Extra skill pt = more roleplaying?

[Mark Hoover]

I've seen other GMs do this in other threads: I'm toying with the idea of giving all the PCs an extra skill pt as a bonus to be used ONLY for a Profession, Craft or Performance skill. I'm wondering if anyone's done this and if so if they've honestly seen it make more of a difference in game play?

[graywulfe]

When I ran Curse of the Crimson Throne I gave them 2 bonus skill points that were restricted to Profession, Craft, Perform, or Knowledge, but they had to justify how their choice allowed them to make a living in the city. I also gave them the skills that they spent those two points on at first level and Knowledge(Local) as class skills. This was in an attempt to give them more of a sense of connection and loyalty to the city. I think it worked out.

[Paraxis]

It doesn't hurt anything, just like removing the skills doesn't hurt. I love both pathfinder and 4E but like 4E's smaller skill list more, they took out all the craft, profession, perform skills if your character was a blacksmith poet before taking up the adventures mantle so be it you know about smithing and poems.

My players always make sure they have all the knowledge skills covered so I would never give them away for free, to useful to know about monster's strengths and weaknesses.

[Stazamos]

I've got this in a current campaign I'm running (Craft, Perform, Profession). Hasn't made much of a difference, really. Still, I think I'd do it again in a future campaign.

[Atarlost]

There are a couple issues with skill points and roleplaying.
1) Without face skills you cannot be productively involved in social situations.

2) Profession skills, appraise, and some knowledge skills are a tax on interesting backgrounds.

The former can only be solved with unrestricted skill points per level and in some cases additional class skills. Fighter needs the most help here, but all 2+int classes have trouble. You also need a high enough point buy that dumping is not mandatory and if you're rolling dice for stats you need a floor of 10 because the low roll is going to go into charisma to prevent death or mind control and the player is going to be sitting out social encounters.

The latter needs extra points at level 1 only. Since you can't go above 1 skill point they don't really need to be restricted.

[Secane]

Giving 1-2 extra skill points is a good way to encourage the creation of more diverse and interesting characters, as players can "flesh out" their characters better.

That said... I would advice these "extra" bonus only be given to players that don't dump their Int.

[Petty Alchemy]

I use a homebrew trait:

Hobbyist
Benefit: You have ranks in a skill of your choice equal to half your character level. You cannot put ranks you gain from levels into this skill.

Not the most official sounding wording, but hopefully the point comes across. The PCs that picked it usually picked up lesser used skills they wanted for flavor, like Appraise, Profession, Craft, Survival, because they want to max out the most important skills (and being a Hobbyist puts a cap of half your level for ranks on that skill).

You could try playing with something like this.