Looking at alternate skill packages

[Elvinis75]

True, but the selection of class skills is a more important balancing factor between the classes than the number of skill points. If a Fighter can drop his 6 class skills and pick up Hide, Move S, Spot, Listen, Tumble, and Wild Lore, he weakens the Rogue, Monk and Ranger. Not only does he have better hitpoints, armor, and fighting ability, but he can now use some of the best and most useful skills as well as they can. Consequently, the characters of those classes become considerably less effective. Thats why their are built in drawbacks to taking cross-class skills; so that their are things that characters of a class can to do and have a better chance of success than characters of another class.

I also agree with you however. I wish their was some built in mechanism for trading class skills. I just think their needs to be some built in drawback, otherwise the mechanism is open to abuse.

How about a system based on the key ability of the skills. For example, a Fighter could trade Handle Animals (Cha) and pick up Intimidate (Cha), but to get Hide or Move S (Dex), would have to trade 2 class skill, because he has no class skills with Dex as the key ability.

I guess that I just don’t like the idea of cookie cutter character classes. All fighters grow up learning exactly the same thing. Say the fighter does take all of the skills that you listed and I agree they are some of the best. Assuming that the the fighter take these he isn’t going to be running around in full plate. He has better staying power in the fight but still lack the deady first strike that a rogue has. Further he isn’t going to have the skill points to pursue this line as well as the rogue. The average fighter will not be able to maximize these skills nor keep up with the rogue after character creation. Sure in one or two but definitely not in 6. I agree that when they made the standard classes that they looked at which skills they best thought fit the fighter. They also considered that the fighter would have nowhere near the rogue in skill avaliability nor ranks.
I guess that we will just have to disagree that the system doesn’t have built in disadvantages from class to class. I believe that the fighters lack skill point holds him back.

Average starting human fighter gets 16 and can max out 4 skills
Average starting rogue gets 40 and can max out 10 skills

I think that the fighter is not equal to a rogue by the skills that he gets. Other abilities have to be taken into account. Weaken yes but only slightly.

That last suggestion hedges every fighter off the stat strength regardless of whether that is the type of character that they possess.