I have only been playing pathfinder for a couple months now and I am starting to get the feel of the rule system it uses.
One of my questions is how putting ranks into skills works. One of my fellow party member players explained it to me that when you put ranks into your class skills you gain a +3 bonus into the skill just once which applies to when you are doing the DC with something concerning the skill.
And you cant have more ranks than that of your total character level in any skill.
And from what I read in the pathfinder rules and other sources this is true.
But he also told me that if you put ranks into non class skills or cross skills that each point counts as 1/2 and it takes a total of 2 skill points to get 1 rank in that non class skill.
I tried looking this up but could only find this rule applying to 3.5e I believe and not pathfinder. I know that pathfinder is an off shot of D&D and they share many similar rules and features but their are also differences.
Could anyone clarify this for me and clear this up.
That is a 3.5 rule. That is not the case in pathfinder
Yep. The two-to-one thing is from 3.5, not PF. PF changed how skill ranks are done. Like you said, the bonus for class skills now is not that they are one-to-one with a higher maximum rank limit. The bonus is an extra +3 to any checks made using that skill.
It's much simpler. Any character can put one skill point in any skill and have a rank in that skill. Any character can have up to their HD worth of skill points in any skill they choose to put skill points in. The only difference between class skills and other skills is the +3 bonus you get for putting a skill point in a class skill (and note that you do not get the +3 bonus on skill checks for class skills if you don't have any skill points invested in that skill).
Seconded.
The only difference between class skills and non-class skills is the +3 bonus you get for class skills; it's always 1 skill point buys 1 skill rank for both kinds of skill.