I don't know about you folks but nothing depresses me quite so much as the lack of skill points which certain classes suffer. So I'm working on a concept to remove the number of skills gained from the classes and intelligence stat and give a static number.
My current thinking is everyone would get 6 skill points per level and certain classes would gain an automatic rank in a skill if it is essential to the class so far i have
Alchemist - Craft Alchemy
Bard - Perform
Barbarian - none
Cavalier - Ride
Cleric - Knowledge Religion
Druid - Knowledge Nature
Fighter - none
Inquisitor - none
Monk - none
Oracle - none
Paladin - none
Ranger - Survival
Rogue - Pick 4 "rogue skills"
Sorcerer - none or Bloodline Skill
Summoner - none
Witch - none
Wizard - none
I'm curious as to what everyone else thinks and if anyone thinks I've missed something (I'm ignoring the play tests for now).
I also intend to make some skills universal, things like climbing and swimming so any suggestions for those would be good too. :)
I like characters to be able to have "background" skills you'd be suprised how many characters grew up and apparently learned noting at all due to the character class they didn't have for most of their life.
How about Wizard-Know: Arcana, maybe Spellcraft; Monk-Acrobatics; Barbarian-Intimidate; Fighter- I don't know maybe a Craft skill? There's really not much else for a fighter; Can't really think of one for the Paladin. Maybe Heal? Know: Nobility/Royalty? Don't really know much about the APG classes.
Just throwing some class skills I think would fit with what you're going with.
I feel like there ought to be a class skill for each of them to be "specialized" in. (I guess if that's what you could call it, or whatever.)
I don't like the 6 points for everybody, but I think there could be a 'prime' skill for every class. One skill that defines the class that the character gets one free rank per class level.
My main idea is to allow more flexibility. The only thing i liked better in 3.5 was the skills because the large lump of skill points at first level allowed you to have flavor skills without penalty.
As to the class specific skills not every class would get them only those that have required skills. as things stand a Bard can't function without perform, Alchemists need craft alchemy, Rangers need survival to track, the Rogue bonus is to let them stay king of the skill pile as it's about the only thing they get :D. The knowledges for cleric and druid are probably not truely needed and i would probably dump them.
I think Climb, Craft, Perception, Profession, and Swim would be my choices for Universal class skills with the addition of a campaign class skill if one was suited such as Acrobatics if i intended to do a "swashbuckling" campaign.
Spellcraft isn't needed for those things at least not on summoners or sorcerers not so sure on wizard and witch.
I do agree however if cleric gets know religion so should paladin and inquisitor.
Edit: ok spellcraft is needed for witches and wizards :) so i would give it to them.
Mild threadjacking. I've been fudging around with the skills system in order to find ways to fix some of the pathological behaviors that it had. One of the easier quality solutions was to simply give everyone the able learner feat for free. Cross class skills only cost 1 point to raise but max ranks is still capped at (level+3)/2 round down. That still had the pathological problem of incentive for martial characters to suck up a level of rogue for the extra 20 odd skill points. So here's my solution:
Your list of class skills strictly accumulates. This means that if you take a level of fighter and a level of sorceror, your list of class skills will be the combination of both lists which would be:
Climb, Craft, Handle Animal, Intimidate, Dungeoneering, Engineering, Profession, Ride, Survival, Swim, Appraise, Bluff, Fly, Arcana, Spellcraft, UMD, and whatever bloodline skill.
Whenever you become trained in a class skill or a trained skill becomes a class skill, you get three free ranks in that skill. I opt for the ranks over a flat bonus to make better use of skills as prereqs.
The maximum number of ranks in a cross class skill is (level+3)/2 round down. Max ranks in a class skill is level+3.
Feats that grant an initial +3 bonus to a skill will have that bonus incremented by 1 for every 3 ranks beyond the fourth
Feats that grant an initial +2 bonus will increment every fifth rank beyond the fourth.
I'm trying to pick up the best of both PF and 3.5 without there being too many degeneracies.
I always used and the loved the idea of skill books. Mundane books that players could use to add bonuses to certain checks for specific fields. ie The mating habits and ecology of wild Owlbears etc stuff with flavor and game bonuses attached.
I think just give each character a craft, profession or knowledge skill for free (maybe 1 of each) to represent their mundane background. Maybe give them free ranks equal to half character level?