| 2 people marked this as FAQ candidate. |
There was an earlier thread about this in which the assertion was made that a bard who is unable to actually enact the appropriate performance cannot use versatile performance to use the perform skill bonus as the other type of skill bonus.
Be aware that you actually have to be able to make your Perform checks in order to do the skill substitution. I.e., if you can't talk/play/sing for some reason or another (i.e., in a zone of Silence, bound-and-gagged, necessary instrument disarmed, etc), then Virtuoso Performance won't work.
So, yeah: you might want to put at least one real point in those skills if you consider them important.
In other words, a bard who was gagged could not use hir Perform(sing) or (oratory) bonus for Sense motive, and a bard missing hir instrument(s) could not use (keyboard), (percussion), (string) or (wind) for the appropriate skills.
This does not appear to be the case from the rules.
Versatile Performance (Ex): At 2nd level, a bard can choose one type of Perform skill. He can use his bonus in that skill in place of his bonus in associated skills. When substituting in this way, the bard uses his total Perform skill bonus, including class skill bonus, in place of its associated skill's bonus, whether or not he has ranks in that skill or if it is a class skill. At 6th level, and every 4 levels thereafter, the bard can select an additional type of Perform to substitute.
The types of Perform and their associated skills are: Act (Bluff, Disguise), Comedy (Bluff, Intimidate), Dance (Acrobatics, Fly), Keyboard Instruments (Diplomacy, Intimidate), Oratory (Diplomacy, Sense Motive), Percussion (Handle Animal, Intimidate), Sing (Bluff, Sense Motive), String (Bluff, Diplomacy), and Wind (Diplomacy, Handle Animal).
I also looked carefully through the FAQs and saw nothing about that requirement.
I'd always interpreted it as the Bard applying the skills ze has learned in performance to other situations. The skills needed to read a crowd and adjust oratory or singing to capture their attention, for example, could be applied to Sense Motive.
Can anyone clarify, with an official position if possible?
No. The ability says nothing of that sort, and it's applying the knowledge of the performances.