adding and taking away skills

[Quickleaf]

Ditto, man-thing.
We have many expanded options for Use Rope (grappling hooks, river rescues, belaying, zip lines, binding & gagging, rigging a boat, tying supplies down on a raft/mount) and most of these are put into the Climb skill, Profession (river guide), and Profession (sailor). Profession (jailor or city guard) allows one access to the binding & gagging applications.

Hide is also used to lie low in urban environments.

New skills we use include Natural Medicine, Astrology, Heal (veterinary), and Weather Sense.

We have expanded options for Control Shape (certain magic items, resisting polymorph, shapeshifter sorcerers, dreamscapes).

 

[Szatany]

Some cool ideas float this thread. I like the idea of combining open lock and disable device.

Quickleaf: I think the new skills you propose are rather unnecessary. Instead of natural medicine use heal + synergy bonus from profession: herbalist. Astrology is simply a new knowledge skill. Instead of heal (vet) use heal + synergy bonus from knowledge (nature). And roll weather sense into survival.

I don't use control shape in my games. I rolled that skill into concentration. I also allow a balance check to resist trip.
I'm thinking about expanding running rules and make one skill responsible for running and jumping. 2nd idea is to make a skill responsible for commanding others (there is no such skill under current rules and as DM I've run into many situations such check was more or less required). Leadership feat just doesn't cut it.
I'm at work and don't have PHB at the moment so I don't remember if the following is original rule or house rule, but I allow decipher script to be used to solve puzzles, riddles, and even find a way out of labirynth.

 

[Li Shenron]

I've looked over the skill list, and it seems that some of the skills could use a little change. All in all, there is no real problem with the skills as they are, but I'm trying to improve things and make it a bit more intuitive.

General notes:

- if you eliminate one skill and use an ability check in place, the only thing you achieve is that it becomes much more difficult to win any task, since no one would have RANKS but just has to use the ability bonus; if you want to do such a thing to some skills which you don't like, you may consider decreasing the DC for the specific tasks

- merging skills is a good idea if your target is to let characters have more skills in general and/or making the least versatile skills more popular; however, merging Spot+Listen+Search or Hide+Move Silently isn't the best because those skills are already useful enough to be worth without merging (for example, Hide+MS are often combined into one because most PCs would either take both or none, but the resulting ability of going stealthy is normally worth more than a single skill IMHO)

- another way to make some skills more interesting is to just think about new uses for them: this is IMO the best solution but it isn't easy, especially with things like Use Rope which are hard to find new uses for

The skills I'm particularly confused by are Decipher Script, Disguise, Escape Artist, Forgery, and Use Rope.

I agree that all of these aren't very popular around.

Would Escape Artist be best as a simple Dexterity check? It seems an awfully narrow range of things you can do with it, and few of them come up a great deal in most campaigns.

You can think about it this way: without spending skill points, you can already try to do whatever EA is for, such as squeezing through a space or escaping a grapple. For a few skill points, you can "buy yourself" a bonus to those checks. Remember that you don't have to max the skill out!

I wouldn't merge this one. There should be rather some new use to add, but it doesn't come to my mind ATM.

How about Use Rope? Is there any use for it that could not be subsumed under some Profession? Or a Dexterity check?

At the extreme, you can really choose to include all UR uses into a couple of Professions, such as sailor for instance. It doesn't have to be restricted to one only of course (some people think there should only be 1 skill to do each thing, but it is not a must).

Decipher Script: is it needed as a skill? If you can read the alphabet, you are more likely to be able to piece together what it says and understand it. It seems more like something you could do with Speak Language and an Intelligence check.

Some book suggested to use this to also write cryptographed messages, but that isn't usually part of the game. Anyway, this skill can be pretty useful depending on the adventure (the DM, IOW). If you're the DM, you can also extend the use to get hints for riddles or anything which relies on logic an math. You can change its name to something more generic...

Is Forgery better served as Craft (document)?

