Psiblade said:
The change helps to define your character by forcing you to make a decision about your skill points. The five skill points in dance and ten points in singing could have been used in some other skill such as use magic device / sense motive. I choose to spend those points in dance therefore my character knows how to dance, but not as well as he knows how to sing. Skill point allocation merely helps me to define my character. With perform as a single skill with multiple types attached to it, there is no detail level.
Which is fine for you. But you're choosing to purposefully weaken your character. Myself, I prefer to powergame the mechanical and RP sides of my character. So I don't want to have to waste skill points on a second or third (mechanically) useless Perform skill, when I can simply decide that my PC only knows certain instruments, etc, and not take a mechanical hit.
The 3.0 bard was often considered weak and underpowered. In 3.5, the boost in skill points is one of the things that's supposed to bring the bard up to the other classes' level. But if those points have to be spent in Perform, then we're right back where we were. With an underpowered PC being nerfed to satisfy certain players' RP issues.
And it's not just the bard. I previously played a fighter/rogue whose background included 5 years spent traveling with an acting troupe. At 13th-level she had Perform 12 (drama, comedy, mock swordfighting, dancing). What did her perform ranks gain her?
Absolutely nothing. But it allowed me to portray her as an acrobat and actress. Now, for the same mechanically worthless flavor, I'd have to buy Perform (comedy), Perform (acting), and Perform (dancing) at the very least. That's
three times the skill ranks, for zero benefit.
What it comes down to is this: Perform is mainly an RP skill. And you shouldn't be mechanically penalized for purely RP decisions.
