I am thinking about adding a house rule that you can trade 2 class skills for any other class skill. For example, and monk could trade ride and swim for survival.
Thoughts?
Not all skills are equal. Think trading Swim and Ride for Perception, Use Magical Device, or Sense Motive.
And some skills are multi. How exactly do you trade in a skill like Craft, or, in the case of Wizards and Bards, Knowledge (all)?
You would have to count profession and craft each as 1 skill. Knowledge is a little more difficult.
The rule, in general, seems fine on the surface.
Me, I would put some RP behind it. Have the player provide a reason in his background for the swap. Why does his particular monk have Survival instead of Ride & Swim? Maybe he lived in a polar region with nothing to ride and simming meant instant death in the freezing water so nobody ever learns how. But they definitely learn how to survive, in that region anyway.
Digging below the surface, I think this would be a neat opportunity for roleplayers to customize their characters, but it will also be a fertil breeding ground for munchkins to min-max their characters.
Speaking of Min-Max:
http://goblins.keenspot.com/d/20050710.html
just my 2 cents.
i would rule that craft could not be traded out because every class gets it, also i would rule that if you trade out a knowledge then you must replace it with another knowledge.
just some thoughts.
Knowledge for knowledge seems fair enough.
Maybe make craft and profession untradeable.
Customization is what I am going for. Desert dwellers would know more about survival than they would about riding or swimming.
I would implement something similar to backgrounds based on region, race, etc. to allow for additional skills. This could be based on a feat, or offer it as an opportunity to all at character creation.
Therefore, you would not have to modify class skills, or devise a trading mechanism.
Riding is an essential part of desert dwelling. Camels are horses and more in the desert.Knowledge for knowledge seems fair enough.
Maybe make craft and profession untradeable.
Customization is what I am going for. Desert dwellers would know more about survival than they would about riding or swimming.
Depends on the world/society. For the Aiel in Wheel of Time, riding is something the weak and infirm do because they cannot walk. Camels don't exist in that world, and horses require water a lot more frequently, and thus are a burden to keep alive.