That's because this is an alternate system of skills from Pathfinder Unchained. In no way is this core or PFS legal.
What Ashram said
I am not sure what this thread is communicating. That Background Skill points can only be spent on Background Skills?
I thought it was kinda self-explanatory, actually. At least it was when I read Unchained.
Yep, it's a very nice optional rules system you can plug into home games. It's the DMs call if they want to use it, it is not a default part of the rules.
I think it's a good system, and avoids the situation where all PCs who have relatively limited numbers of skill points tend to invest them (quite naturally) in combat-related skills, and neglect the relatively useless or at best situationally useful background skills.
If I have a few ranks on profession (scribe) I can probably prepare my own paper, ink, quillpens and so on, and know how to draw up various sorts of official documents. But how often does that really come up in an adventure? Not often. But it's a cool skill to have, and helps define who your character is.
Giving players some extra skills really helps out those poor classes that only get 2 skill points (+INT, but not all of them have much of that) per level.
But, as said above, it remains an optional system which DMs can use or not, as they wish.
Agreeing with everyone, it's a fantastic system (I use it in my games!), but it's optional and at GM's discretion only, not legal in organised play, so unless the question asked was "are there any optional skill systems which might make the game better?" I'm not overly surprised it's never been mentioned, because it's not the default.
Yeah, that's not part of the normal rules, but part of an optional subsystem.
It took me a bit to get my head round skills... you cant have more skill ranks than HD but your overall skill check modifier can be as high as a kite!
It took me a bit to get my head round skills... you cant have more skill ranks than HD but your overall skill check modifier can be as high as a kite!
Kind of like attacks; you can't have a BAB higher than your HD, but your overall attack rolls can be as high as a kite.
It's a very good optional subsystem. More skills is always better, no exceptions.
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I think it's a good system, and avoids the situation where all PCs who have relatively limited numbers of skill points tend to invest them (quite naturally) in combat-related skills, and neglect the relatively useless or at best situationally useful background skills.
If I have a few ranks on profession (scribe) I can probably prepare my own paper, ink, quillpens and so on, and know how to draw up various sorts of official documents. But how often does that really come up in an adventure? Not often. But it's a cool skill to have, and helps define who your character is.
Giving players some extra skills really helps out those poor classes that only get 2 skill points (+INT, but not all of them have much of that) per level.
But, as said above, it remains an optional system which DMs can use or not, as they wish.
Well a Good DM/GM will know his PCs and Challenge them.
The only problem with the background skills is that it is a big power-up for bards. Perform is a background skill, and bards (via versatile performance) can use that to pump skills that are not background skills -- such as Diplomacy, Sense Motive, Acrobatics, Fly.
Provided you don't mind making bards (and skalds) into even better skill monkeys, that normally isn't a problem.
It is actually a small powerup for them because of what they already have. It would only be a huge powerup if it made them a whole lot better which it doesn't. It is a case of the rich getting richer, but for bards it is more like giving a millionaire $10000.