of house rules is how to handle skill specialization in a way that's fun and useful without being overly complicated. At first I just tried letting players take (Int bonus) specializations and adding +2 circumstance bonuses to those specialties, but the +2 quickly became too weak a bonus to be worth the hassle on primary skills and players generally just ended up being specialized in skills they wouldn't put more than a half-dozen ranks into. That doesn't really fit with fun and useful.
However, last night, while reading through the Shadowrun 4th edition rulebook (which actually uses a very similar form of specialization to my original concept, although it's +2 dice instead of +2 to the total of a single roll), I hit on what I think might be a good solution:
Skill Specialization
When investing skill points to increase the rank of a skill, characters may choose to instead specialize in one particular aspect of that skill. Each rank of specialization costs 1 skill point, the same as a rank in the general skill, but applies a +2 bonus to any check involving the specialized use of the skill. However, it applies no bonus towards any other check with that skill, and does not count towards qualifying for any feats, prestige classes, class abilities, or other rules that require a specific number of ranks in a skill. A character may not specialize in more than one aspect of the same skill, and may not have more total skill ranks (ranks in the general skill plus specialized ranks in an aspect of that general skill) than they have hit dice. A character cannot choose to specialize in a skill they have no ranks in.
Example: Mikolai the 3rd level Fighter is a graduate of a war college, and has 3 ranks in Knowledge: Architecture and Engineering, and has a particular interest in castles and siege warfare. When he advances to 4th level, he chooses to specialize his Knowledge towards Siege Engineering. He makes any future checks related to siege engineering (such as constructing or operating a siege engine) as if he had 5 ranks in Knowledge: Architecture and Engineering, but for any other purpose of the skill, including prestige classes, he is treated as only having 3 ranks in it.
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This solution is more complex and requires more book-keeping than my previous solution, but it seems on the surface to at least be more fun and useful. Obviously, it would require more guidance as to what a suitable specialization is; you don't want it to be too general, and too specific is bad too. There's also some skills that don't lend themselves to specialization quite as well (Swimming, for example, although I can think of some specializations even there). Still, I think the basic concept at least has promise.
Here's some questions I have:
Can anyone break this in some horrible way I havn't foreseen?
Is +2 per specialization rank enough?
Would anyone else actually consider using this rule at their table?
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I was thinking of exactly the same rule. A lot of folks are trying to figure out how to lump skills to make skill groups, but that creates weird costs like 2 points per rank in super-skills. I had the same thought that you did; leave the regular skills alone and see specializations in sub-skills. Same cost but more specialized. The +2 is intuitive because it mirrors some of the racial bonuses already out there.