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Jump/Climb/Swim= Athletics
I was thinking of rolling Swim and Climb into an Athletics skill while importing Jump from Acrobatics. My reasons for this are primarily for the Fighter. With the Search and Spot checks now rolled into Perception, a fighter could now afford to make themselves the staple guards and powerful athletes that they're modeled after. I know this benefits some of the other skill point heavy classes, but swim and climb in and of themselves just seem too circumstancial to invest skill points in.
Use Magic Device/Use Psionic Device= Use Esoteric Device or Use Device:
When I hear of these being used, it's usually by a Rogue or other non-magically/psionically inclined individual. It's some Joe trying everything to blindly activate a magic item which he has not expertise on. Why would it be different if the object is Psionic or Magic if you're just smacking, waiving or otherwise making a fool of yourself trying to make it work? Merging them would benefit since we'd no longer have that extra Use Psionic Device skill that always seems to be tacked on when Psionics comes into play.
Knowledge: Arcana/Spellcraft= Knowledge: Arcana
They are similar enough fluffwise that it would seem prudent to merge them. It's been my experience that Wizards using these skills usually max both out anyway, so what's the harm in merging them? (Ditto to Psicraft and Knowledge: Psionics)
Handle Animal or Survival/Knowledge Nature= Knowledge: Nature
In order to give the Rangers and Druids some help, to balance out the other changes, I was thinking of merging either Survival or Handle Animal with Knowledge: Nature. Both of them have to do with having knowledge of what is natural and what needs to be done to tend to nature or to benefit from it. I'm leaning more toward Handle Animal since it seems to fit the mold more.
I realize that congealing the feats like this frees up a lot of Skill Points, but I think it will let characters branch out and just be more heroic and well rounded.
Thoughts?
I hesitate to lump climbing and swimming into one skill. You could be a great swimmer and absolutely be bad at climbing. In fact, chances are, if you are a highly trained swimmer you would be bad at climbing. That being said, it couldn't hurt. However, putting jump in there does not work in the context for PFRPG.
As for the other stuff:
Use Supernatural Device: Nice place to dump all the different kinds of magical devices.
I think the Knowledge/Spellcraft and Knowledge/Survival are good the way they are. Knowledge represents something you have memorized, while Spellcraft is primarily used for identifying spells on the fly and Survival is the actual act of surviving(hunting, fishing, finding shelter, tracking, etc.)
I hesitate to lump climbing and swimming into one skill. You could be a great swimmer and absolutely be bad at climbing. In fact, chances are, if you are a highly trained swimmer you would be bad at climbing.Look out!
Dolphins!
In the trees!
They're coming!
Snorter, you'd be surprised how appropriate that quote would have been for one the NPCs in the last game I ran. The PCs were in a forest and as the sorcerer cast lightning at a sniper in the trees a magical mishap occurred (thanks to liberal interpretation of the Paizo Critical Fumble Deck) and the PC ended up casting lighting coupled with a summon dolphin spell. That NPC ended up being electrocuted and crushed to death by a flaming tree and a raging dolphin. Her last word was "...whaaat?".
It was good times :)