The silver tongued trait gives you a +2 to Bluff and Diplomacy. Seems like it would help a "face" out, but do you lose that bonus using the versatile perfomance ability? Since it's now a perform check, do you lose the bonus from the silver tongued trait?
He can use his bonus in that skill in place of his bonus in associated skills. When substituting in this way, the bard uses his total Perform skill bonus, including class skill bonus, in place of its associated skill's bonus, whether or not he has ranks in that skill or if it is a class skill.
It would appear so.
Yes. You'd be better off taking the trait mentored, which gives a +1 bonus to a single perform skill as well as a +3 to aid another instead of +2. Obviously the latter doesn't help in your situation, but the trait as a whole is nice for that little extra.
I'm using it stacked with skill focus and prodigy, which in total gives +6 to one specific perform skill and +2 to another. Then at 10 ranks its +11/+4 total. Yay for skill-monkey bards!
