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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 5005854" data-attributes="member: 4937">I'm actually in the minority that thinks it has too few skills.  However, I think that some of the skills it has aren't coherent and that it doesn't have enough skills which are explicitly 'active' - meaning that the player can choose to use them to perform actions rather than merely as a result of a 'skill challenge' of some sort.  Also, I think that 'epic skill use' was reserved for too high of a level of skill, and that by level 15 a character has skill that would in this world be considered supernatural or superhuman and hense ought to be allowed to do superhuman things.Tumble is a good example of an 'active' skill.  A player can use it in a wide variaty of situations that are likely to come up in any combat.  Use Magic device is another good 'active' skill.   Balance is a relatively passive skill though, since its utility (as written) depends almost solely on the DM providing balance challenges.  The same is true of Appraisal.  I'm not saying that balance is a bad skill, but the system needs more skills like Tumble with active uses.IMO, the general answer to your question is this: you should bundle passive skills with active skills to make a single strong skill if you don't foresee yourself (as the DM) regularly calling for the passive skill as a challenge.  If you don't want to regularly call for an appraisal check before telling the character what the item is made of and what it is worth then by all means, bundle appraisal with something else because its a pointless skill.So, the specific answer to your question is, "Do what works for you."  I don't think there is a right and wrong answer here, and while I haven't done much of the above options personally, I do think that they are mostly reasonable and for the most part wouldn't think badly of a DM that implemented any or all of them if it suited their campaign.That said, if you were to radically reduce the size of the skill list, I think you'd risking making intelligence a dump stat.Of the above, the only three I really don't approve of are 'concentration + survival' = 'endurance', because it turns every spell caster into a master of wilderness survival, 'use magic device' to anything else because UMD is a powerful class feature and not a mundane skill, and 'tumble = feats' because I very much disapprove of 'gate' feats that restrict player options until you take the feat.  Pretty much anything that you right as a 'feat' that gives you some new option should be written into a skill as a skill usage instead.  Feats should enhance your chance of success; they shouldn't act as shackles in disguise by implying that anyone without the feat can't attempt the stunt.However, the only two I voted for are 'forgery = craft' and 'Gather Information = other social skills'.  Gather Information got dropped from my game very early on because it definately seemed to overlap with the other social skills.  I basically said that if you want to gather information, you choose an approach (diplomacy, bluff, or intimidate) and then tried to use it to gether information.  I much prefered the option to RP out such scenes rather than handwave them with a skill check.Forgery is one I've been wrestling with for a long time.  I want to drop it, but don't like the craft skills well enough.  Still, anyone with sufficient craft ought to be able to forge a fake whatever in their particular craft.  In fact, in many crafts making inexpensive versions of high quality goods for customers with less income is part of the normal job description.  This can be true of even craftsman working for the very wealthy, because even the very wealthy can be on a budget and want to own something that appears far more ostentatious and valuable than it really is.</blockquote>

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