Feats: Class Skill Pickup

[seasong]

The ranger thread I stared reminded me of this little idea, so I thought I'd throw it out for commentary and addition.

In the Game of Death I'm running, one or two people took a Cross Class Skill feat that allowed them to take on a single non-class skill as if it were a class skill. Looking over the skills you can take, the main reason it is restricted to a single skill is because of Tumbling .

What it made me think about was a set of feats, each of which gave access to 1-2 skills as class skills, depending on their relative usefulness. If you prefer, these could be limited to being taken at 1st level only (making them more common among humans). Some examples:

Circus Acrobat: Tumbling is now a class skill for you.

Exotic Dancer: Diplomacy and Perform (dance) are now class skills for you.

Nobleman: Diplomacy and Sense Motive are now class skills for you.

Pearl Diver: Appraisal (pearls) and Swimming are now class skills for you.

Wilds Scout: Intuit Direction and Wilderness Lore are now class skills for you.

any other idea? Any reasons this is a bad idea?

 

[Malin Genie]

I like that idea - in fact in my last campaign I allowed half-elves to take two skills as class skills, provided they were related in some way, like your set above.

 

[haiiro]

How you would take these feats into account:

- Versatile (from Rokugan): makes two non-exclusive cross-class skills of your choice into class skills.

- Cosmopolitan (from the FRCS): makes one non-exclusive cross-class skill of your choice a class skill, and you get a +2 bonus to checks with that skill.

Both are flat out better than Circus Acrobat, and Versatile is better than all of the others you listed (because it allows you to choose the two skills).

Or are you simply starting afresh with the underlying assumption that Tumble (as well as Spot, Search and perhaps Listen, let's say) is simply "better" overall than other skills, and redoing class skill acquisition feats with that in mind?

 

[seasong]

Both are flat out better than Circus Acrobat, and Versatile is better than all of the others you listed (because it allows you to choose the two skills).

Or are you simply starting afresh with the underlying assumption that Tumble (as well as Spot, Search and perhaps Listen, let's say) is simply "better" overall than other skills, and redoing class skill acquisition feats with that in mind?

Well, to restate, I'm running a game of death, an arena combat where I have encouraged the players to build characters who are as munchkinned as possible. Cosmopolitan wasn't allowed (the game is OGL only), but I did allow Cross Class Skill, which only allows one skill and gives no bonus. They took it. For Tumbling. In a game where wasted feats may mean the difference between life and death .

So I think that certain skills are better than others, yes . As for Versatile, no, I've no problems with that, but I would restrict which skills could be taken with it. My list isn't meant to be exhaustive, simply indicative of the direction to take - both skills must be thematically related in some fashion, and some skills cost "double".