Pathfinder 1E Skill Rank Question

[Light Knight]

So say I start a Rogue, make 2 levels. Put 2 points into stealth, amongst other skills.

Then say I pick up 4 levels of fighter, buy fighter skills..etc.

Then at 7th, I pick another level of rogue up. Can I put 5 of my rogue's 7th level skill points into Stealth? Giving me 7 points, even though I am only a 3rd level rogue?

 

[Summer-Knight925]

The rule is you can NOT have more ranks in a skill than your HIT DICE, not your level.

Your hit dice should be 7, so you could, as you have 7 hit dice, you can have a maximum of 7 ranks in a skill.

 

[Empirate]

The rule is you can NOT have more ranks in a skill than your HIT DICE, not your level.

Your hit dice should be 7, so you could, as you have 7 hit dice, you can have a maximum of 7 ranks in a skill.

Close, but not quite. For all practical matters and purposes, HD = level. However, the original creators of D&D should have used a thesaurus when it came to the word 'level'. There's class levels, and character level. Your skill ranks may not exceed your character level (which is exactly equal to your HD), but may exceed your level in each individual class you take in a multiclass build.

 

[Light Knight]

Good to hear! But extemely cheesy if you ask me

 

[billd91]

Good to hear! But extemely cheesy if you ask me

It may seem cheesy to dump them all in at once, but PF is very flexible about skills. Any class can put ranks into any skill - including putting the fighter skill ranks into stealth all along. The difference between a class skill and a cross-class skill is now just the +3 bonus tacked on. If the skill is a class skill for at least one of your classes and you have at least one rank in it, you get the +3 class skill bonus no matter if you invested ranks from your rogue levels or your fighter levels.

 

[Light Knight]

Combine that with traits that will give you a class skill when one didn't exist...weeee!

 

[Summer-Knight925]

Close, but not quite. For all practical matters and purposes, HD = level. However, the original creators of D&D should have used a thesaurus when it came to the word 'level'. There's class levels, and character level. Your skill ranks may not exceed your character level (which is exactly equal to your HD), but may exceed your level in each individual class you take in a multiclass build.

Would it have been better if I said your Hit Dice were 7 (as your character level) even though you had class levels lower?

I feel that's just a bit over doing it, the point still got across, use hit dice, not level.

But I do agree, a thesaurus would have helped, especially for explaining spell levels to new players.

"there are 9 "TIERS" of spells for a wizard..."--How I explain it to new folks

 

[Empirate]

[MENTION=80297]Summer-Knight925[/MENTION]: I believe your answer was likely totally sufficient for the OP. However, I like to answer rules questions in the precise game terms that are used in the books. This can help avoid further questions down the road. I wasn't trying to badmouth your explanation!

 

[N'raac]

It may seem cheesy to dump them all in at once, but PF is very flexible about skills. Any class can put ranks into any skill - including putting the fighter skill ranks into stealth all along.

So where do those who consider it cheesy to plug a bunch of ranks into a single skill put 12 skill points after adding 1 point to INT at 12th level?

 

[billd91]

So where do those who consider it cheesy to plug a bunch of ranks into a single skill put 12 skill points after adding 1 point to INT at 12th level?

Put them anywhere and in any method you feel isn't cheesy. Plug them into skills in bunches of ranks that are still below your cheese threshold. Or is this some kind of trick question?