I'm running a cleric in this, my first PF campaign, and am thinking the following houserules would be useful, flavorful, and not game breaking:
Knowledge (religion): this needs to get buffed for skill-poor clerics. At the very least base it off wisdom for clerics, but preferably a bonus of half cleric level to the skill. Less necessary if 2 skill point classes are houseruled to 4. The party bard and wizard should not both be better at this skill than me.
Detect evil/chaos/good/law: should be 0 level for clerics. The whole "stunning feedback" part of the spell stops it from being especially powerful anyway.
Channel Smite: not worth taking except for I'm going to go Holy Vindicator. Should be either maximized or not allow a save on a successful hit, and should not burn a channel use if it doesn't hit. Should be made to synergize with Alignment/Elemental channel.
I'm running a cleric in this, my first PF campaign, and am thinking the following houserules would be useful, flavorful, and not game breaking:
Knowledge (religion): this needs to get buffed for skill-poor clerics. At the very least base it off wisdom for clerics, but preferably a bonus of half cleric level to the skill. Less necessary if 2 skill point classes are houseruled to 4. The party bard and wizard should not both be better at this skill than me.
Detect evil/chaos/good/law: should be 0 level for clerics. The whole "stunning feedback" part of the spell stops it from being especially powerful anyway.
Channel Smite: not worth taking except for I'm going to go Holy Vindicator. Should be either maximized or not allow a save on a successful hit, and should not burn a channel use if it doesn't hit. Should be made to synergize with Alignment/Elemental channel.
Cleric can use the favored class point to get an extra skill. I would not change things just for the cleric. If did anything with skills I would give those with 2 skill ranks per level 4 skill ranks instead.
Knowledge ranks represent how much you study an area. If the wizard studies it just as much as you do and he is smarter then he should be better at it.Giving half class level as a bonus makes the knowledge trivially easy.
The stunning feedback thing only happens with artifacts and deities IIRC. As a level 1 spell it should not be powerful. I think it is fine as is. Arcanist don't get bonuses to knowledge(arcana), and druids and rangers don't get bonuses to knowledge(nature).
Channel smite should not be maximized. As for as being burned I think it treating it like a charge so that is not wasted until the weapon strikes might make it more attractive, but paladins that smite non evil targets don't get the smite back so I can see why a channel lost would not be unbalancing.
I'm running a cleric in this, my first PF campaign, and am thinking the following houserules would be useful, flavorful, and not game breaking:
Knowledge (religion): this needs to get buffed for skill-poor clerics. At the very least base it off wisdom for clerics, but preferably a bonus of half cleric level to the skill. Less necessary if 2 skill point classes are houseruled to 4. The party bard and wizard should not both be better at this skill than me.
Detect evil/chaos/good/law: should be 0 level for clerics. The whole "stunning feedback" part of the spell stops it from being especially powerful anyway.
Channel Smite: not worth taking except for I'm going to go Holy Vindicator. Should be either maximized or not allow a save on a successful hit, and should not burn a channel use if it doesn't hit. Should be made to synergize with Alignment/Elemental channel.
Cleric can use the favored class point to get an extra skill. I would not change things just for the cleric. If did anything with skills I would give those with 2 skill ranks per level 4 skill ranks instead.
Knowledge ranks represent how much you study an area. If the wizard studies it just as much as you do and he is smarter then he should be better at it.
Giving half class level as a bonus makes the knowledge trivially easy.
The stunning feedback thing only happens with artifacts and deities IIRC. As a level 1 spell it should not be powerful. I think it is fine as is. Arcanist don't get bonuses to knowledge(arcana), and druids and rangers don't get bonuses to knowledge(nature).
Channel smite should not be maximized. As for as being burned I think it treating it like a charge so that is not wasted until the weapon strikes might make it more attractive, but paladins that smite non evil targets don't get the smite back so I can see why a channel lost would not be unbalancing.
What the flaming, screaming flying skull said.
I agree on the alignment/elemental channel, it should be usable with channel smite.
I think 1 skill point per level for a favored class should be added besides other favored class benefits, skillpoints do not add much to the power of a PC/NPC, a bit more versatile maybe and potentially less boring.
Alot of people end up taking hitpoints for obvious reasons. Possibly add a feat that adds 1 sp per level, just like toughness, it should be fairly balanced.
Cleric can use the favored class point to get an extra skill. I would not change things just for the cleric. If did anything with skills I would give those with 2 skill ranks per level 4 skill ranks instead.
Knowledge ranks represent how much you study an area. If the wizard studies it just as much as you do and he is smarter then he should be better at it.
Giving half class level as a bonus makes the knowledge trivially easy.
The stunning feedback thing only happens with artifacts and deities IIRC. As a level 1 spell it should not be powerful. I think it is fine as is. Arcanist don't get bonuses to knowledge(arcana), and druids and rangers don't get bonuses to knowledge(nature).
