Is there any feat which provides more skill points per level? Specifically, I'm playing a Level 3 Wizard who is focused on crafting and could use more skill points for the many crafting skills available.
My DM does not want to use Skillcraft for item creation, in order to make characters more developed. But the Wizard's meager 2+[INT] skill points per level is limiting.
Thanks a ton!
If you're after skill ranks your options are pretty meager. Favored class bonus and finding a way to boost your intelligence score are your only options.
That said, wizards aren't that bad off since their intelligence is generally quite high. Furthermore, crafting is both a class skill and intelligence-based so even a single rank is usually more than sufficient for a wizard to master the skill for mundane purposes.
If you go human I would suggest the focused racial trait and the country folk racial trait -- you lose a feat and the skilled ability, but you gain 3 skill focus feats and 1/2 your level bonus on a craft skill of your choice.
Put one point into the craft skills you want.
Pick up Craft Wondrous Item.
You can make items that grant up to a +10 bonus on a particular skill. Need Craft: Blacksmith? Make a magic smithing hammer.
With Craft always a Class skill, that's a baseline +14 skill bonus for 1 skill rank investment.
The Skill Focus feat doesn't have any language that says you can't just say 'Skill Focus: Craft' and have it apply to every form of crafting.
Hm, which are the items that would grant bonuses to the Craft skills? I would love to begin making one of those in between adventuring sessions.
Thanks, Doomed Hero :)
It would likely have to be a custom item, but the formulae are in the back for how to price them. It's Bonus^2*1000 for skill bonuses, e.g. Cloak of Elvenkind which gives +5 to Stealth is 2500.
If your DM allows it there is a feat called Open Mind which grants whoever takes it an additional skill point per level. It is from a 3PP, however. While not Psionic in nature, it was published by Dreamscarred Press. You can search for it in the feat database on www.d20pfsrd.com
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The Skill Focus feat doesn't have any language that says you can't just say 'Skill Focus: Craft' and have it apply to every form of crafting.
The entry on Craft disputes this. Indicating that Craft, like Knowledge, covers several different skills which must be accounted for separately.
Yeah, and since my DM is specifically making every type of craft different from another, he would require each Skill Focus to cover a different craft type
There was a 3.5 feat called Openminded, I think it was originally in Complete Adventurer or the 3.5 Player's Handbook II. It granted 5 skill ranks you could spend however you liked. I don't know if it would be reasonable to allow it in PF though, since they've changed the skill system so much. It could allow a person to put a rank in 5 class skills that were previously untrained, effectively netting a +4 to 5 skills with the class skill bonus: a total of +20 in bonuses to skills for the cost of one feat. (Makes the other skill-boosting feats look relatively puny.) If I were DM'ing, I might not allow it.
There was a 3.5 feat called Openminded, I think it was originally in Complete Adventurer or the 3.5 Player's Handbook II. It granted 5 skill ranks you could spend however you liked. I don't know if it would be reasonable to allow it in PF though, since they've changed the skill system so much. It could allow a person to put a rank in 5 class skills that were previously untrained, effectively netting a +4 to 5 skills with the class skill bonus: a total of +20 in bonuses to skills for the cost of one feat. (Makes the other skill-boosting feats look relatively puny.) If I were DM'ing, I might not allow it.
See my post above. It has been adapted by Dreamscarred Press to essentially be Toughness but for Skill Points. Seems pretty dern balanced to me, and unless the OP's DM is pretty strict on feats he should allow this (especially considering his purposely nerfing houserule).
Yep, I caught that, and like the new version Dreamscarred gave. But he was looking for options, and I figured the 3.5 version was another option if his DM would go for it. Short term it might give a bigger boost, though after 5 levels obviously the new version is a better deal.
I wish there was an archetype for Wizards that would lower the amount of spells per day they can cast in exchange for adding more skill points per level. Something like in exchange for 1 fewer spells per day per level, you'd get 4 or even 6 + INT per level skill points to spend. I'd gladly cash in spells for more skills for this character concept I'm developing
If you don't mind losing spell levels then just multi-class. Take a level as a monk, ranger or rogue. Or a similar class that fits your concept. With a wizard, a single level dip will usually do it. Due to the high Int a wizard has plenty of skill points for most needs.
Due to the party dynamic, I am reluctant to multiclass since I'm the only arcane caster. If we had another arcane caster, I'd be more willing to go for it, but I'd rather stick with pure wizard for now. Good suggestion, though :)
There are a couple of full casting prestige classes that would bump you to 4+Int (although it'd cost you the favoured class bonus).
3.5 material is probably not going to be allowed. While PF explicitly says that 3.5 stuff is allowed, the DM wishes to keep PF and 3.5 separate, which I'll abide to
Another thought on human:
Fast Learner, Improvisation and Improved Improvisation.
Fast learner gives you both the hit point and skill point for favored class, improvisation gives you a +2 to all untrained skills and you get to use them as if trained in them (without the class bonus) and improved improvisation changes that to a +4 bonus and halves non-proficiency penalties.
Not perfect, but if you want a guy that is alright at everything it's not a bad choice.
Well, as a Wizard you should be boosting INT anyways, and for every additional INT modifier you can max a new skill.
For down-time crafting, you can even get Headbands of INT+2 keyed to different Crafting skills,
after you wear them for 24 hours you get a new Craft Skill maxed out...
You have to wait 24 hours to gain back the skills from whatever your normal Headband is, as well as language and bonus spell slots,
but you immediately gain the benefit of the current Headband's INT modifier re: Skill Modifiers apart from Ranks and Spell DCs.
If your GM allows a minor re-build, there is a Human alt-racial ability that swaps out the normal "free choice" Bonus Feat
for a "Skill Focus only" Bonus Feat, and you also pick up 2 more Skill Focuses for free as you level up (or was it 3 more?).
