| ayronc |
so uh how should I place skill points?
Work out the skills you think you will be using the most and focus on them. Any additional points can be spread around the secondary skills that are sometimes useful.
With Monk at ~4 points per level you won't have many to spread around, but Ninja has a lot more and will allow you to bring a couple more skills up to useful levels
Acrobatics, Stealth, Perception are probably your primary skills and should be maximised
Sense Motive, Escape Artist, Disguise, Diplomacy, Climb, Swim are probably useful as well
| Khrysaor |
If climb is going to be one of your main skills, take the ninja talent Wall Climber. Gives you a climb speed of 20ft and creatures with a climb speed get a racial bonus of +8 on climb checks.
The 4 you have listed are the main ones you will want to maximize. (Not so much climb unless that's the build you're going for). As Ayronc said at the bottom of his posts, those skills are useful and would be worth your extra points to spare.
| Khrysaor |
Don't plan too much. Get your initial build set and try to figure out a basic level progression on how you want to get your abilities but make it tentative. Until you actually play your character you won't know. Don't really consolidate anything beyond level 3-5 but know how you'd like the levels to play out a bit beyond that.
| ayronc |
any other tips are useful.
The last character I played was a Rogue / Monk and I found that after points were expended into Acrobatics, Stealth, Perception and Disable Devices I could spread the points elsewhere
I spent some in Knowledge (local), Escape Artist, Sleight of Hand, Climb, Swim (Serpent's Skull has a few rivers to negotiate) before deciding to get at least one point across each of the class skills for the class bonus - a real skill monkey style (Int of 14)
Realistically though, I used Perception and Stealth more than anything else.
Climb, Sense Motive and Swim have made an appearance, but Acrobatics has only been required a couple of times (there haven't been too many issues getting into flanking positions).
Knowledge (Local) can be useful when trying to discern the next step or current situation when in urban areas.
Escape Artist and Sense Motive can be useful early on as Grapples can be hard to break with low BAB and knowing what the NPCs, monsters are "thinking" before you make the wrong move can be invaluable.
Think about the synergy with your ability scores as well as how they match with your party's strengths. I stopped putting skills into Sense Motive as one of the other characters was 4 or 5 ahead of me and I was redundant most of the time. Sometimes you will need skill points to give you a chance to use certain skills effectively - ie Climb or Swim when you have low Strength can be deadly without some points to assist
As has been mentioned above, however, you should focus on maximising the main skills and then spend future points as you get a feel for the adventure's requirements and the sorts of skills your GM is calling checks for.