Channel smite should not be maximized. As for as being burned I think it treating it like a charge so that is not wasted until the weapon strikes might make it more attractive, but paladins that smite non evil targets don't get the smite back so I can see why a channel lost would not be unbalancing.
Actually, Druids do get a bonus to knowledge (nature), and Rangers do against their favored enemies, as well as to geography in their favored terrain. And although Wizards don't get bonuses to arcana, Intelligence is going to be their highest stat, so they're going to get at least 3 extra skill points per level with which to make sure they can have them high. There may not be an in-game reason to give Clerics a bonus to the skill, but my point is that a Cleric basically must take Heal and Knowledge (religion) at every level, not even considering Spellcraft or any skill that actually adds flavor or versatility, and you've already used your base skill points. A bard should not be able to put a skill point in religion every other level and have a better modifier than a Cleric who takes it every level. Half class level as a bonus is very powerful, I agree. How about using Wis + Int modifier or just Wis as I suggested before?
Also, what about swapping Detect evil with detect magic so Evil is level 0 and magic is level 1? Paladins that smite non-evil don't get the smite back, but they also get detect evil at will (as a move action in certain circumstances), and it's not dependant on something as trivial as a single die roll. How about no save on a hit but half channel damage still done to the target even on a miss?
Cleric can use the favored class point to get an extra skill. I would not change things just for the cleric. If did anything with skills I would give those with 2 skill ranks per level 4 skill ranks instead.
Knowledge ranks represent how much you study an area. If the wizard studies it just as much as you do and he is smarter then he should be better at it.
Giving half class level as a bonus makes the knowledge trivially easy.
The stunning feedback thing only happens with artifacts and deities IIRC. As a level 1 spell it should not be powerful. I think it is fine as is. Arcanist don't get bonuses to knowledge(arcana), and druids and rangers don't get bonuses to knowledge(nature).
Channel smite should not be maximized. As for as being burned I think it treating it like a charge so that is not wasted until the weapon strikes might make it more attractive, but paladins that smite non evil targets don't get the smite back so I can see why a channel lost would not be unbalancing.Actually, Druids do get a bonus to knowledge (nature), and Rangers do against their favored enemies, as well as to geography in their favored terrain. And although Wizards don't get bonuses to arcana, Intelligence is going to be their highest stat, so they're going to get at least 3 extra skill points per level with which to make sure they can have them high. There may not be an in-game reason to give Clerics a bonus to the skill, but my point is that a Cleric basically must take Heal and Knowledge (religion) at every level, not even considering Spellcraft or any skill that actually adds flavor or versatility, and you've already used your base skill points. A bard should not be able to put a skill point in religion every other level and have a better modifier than a Cleric who takes it every level. Half class level as a bonus is very powerful, I agree. How about using Wis + Int modifier or just Wis as I suggested before?
Also, what about swapping Detect evil with detect magic so Evil is level 0...
Ok so druids get a +2, but that is a far cry from 1/2 druid levels. Favored enemies are situaional, and not always one. The wizard's intelligence is benefitting skills makes sense because a smart person should be good at skills which are intelligence based. That is like complaining that the bard is good at social skills because he has a high charisma.
Why shouldn't a bard be as good as cleric. Bards are known for their knowledge. I understand you are feeling sorry for the cleric, they have to pick and choose just like every one else. The cleric just has to pick and choose with skills. Heal is not always taken, but I do agree that knowledge religion is, most of the time. As I said before that favored class point is useful. I don't think you will get too many supporters for this, mostly because you are only hooking on class up. Why don't fighters have perception? They had it when they were commoners. Yeah, commoners get perceptions so when little Timmy was 13 he had perception. When he went off to fighter school he somehow lost it.
Ok so druids get a +2
I was going to point this out, but i also agree with your position/view on it overall.
Why do you have to max out Knowledge (Religion)? I understand as a cleric you should have the skill, but you don't need it maxed out. One rank means you're educated in it.
Think about most commoners, who'll be 1st level all their life. Their main profession, what they do their whole life, they'll never get more than one rank in.
So really, having more than one rank for a cleric isn't necessary. Now, I could see wanting five-six ranks to really be an expert on religions, but more than that is overkill for in-game story purposes. 6 ranks mean you can easily answer most questions on religion, and have about a 50/50 to know the answer to obscure questions.
The bard on the other hand is a collector of knowledge; while your knowledge is certainly respectable, he's the guy that can name the favorite food of a pope that lived twohundred and fifty years ago.
But I somewhat agree that a cleric might get a boon to knowledge checks, pertaining to his own religion.
I'd say he'd get Wis + 1/2 character level as a bonus, but only to answer questions about his own religion, their rites and clergy, and once per day he may reroll a failed roll of that type. That way, he'd only need a single rank to have really really good knowledge of his religion, though he'd still only have "professional knowledge" of other religions.