The bonuses from those are as good as Ranks as far as crafting goes (not for Feat pre-reqs).
Similar goes for any other source of bonus to Skill checks you can get, also remember if you have a Familiar, they could possibly be Aiding Another...
With a solid Int, the class skill bonus, and masterwork tools, just one rank in any craft skill should get your over a 10 to the check. A +6 or +7 Int should be fairly doable. So lets say +7, then +3 for class skill, then +2 for Mwk tools, then +1 skill rank. You're already at a +13 to the check. Thats enough to take 10 and succeed on all but the most complex crafting items.
Craft (traps) looks to have the highest possible crafting DCs, reaching into the 30s. The other crafts with relatively higher DCs (requiring anything over a 20) would be alchemy, bows (just for high Str composite bows) and blacksmithing? or whatever would be used for making high DC locks. Masterwork anything requires DC 20. Weapons cap out at dc 18. Armor looks to cap out at around 19 or 20.
So you can put ranks into the ones that have the higher DCs so you can be sure to do those, and then just spread the rest around to cover everything.
The Traveler's Anytool woundrous item is cheap at 250gp and essentially functions as a set of Mwk tools for any craft skill (except for something requiring specialized equipment like alchemy). Easy enough to craft with Craft Wondrous Item or should be easy to find and buy.
The real benefit to higher craft checks is being able to make the items faster by adding a +10 to the DC, and the higher check results means faster progress. For instance, crafting a suit of non masterwork full plate with a craft skill check of 20 (probably achievable around lvl 7 or 8), a DC of 19, adding +10 to the DC to speed up crafting, and taking 10 on the skill check for a result of 30, still takes 18 days of crafting to make.
But this becomes far less of an issue once the wizard hits 9th level and can take the Fabricate spell. Then, a single casting will instantly create whatever you can craft. So with this available, its not necessary to boost a lot of those craft checks as high as possible, since the benefit of a faster result is no longer an issue. A single rank plus your other automatic bonuses in all but a few craft skills will be sufficient to take 10 and succeed on the basic check and instantly fabricate almost anything.
So I'd suggest just spreading those ranks around to get 1 rank in as many of them as possible, then boost up the ones like Traps and Alchemy and maybe some more ranks in ones like blacksmithing, armor, weapons, and bows. And once you get 5th lvl spells and Fabricate you'll be able to make pretty much anything you want instantly.
A Traveler's Any Tool counts as a masterwork tool for every craft you can think of.
A GM might be convinced to let someone enchant it to grant higher bonuses than the +2 for Masterwork.
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In the Armor Master's Handbook there's a feat called Advanced Armor Training. It has many options and one of those options (Adaptable Training) is to gain your Base Attack Bonus in Skill Ranks. The selection of skills is limited to the following list: Acrobatics, Climb, Disguise, Escape Artist, Intimidate, Knowledge (engineering), Profession (soldier), Ride, or Swim.
You can find more information at:
https://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/fighter/
The evangelist PRC would let you lose 1 level of wizard for a bump to d8 hd 6 skills per level and cleric bab for 10 levels as well as a few other nice things depending on the god you choose
Shelyn for instance also gives you a flat + 4 to craft and perfor checks with the Deific Obedience feat.
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I wrote a post with a lot of info:
Oh, and for hitting those skill DCs, the following info is offered:
+2 Luck: Four-leaf Clover -- 3,750 gp
+5 Luck: Beloved Of The Forge (1H/L)
+5 Luck: Crafter's Fortune (1D/L)
+2/5/10 Enh: Tears to Wine (10M/L)
+2 Circ: Masterwork Tools -- 50 gp
+2 Comp: Magenta Prism (cracked) [Ioun Stone] -- 800 gp
+5 Comp: Monocle of Flawlessness (trained crafts) -- 8,750 gp
+10: Insight: Azlant Pendant -- 3,100 gp
Reroll: Fortunate Charm -- 3,000 gpNote about Tears to Wine (1st or 2nd depending on class):
When you hut 9th level, you get +5 for 1.5 Hours. That needs 6 castings of the spell. At 10th level, you only need 5. You likely can afford those castings in your spare slots, or can cut the day short a bit. And at 2gp for a power component giving +1 CL, at 9th level you need 5 castings and 6 gp of power components. At 15th level it is +10.
Another point: it produces a lot of wine. You get 1 cubic foot per 2 levels. Each cubic foot should provide wine for about 64 people. That is about 32 people per level get the skill bonus. Great for your sweat shop of skilled crafters.
And later:
Another spell for skill that I forgot (probably because it is expensive):
+5 Untyped: Visualization Of The Mind (200 gp, lasts 24 hours)
Got some more spells for skills:
+1/3CL untyped: Genius Avaricious (one month & 1.500 gp)
+2 morale: Heroism (10 min./level)
+2d4 competence: Gallant Inspiration (retroactive)
+3 to +6 competence: Toilsome Chant (1H/CL, need bard 3+)
+4 competence: Grand Destiny (10 minutes/level or until discharged)
+1/5CL (max 3) competence: Timely Inspiration (retroactive)
+CL insight: Moment of Prescience (1 hour/level or until discharged)
+1/4CL insight: Rags To Riches (10 minutes/level)
+3 racial: Ignoble Form (24 hours, drow target)
How could I have missed this?
Roll a "20": Cyclops Helm -- 5,600 gp
Necro for another tool:
Here is another way to max skills: Spirit Ridden.
This feat lets you max out one skill, and it becomes a class skill as well, for an hour per level once a day. So as long as you only need a single skill, this is the easiest since you can max a different skill each day.
All told, the easiest is to cast Crafter's Fortune.
The best for maxing ranks in any skill is Spirit Ridden./cevah