...mmm that sounds quite the same actually with the only difference that Craft is usually a class skill for everyone. I'd rather suggest one of the following to think about:

1) rename it to Scripture(Int) and make it a more broad skill about writing things [e.g. not just to FAKE writings, but also to write appropriate letters/books/instructions] and eventually also about reading, which may mean to effectively merge it with Decipher Script above

2) extend it to making anything fake, not just writings but also fake valuable items, fake coinage, fake tools (which don't work properly or may even harm); clearly it'd be more a skill for NPCs but still more useful than now.
Going even further, it may include the part of Diguise related to the physical disguise (not the acting, which will move under Bluff or Perform).

After reading Disguise, it seems like the skill is mostly about putting on make-up well. Could it be better subsumed under a Perform (acting) check modified by a synergy bonus from Bluff and a circumstantial bonus from having a costume?

Disguise is a bit odd because it includes both the acting and the preparation, but Cha seems to be appropriate only for the first. At least it could be extended to change the appearance of anything, not just a person but also an object for example (and maybe even a spell).

Also, would adding Navigate (Int) to the skill list be worthwhile considering how many vocations depend upon it that do not go tromping about in the woods?

As mentioned, this was once Intuit Direction and later rolled into Survival. I allow the usage of Knowledge(Dungeoneering) when underground.

 

[Afrodyte]

I know I have asked this before (with no luck) but, has anyone ever tried the reverse of adding new skills and actually contracted (& renamed) all the skills into logical groups of two or three each? I'd like to try this IMC, with the starting point of "Sneak" from AU. If "Hide" and "Move Silently" can be merged, shouldn't the opposing checks of "Listen" and "Spot" be joined too?

It's been discussed before, but unless you have the search feature for this site, you'll have to wade through a lot of other stuff to get to it. I can't find my original thoughts on the topic, but here is basically what I did:

Balance + Tumble = Acrobatics (Dex)
Bluff + Diplomacy = Persuade (Cha)
Climb + Jump + Swim + Run* = Athletics (Str). *I was always confused why Run is a feat when Climb, Swim, and Jump are skills.
Disable Device + Open Lock = Disable Device (Int)
Hide + Move Silently = Stealth/Sneak (Dex)
Listen + Spot + Search = Observe/Notice (Wis)

I know the skill points assigned to each class per level would be screwed up, but making the multitude of related and similar skills easier to work with would be something I would like to see. I really dislike creating high-level NPCs from scratch, because of the skill point issue. Could someone let me know if this has been tried or discussed before (and where)?

Actually, I don't think it'd screw anything up at all. Although with min-maxers and powergamers you'll always have the possibility of abusing the system, in general I think that, if explained to them, many players would welcome the opportunity to broaden their scope and flesh out their characters more. At the very least, it helps create a backup plan if the character covering one niche were somehow unable to do what they're supposed to do.

Also I would be interested to know, if anyone has come up with any new uses for skills, as in the Book of Iron Might. Has anyone given any thought to conjoined skills, also from the BoIM?

I haven't looked through BoIM, so I don't know. The PHB descriptions are pretty explicit about what is and is not allowed with the skills, but another take on them would be welcome.

 

[Afrodyte]

Navigate (Int)

From what I remember, Intuit Direction was Wisdom-based, but what I'm proposing is something more along the lines of Intelligence. Mathematics, astronomy, special equipment, and other bodies of lore roots navigation firmly in Intelligence rather than Wisdom. I'm not saying navigators can't have hunches, but for the most part the process relies upon logic to work.

I know that the current 3.5 rules have navigation under the Survival skill, but as I was thinking about it, it didn't make much sense in the context of someone who does not spend all their time in the wilderness. Knowing how to get where you're going and sustaining yourself on your way there seem like two very different things. The former would be Navigate (Int); the latter Survival. I'm not saying that Survival shouldn't help you figure out the best way to go at all, but I think that familiarity with the terrain (as in, you've been where you're going before) is required for it to work that way.

As it stands, the closest thing to what I'm thinking about is a bunch of Knowledge checks. Knowledge (geography) or Knowledge (dungeoneering) for the terrain and Knowledge (astronomy) and Knowledge (mathematics) for accurately plotting a course and estimating how long it would take. Since that uses two to four skills to do one activity (determine how to get from Point A to Point B), narrowing it down to Navigate (Int) seemed like a good idea. Of course, there will be synergy bonuses from Knowledge (astronomy), Knowledge (geography), and Knowledge (nature) when the situation warrants it.