You guys can think what you want of this. Basically I was busy messing with the skill system in Pathfinder, combining a lot of skills and splitting a few.
- Appraise - Removed it, and made it a part of Knowledge (local); It allows a character to know how valuable an object is in a particular region.
- Survival - Split into Hunt, for Tracking and keeping the party fed, and Knowledge (Nature) for dealing with weather and natural hazards
- Climb, Swim, and Fly have all been consolidated into Maneuver; Climbing mountains falls under maneuver, while climbing trees falls under acrobatics.
- Escape Artist - Acrobatics for escaping a grapple and such; Maneuver for crawling through tight spaces.
- Perform (whatever) - All perform skills have been consolidated into one skill; Every rank gains a new type of performance (similar to the linguistics skill)
- Profession (whatever) - As with perform, profession has been compressed into a single skill with every rank allowing the player to take up a new proffesion.
- Disable Device - Became a part of a new skill called Mechanics
- Use Magic Device - Dissolved into Knowledge (arcana) and Spellcraft; In my world, magical devices are rare enough and the way its magic in general works that to keep it as a separate skill is not useful.
Craft - On the other hand, this skill has exploded into a multitude of other skills.
- Alchemy - Creating magical concoctions and explosive powders
- Botany - Raising plants, creating medicine from those herbs, and locating and identifying plants
- Crafts - A sort of catch all for all sorts of art types including painting, sculpting, design, and even gem cutting
- Construction - covers masonry, carpentry, and building any sort of fortifications
- Culinary - Baking, boiling, and any other method of preparing food
- Documentation - Recording what you've learned; Also helps deal with forgery; To sketch what you've seen as closely as possible also falls under this skill.
- Manufacture - Creating materials such as leather, cloth, denim or other fabrics
- Mechanics - Working with traps, locks, devices, clocks, etc
- Smithing - Working with metal and glass; Pretty much using a forge; Metallurgy falls under this skill.
- Woodworking - Working with wood. Making Wooden Sculptures to making Bows and arrows
So after all that my skill list looks something like this:
- Acrobatics
- Alchemy
- Bluff
- Botany
- Crafts
- Construction
- Culinary
- Diplomacy
- Disguise
- Documentation
- Handle Animal
- Heal
- Hunt
- Intimidate
- Knowledge (Arcana)
- Knowledge (Dungeoneering)
- Knowledge (Engineering)
- Knowledge (Geography)
- Knowledge (History)
- Knowledge (Local)
- Knowledge (Nature)
- Knowledge (Religion)
- Linguistics
- Maneuver
- Manufacture
- Mechanics
- Perception
- Perform
- Profession
- Ride
- Sense Motive
- Sleight of Hand
- Smithing
- Spellcraft
- Stealth
- Woodworking
Please note that I don't have specific abilities tied to any of the skills; Reason being that I still want jump to be Acrobatic + Strength not Dexterity and searching to be Perception + Int. With things like Mechanics, building a trap requires int, while disabling it is all dex.
Thanks.
My inspiration for doing this was perhaps the Survival skill. The Survival skill to me has always seemed an unusual one, it covers tracking enemies, hunting or gathering to keep the party fed, knowing which way is north, knowing which way to go, surviving weather, predicting weather, and avoiding hazards. Not to mention that it is used whether rain, sleet, snow, woodlands, jungles, or desert. Everything quintessential to any outdoor adventurer all in one skill.
In the mean while, to sing and dance costs twice as much in terms of skill points and it isn't nearly as useful to an adventure. With things like that, it really comes down to a player to choose between flavor and crunch.
And then there are skills like Appraise...