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With the collapsing of several skills, fighters now seem to be lacking in terms of skills. My main problem is that they can no longer make jump checks. I love the fact that Acrobatics now include the jump mechanism, but fighters don't have Acrobatics as a class skill.
I believe the current class skills setup will encourage people to make low Int fighters (that's what I did when I created a fighter PC for the Second Darkness campaign: at first I bought 14 Int but after trying to allocate all 6 skill points (2 ftr, 2 int, 1 human, 1 favored class), I realized there's nothing really useful you can buy with these skill points, so I lowered the PC to 13 Int and switch the favored class bonus skill pt to a bonus hp...)
I think Climb and Swim could be collapsed together, along with jump checks, into some kind of "Athletics" skill... (so if you're a DEX-based PC, you can use Acrobatics to make jump checks, and if you're STR-based, you could use that "Athletics" skill to make jump checks...)
The way I see it, Jump was only rolled into Acrobatics because:
a) It thematically fits alright (jumping around is "acrobatic" in terms of fluff).
b) There was no other skill package around to roll it into, and as a skill by itself it didn't deserve to still be there (not if Tumble was being rolled into something else).
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The Simulationist in me dislikes that Jump is now based on Dex. You can be as flexible and coordinated as you want... that's not what affects your ability to Jump. Timing and landing right and bending certain ways is required in acrobatic jumping... but that's called Tumbling. Tumbling assumes you are already jumping around.
The Jump skill is meant to represent your ability to leap great distances or heights. You can be all fancy and bendy when getting up to the point of jumping... but the actual jump distance or height is based entirely on how much power you can push when launching yourself.
If you want some special technique to let you make great leaps without being very strong... well, I believe that's what the Monk class gets.
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Ultimately, I'd say the "big issue physical skills" should be done like this:
Acrobatics: Balance checks and Tumble checks.
Athletics: Climb checks and Jump checks. Racial climb speeds grant bonus to climb and not losing Dex to AC, etc.
Swim: Can only make simple maneuvers untrained. Racial swim speeds grant bonus to swim and treated as trained.
Fly: Can only make simple maneuvers untrained. Racial fly speeds grant bonus to fly and treated as trained.
The reason Climb should be lumped in with Jump is because they both require Strength... one upper body, one lower body. The game will assume you are strong overall, since we don't need to micromanage specialist training for olympics (and if you REALLY need that, then make it a feat that grants +X to Athletics for Jump purposes, etc).
Climb can be a movement mode just like Swim or Fly, however it's one that anyone who can move on land can do untrained. Climbing isn't like trying to move through a completely different medium (water or air).
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I have thoughts on the Perception too. If we split Proactive Perception (Int based, Search skill usage, etc) and Passive Perception (Wis based, spotting/hearing hidden targets, noticing things, etc), we can give the Fighter his "sentry" skill of passive perception, and still allow the Rogue to have a stronger searching ability.
I think it was suggested in another thread to call them "Investigate" and "Notice", although they sound so mundane when compared to Perception.
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That would solve most of the skill issues I've had with the "skill lumping". (Concentration/Spellcraft being the only other quirk).
heh a little off topic a bit but here is what I am gonna use from now one
Climb (Str),
Craft (Int),
Diplomacy[cha]
Handle Animal (Cha),
Intimidate (Cha),
Knowledge (dungeoneering)(Int),
Knowledge (engineering) (Int),
Knowledge {Geography} (int)
Knowledge (Nobility and royalty) (int)
Perception (Wis}
Profession (Wis),
Ride(Dex),
Sense motive (Wis)
Survival (Wis
Swim (Str).