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I would imagine it is a holdover from D&D 3rd ed. where a skill was only a class skill if it was on the list of the class you chose when you leveled up. If you multi classes then there would be some levels that a specific skill was not a class skill. Pathfinder (happily) eliminated this aspect of character building, but "always a class skill" survives in traits and racial features.
What Ciaran said. It's always bothered me in traits, though, which didn't exist until Pathfinder was an established game. There's a fair bit of word count that could be saved by removing it.
There are skills that would never be on your class-skill list even if you took multiclass.
Example: Spellcraft Trait on a Fighter 5/Barbarian 1/Knight of the Ebon Blade 7 character.
Yes, but the point is that once a skill is a class skill (and thus grants the +3 bonus if you have a rank in it), it's automatically "always" a class skill. I can be a Fighter 1/ Barbarian 19 and with the right trait have Spellcraft at 20 ranks and grant me the +3 class skill bonus. So why do the traits need to mention "always a class skill"? A skill either is or it isn't, it doesn't actually matter what your class is.
As Grey said, traits in their full form came with the Second Darkness Player's Guide, a full year before the Core Rulebook was released.
And FWIW, I did mention it...
shadowkras: the point is, once a class skill, always a class skill, in Pathfinder.
I always just interpreted the "always" as a short alternative for "no matter what class or classes you choose"
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shadowkras: the point is, once a class skill, always a class skill, in Pathfinder.
Once a king of Narnia, always a king of Narnia.
I always just interpreted the "always" as a short alternative for "no matter what class or classes you choose"
I don't see how you could interpret it any other way and have it make sense, really.
Remove the word "always" from the relevant trait descriptions (the ones that make a skill "always a class skill").
Do you lose any meaning by not having that word in there?
Here's one I made earlier:
Ease of Faith: Your mentor, the person who invested your faith in you from an early age, took steps to ensure that you understood that what powers your divine magic is no different than that which powers the magic of other religions. This philosophy makes it easier for you to interact with others who may not share your views. You gain a +1 bonus on Diplomacy checks, and Diplomacy is a class skill for you.
It can stop being a class skill if you retrain away all your levels in the class.
I think I get where you're coming from, but it's not entirely pertinent to the discussion at hand.
Cleric 10 decides (for some completely unknown reason) to retrain all of his levels into Fighter. He just happens to have the Ease of Faith trait I mentioned earlier (he was maxing Diplomacy for some reason).
Does Diplomacy stop being a class skill for him? Is the answer any different if you remove the word "always" from the relevant part of the text of the trait?
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Traits predate retraining, though--isn't retraining from Ultimate Campaign?Retraining is from the Player's Handbook II, released in 2006.
I stand (well, sit, really) corrected. Having essentially not played D&D & later OGL games from about 1985 to late 2010, I missed a few things.
No, not really.
In 3.5, it was restricted to level-ups, the money cost was very different (based on what you're retraining as well as how long it takes... sort of...), and was limited to feats, skills, languages, spells or powers, and/or a racial substitution level (kind of like PF-based archetypes, but tied to specific levels instead of an entire archetype).
You had to undergo very specific quests (bracketed by a range of specific levels) to exchange ("rebuild"): levels (other than racial substitution levels), ability scores, race, and templates for other equivalents.
