GR Psychic's HB, Skill Variants, and Core Skills

[YokoburiKinura]

Next week my group is starting a d20 Modern campaign that will use the Psychic's Handbook. The setting is Masque of the Red Death (yeah, I know it comes out on Monday, I might switch, but the window is too small and I gotta get this rolling). However, we're switching up some rules and I gotta figure out how to proceed.

There's been a rule variant discussed in the Grim Tales threads recently where you justify 10 skills in your character background and these skills are your core skills for the duration of the campaign. I've also read about having all skills cost the same but having the cross-class cap for non-core skills so that people will be more encouraged to diversify a little. I thought these sounded like good ideas.

However, since we are using advanced classes that require good access to new skills for their powers to work properly, such as the Psychic, what should we do when a character enters the class? Should all the special skills pertaining to the class (Concentration, spellcraft, psychic skills, depending on whether you're becoming a spellcaster or psychic) just be added to the core skill list? Or perhaps I could just have the player select a few of those skills to become core? Or should I limit them to having to buy some sort of Skill Familiarity feat to get core access to the skills? Any suggestions?

 

[sinmissing]

well, when you take Magical Adept, Spellcraft becomes a class skill, so there is a precedence.
I planned on making all the Psychic Feats accessible as Advanced Talents/Bonus Feats for Smart, Dedicated, and Charismatic Hero. After you gain the feat, its associated skill becomes a class skill.

(actually, I actually thought about making those talents accessible only to the Charismatic hero While it seems appropriate, I haven't decided one way or the other)