This came up in another thread, and I like the idea, and wanted to propose it as its own house rule.
There are several similar skills that overlap. To clear up confusion, and also to create a little more difference between arcane and divine spell casting I propose the following house rule.
The spellcraft and survival skills are gone.
Knowledge(arcana) can only be used to identify arcane spells and effects. In addition, knowledge(arcana) can be used to identify arcane spells that are being cast, and it functions just like spellcraft does for an arcane caster
Knowledge(religion) can now be used to identify divine spells and spells effects. In addition, knowledge(divine) can be used to identify divine spells that are being cast, and it functions just like spellcraft does for an divine caster.
Finally, Knowledge(Nature) can be used to do anything the survival skill can do.
Thoughts?
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I've always thought of spellcraft versus knowledge(arcana) as the classic Practice versus Theory thing. The guy with spellcraft can make an item, cast a spell, identify spells being cast, etc, but can't puzzle out an unusual magical aura that doesn't happen to be from a spell, and can't necessarily name the spell if seeing its fallout. IIRC, you also need both (both theory and practice) to invent a new spell.
Nature versus Survival has a similar thing going, but with a bit more overlap. The survival guy will know whats safe to eat, and what you shouldn't try to hurt and how to execute on those pieces of information (successfully gather food and hide from weather). The nature guy will know more esoteric things (like how often a particular bird species mates, or where to hit the scary-creature-the-survivor-runs-from to hurt it better).
Removal of Spellcraft and separating it into Knowledge: arcana and religion is no problem for me, but I am feel unconvinced about Survival. Nature seems to me more like theoretical knowledge while Survival is very practical skill of living in the nature. Not to mention that now animal will need racial bonuses to Knowledge Nature to be able to survive/hunt as Intelligence is not their best ability score.
I've spent days ranting about how stupid it is that Perception = Listen + Spot + Search, whereas Perform (comedy) is different from Perform (acting). Finally I just gave up and houseruled it.
I rolled Knowledge (arcana) and Spellcraft into one Int-based skill.
I rolled Knowledge (nature) and Survival into one Wis-based skill.
I rolled Knowledge (the planes) and Knowledge (religion) into one Int-based skill.
I rolled all musical performance and composition together into a single Cha-based skill.
I don't care if someone can make a case that they're not "realistic" that way. It's already not "realistic" that being a good listener automatically makes you better at tossing a place for loot.
1. The performance condensing is rough on bards since if reduces versatile performance options.
2. Do non-bards ever take performs apart from a couple ranks of dance to qualify for a PrC or feat?
1. I rewrote the entire bard class while I was at it. Never liked Paizo's versatile performance anyway.
2. Had a PC assassin who kept Perform (dance) maxed out; her cover was traveling with the Royal Ballet. Currently, I give every PC 1 free rank per character level in a "secondary skill" (profession, perform, knowledge, or craft).
we combined Climb-Swim into Athletics and eliminated the Jump skill for either Athletics or Acrobatics, situation-ally based
Did that, and also threw in the Run feat for good measure. And if a PC wants to go skiing or play rugby or badminton, we also use Athletics.
Here is what I did. I combined all Perform skills into one (With each rank granting a new performance style, similar to how linguistics works) and the same with Profession.
I would have rolled Knowledge(arcana) into Spellcraft and Knowledge(nature) into Survival just because the latter names work better.
But then again I like broader skills simply because the way skills are broken up now leads to some cases like Survival where it sounds useful but mechanically you could play the game without it. I suck at making sure narrow options get used; broad skills provide me with confidence that the skill is more likely to come up or the players will try to apply it to more situations.
How useful any particular skill is depends on the GM. If the characters are out in the wild a lot or tracking, survival can be an extremely useful skill IF the GM pays it any attention.
It would be nice to get rid of the parenthesis from skills, I just don't know what I'd turn the rest of the Knowledge skills into. (Such as local, dungeoneering, religion, etc)
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Here is what I did. I combined all Perform skills into one (With each rank granting a new performance style, similar to how linguistics works) and the same with Profession.
I like it for Perform, but - personally - not for Profession. In my mind Perform is kind of an über-skill for NPC's. It's a non-class skill for everyone but Experts but allows you to Craft and Appraise anything under it's umbrella. Profession (carpenter) allows Appraise (woodwork), Craft (furniture), Craft (houses), etc. Craft, on the other hand, is a class skill for everyone, but only really gives you the ability to make one thing.
I also always wanted to do a Linguistics-like mod for Ride. You know how to ride one creature per rank, otherwise, no benefit... or maybe half.
Could do the same with the new combined Survival above, each rank = a new terrain. Out of your known terrains, half benefit.
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It would be nice to get rid of the parenthesis from skills, I just don't know what I'd turn the rest of the Knowledge skills into. (Such as local, dungeoneering, religion, etc)
Knowledge (local) = Streetwise: K (local) + the Gather Information function from Diplomacy
Knowledge (dungeoneering) could also become part of Survival if you made players select terrains and made "underground" one of them.
I really like the arcane/divine split mentioned in the OP. Maybe the cousin of Spellcraft is "Prayercraft," or just "Religion."
I did say I sucked at it. Plus it just seems artificial for what Survival is currently stated to give. I'd rather the skill be made broader until it suggests on its own how to be integrated.
I've been in games where Survival comes up way more often than any other skill. First and foremost it's the important tracking skill; it's also used to keep the party fed (if the GM keeps track of food); it's used to identify weather, move through weather; some GMs decide it's also used to avoid taking nonlethal damage from extreme weather; it's used to avoid natural hazards; Survival also lets the character know which way is North; it's used to figure out where you are, and which way to go; there are GMs that use it to keep from getting lost; also note that the skill is for any environment under the sky (but not underground or indoors). It's the ability to survive in the wild, all rolled into one skill.
From my experience, Survival is far from narrow, especially in comparison to other skills such as Appraise which allows you to note the value of something or Craft (Baskets) which lets you make baskets (Only ever taken to provoke shock or bewilderment). Your experiences may however differ. There's really two aspects of Survival: Hiking and Hunting. But it does overlap with Knowledge (Nature) in a lot of places (especially with weather).
Not trying to argue, in fact I agree with you on the points that it does sound artificial and doesn't lend itself too much on how to be integrated (thus, some GMs use it for everything and some hardly ever use it)