Rune
Once A Fool
I would prefer no list at all. Something along the lines of the first playtest, or perhaps a floating system, like this.
Now, I'm guessing they've taken out Athletics, Acrobatics, and Endurance to refocus the game a bit on ability scores. I think the question is, "Can you imagine someone with high [key stat] who sucks at [skill]?" If not, it shouldn't be a skill.
But if it doesn't have a mechanical significance, it becomes only fluff. I could say that my 4e bard is a good singer, but if it never comes up, then it is devoid of any significance beyond pure empty flavor, musical instruments become costly and weightly pieces of fluff, entirely useless without a skill tied into them, a wizard coul easily outmatch a pure bard when conducting any of the bardic rituals. Very simialr stuff happens with disguise and the others, if it doesn't have a mechanical basis, then there is no risk associated and as a result no reward, and lack of reward makes it come up even less often.
And seriuosly if I have to make up everything that is not combat, then I'd be better up having no system. If I'm going to play using a system, then it should rather support extense areas of the game, not only the small part that only comes up from time to time.
Counterpoint. First, your example does show that 3e skill system was ill suited, but it wasn't because it was too speciffic, but rather because it wasn't speciffic enough. A propper craft system would consider that not all trades are equal. And thus it only shows that we needed a Blacksmithing skill, that feeded on Strength.Ugh, no, wrong. I don't see any other way to put it. Skills for everything is terrible with the way D20 works.
Lets say you want to make a village blacksmith (or maybe his apprentice) who picked up a forge hammer and fought back against orcs attacking the village. And when everyone around him died, he started adventuring, but still remembers his blacksmithing roots.
A player wants to make this character in 3E. So they... well, lessee. They're a fighter. They don't see this guy as a genius, but he's not dumb. So they put a 13 into Int. They pump 4 points into Craft (Smithing). Oh wait, that's not a craft skill. They put 4 points into Craft (Weaponsmithing) and 4 points into Craft(armorsmithing). They then beg the DM to let them use Armorsmithing as kind of a general smithing for things like nails, horseshoes, y'know, things people use in day-to-day life. The DM being kind, agrees.
So the armorsmith decides to try and figure out what he can do. A suit of banded mail costs 250 GP. That's 2,500 SP. The DC on banded mail is 16. So if he succeeds, he will score around 16*(16-25, average 20.5) points, or 328. So on average he will take 7.6 attempts. Of course the odds of him failing and wrecking everything are failing by 5 or more, so 11 or below. That's a 30% chance of failure.
So he can take a feat to get +3, but he still fails 15% of his rolls, and that's highly likely to screw him in 1 out of 2 armor suits he makes or so. So he jimmies things around and puts a 16 in Int, and now he can make a reasonably basic suite of armor.
Of course he's basically screwed his entire character over in multiple ways to pick up the ability to be a blacksmith who can make a goddamn suit of armor at the first level.
How many 3E characters have a background like "studied all my life at a wizards school?" Or "Wandering farmboy who made good?" How many of them actually have an intricate background that shows up on the skill sheet?
Very few, because you PAY A PENALTY for having an interesting character history.
The 3E skill system ACTIVELY DISCOURAGES roleplaying, by making players who take skills that reflect their background suffer in comparison to those who do not.
At least the 4E skill system is neutral on the entire matter, besides the idea that the master wizard in the tower who has studied arcane phenomena his entire life probably has around the same check as the guy who just graduated, because all skills are +5. That's not quite as destructive to roleplaying as rewarding people who take interesting skills with gimp characters.
Counterpoint. First, your example does show that 3e skill system was ill suited, but it wasn't because it was too speciffic, but rather because it wasn't speciffic enough. A propper craft system would consider that not all trades are equal. And thus it only shows that we needed a Blacksmithing skill, that feeded on Strength.
Second, you see skills as a Background only thing, I see them as a reflection of an ever evolving character that is "alive". If my character grew up on a farm of course he or she will know how to handle animals, he or she need not be a great expert by first level, but still will know it. Personally I've never felt my characters are specially gimped by taking interesting skills. I've even made the "sin" of having book dumb Sorcerers with zero ranks on Arcane knowledge or Spellcraft, or Paladins without Ride, or Rogues without open locks.
Oh? Counterpoint.
I want to make a Rogue who became a Rogue out of a desire for revenge. See, she was a singer with the voice of an angel, who was in strong demand.
<Snip - although it's great background!>
Yet in 3E, I take a knock if I want this character. Her perform skill will never be that great if she dumps charisma (and honestly, she has the personality of a razor blade) and she'll be missing out on a good skill.
That's bad. That's awful. You are punishing a person who put work into a backstory.