Arcane Spell Failure as a Spellcraft Check?

[Sylrae]

Has anyone changed Arcane spell failure to be a spellcraft skill check? I was thinking maybe instead of flat % of failure those flat chances could somehow be translated to skill DCs.

I was also thinking of factoring in weight of carried items. So if you're carrying too much you start having a higher DC. I can see PC casters dropping their pack on the ground to lower the DC, but that introduces new ideas, like the goblins trying to run off with their bag *evil smirk*

What do people think of this general Idea? any advice on the DCs?

Edit: I'm thinking Spellcraft using Dex instead of Int.

[Hawken]

The only problem with this is that a wizard could become Spellcraft focused and then walk around in (mithril) full plate armor and have his modifiers so high he doesn't even need to make a check.

I would use an encumbrance modifier (light, medium or heavy load), not weight as that just reinforces accounting practices by having to calculate every last coin, and every last fishhook. But, then, you still have the problem of wizards running around in full plate willy nilly.

Skills could be too easily abused. I'd try a Caster Level check. Maybe start the DC off at 15 for light armor, 20 for medium and 25 for heavy armors. Add an extra +3 to the DC for each stage of encumbrance (light, medium, heavy loads).

And then, you could create items around this that would give bonuses to the caster level checks so that casters could get away with wearing armor, but they'd have to invest in it.