my fighter and his odd skill selection......

[Crothian]

I'm wondering how many people do this. I'm a second level fighter with skill points devoted to seven skills, 4 of them are cross class. I have points in climb, jump, and craft (class skiles) and the decipher script, 2 knowledges, and profession (all cross class). They all make perfect sense for the character and what has been going on in the campaign. I was given a scroll that translates an ancient from of Draconic in to the current one, but I'm the only one that can read Draconic in the party thus the Decipher script skill. Only the craft skill is needed for a prestige class.

How many other people place skill points in unusually places for the class?

 

[reason]

...

You can make a good locksmith/trap-aware fellow out of a wizard with the right picks. Characters with "suboptimal" skill picks representing unusual interests and jobs on the side (fighter with high cooking skill, anyone?) are usually much more interesting to play.

Reason
Principia Infecta

 

[Crothian]

Agreed, my guy crafts holy symbols in his spare time and gives them away to people he helps. Great fun.

 

[sfedi]

I wouldn't place ALL of my skill points in unusual skills.
But 1 or 2, sure.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

A little judicious cross-classing is essential for well-rounded adventurers, IMO. Just spending two skill points on a host of "trained only" skills gives you a lot of capability -- it only takes one rank in Open Locks, frex, to be able to Take 20 in it.

 

[Richards]

Our party includes an elven sorcerer who's dedicated her life to becoming a fire elementalist...and she has several ranks in Craft (painting), just because that's her hobby.

Johnathan

 

[scourger]

This sounds very cool, but I rarely do it. Picking cross-class skills wouldbe more attractive to me if bonus skill points from INT could be used for any skill. (This is an idea I'm sure I read in the Conan OGL game.) Now that I think of it, I may use it in my next D&D game.

 

[Boddynock]

I'm doing this at the moment in the Halfling Quest PBP on these boards. My character is a young halfling paladin. His father is a carpenter, so he has woodworking skills (particularly woodcarving skills). After receiving his goddess' call to be a "knight of virtue" he raised the money for his equipment, in part, by carving small wildlife figures which he sells to the travelling gnome traders.

'Nock

 

[fusangite]

I can see taking cross-class skills for a primarily spell-casting class but not for minor (Ranger and Paladin) or non- (Fighter, Rogue, Barbarian) casters. Taking a level of rogue or a level of ranger to get whatever the skill is is just too good a deal. Actually, I'm very much of the view that any character who plans to be a Fighter for the rest of his career should start with a level of rogue for just this reason.

It sounds like your fighter has a high intelligence though, unlike the fighters I have played. So I guess taking these skills is a little less painful for you than for me.

 

[Doug McCrae]

My Favoured Soul has six ranks in Profession - Baker.