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So, I'm putting together an Investigator. Between the baseline class, and a one level dip of Swashbuckler, I've got everything but Handle Animal and Survival in class. Which is rad. So of course, the most efficient use of my skill points, to start out with, is to put one point in to everything.
Which, by my math, is roughly doable by level 3. That's with a point in all 10 Knowledges, Craft Alchemy, and no Profession or Perform skills. Thing is, while getting the +3 and stat mod (and Inspiration and Derring-Do for 1d6 extra on some of these skills), is enough to cover a lot of basic stuff, other skills, like Perception, or UMD, you can never really get high enough. You'll always want to be pouring points in to keep it up with your level.
The question then becomes, particularly in the case of skills like Craft, the various Knowledges and Knowledge-like skills (Spellcraft for example), which ones are worth continuing to pump and which ones you take the 4 +Int and run with it.
Right now, my thinking is as follows:
Skill points = Level:
Disable Device
Perception
Spellcraft
UMD
Which uses up 4/level, and leaves 6/level free for everything else, or level 5 to get 1 point in everything.
Meanwhile, as an example of a breakpoint, +10 to Appraise is generally 'enough' where, even if you care a lot about Appraising, you'd probably not want anymore - it's DC30 to identify a most valuable object, and you can almost always take 20 when you care about it.
Similarly, Spellcraft's major target DC's are going to be 16-24. Depending on how much randomness you're willing to accept, getting up to a +15 or so is often 'enough'. Certainly once you get to a +23, there's basically no point in going higher; you can identify any item by taking 20, and any spell cast you can identify even if you roll a 1.
So, what skill bonuses are 'enough' for you? Which skills are sufficiently important to always make sure they stay up to speed with level?