Plus one to all skills feat. Does one exist?

[a-d]

I'm playing a Factotum and want to be able to use the "Cunning Knowledge" ability on everything.
"Cunning Knowledge" allows me to add my Factotum level to a skill once per skill per day. (Once to Hide, Search, Craft, etc...)
But it requires that I have at least one rank in the skill.


At first it seemed as though the "Jack of all trades" feat would do it.
It was mentioned in a forum as giving plus two to all skills. Then someone else claimed that it only gave half a rank in each skill.

That didn't seem too bad, and I was willing to take it twice to fit the requirements of "At least one rank in the skill if you wish to use cunning knowledge on it." But then I came across a description of the feat which claimed that it gave nothing but the ability to use any skill even if you didn't have any ranks in it and it normally required training.

That was irritating.


However I think my DM would be willing to allow me to take the "Jack of all Trades" feat twice to gain the plus one to all skills however, when I started thinking about what feats can give I wondered if I could push it farther. Say to "Plus one rank in all skills per five character levels" and call it "The Dabbler's Hand" with the "Jack of all Trades" feat as a prerequisite.

That was followed with "Renaissance Scholar" (Since Renaissance Man might be considered sexist.) and "Master of all Trades" which just does the same thing except that they stack on top of the others.

But that seemed a bit too much since at level twenty a character with all three of them would have plus 12 to all skills, and plus 18 at level thirty.
And that's without where players would put their own skills points.


What I want to know is if there is some other feat or pair of feats that would give the plus one to all skills that I'm looking for, and if there isn't, whether or not taking "Jack of all Trades" twice is payment enough to gain, "Plus one to all skills" and if it is, whether or not I can push it further.

Also, is there any other way to gain plus one to all skills without personally placing the points there?


My objective is to gain access to the three infinite areas which are Crafting, Knowledge, and Profession. Along with allowing access to every past, present, and future skill that my DM will allow into the game.

Example: I didn't know about the skill "Iaijutsu Focus" or the feats which give access to the Psychic Class's skills.

 

[Particle_Man]

What books are allowed?

Is Pathfinder allowed?

Are 3rd Party materials allowed?

 

[a-d]

I don't know all specifics, but the one thing I do know is that they aren't willing to use fourth editions classes and I've been assuming anything else from fourth edition as well.

Ah, but since "Third Party Feats" and "Pathfinder" are both in the 3.5 editions they probably would allow it.

What do you have in mind?
I didn't see any feats there that looked like they'd help. I'm a human trying to find a way to become immortal which anyone can use and doesn't require divine intervention.

"Breadth of Knowledge" feat is only for certain species, (Of which humans aren't a part of.) and has a minimum age requirement of one hundred years.
I haven't decided on an age yet but I know it's around 25.

 

[Particle_Man]

Pathfinder has a different version of the Bard. The bardic knowledge ability of the pathfinder bard might be what you are looking for.

There is also a 3rd party prestige class called "Echo of the Ancestors" that has a class ability that lets you remember something from the ancestral well of knowledge (and so get a bonus to any skill you like).

Not sure about feats though.

 

[the Jester]

Having a rank in a skill is not something that any bonus that I know of gives you. I'd resign yourself to taking a single rank in a lot of skills if you want to be able to use this ability on all of them.

 

[irdeggman]

There is a difference between having "bonuses" to skills and having actually ranks.

No feat that I know of grants actual ranks.

And Jack of all trades is written incorrectly. Having 1/2 rank in a skill does not allow you to make skill checks for trained only skills.

From the SRD

Untrained: This entry indicates what a character without at least 1 rank in the skill can do with it. If this entry doesn’t appear, it means that the skill functions normally for untrained characters (if it can be used untrained) or that an untrained character can’t attempt checks with this skill (for skills that are designated as “Trained Only”).

You can't make a skill check for a "trained only" skill unless you have at least 1 rank in it (some exceptions apply).

 

[Rhun]

Having a rank in a skill is not something that any bonus that I know of gives you. I'd resign yourself to taking a single rank in a lot of skills if you want to be able to use this ability on all of them.

What the Jester says is correct. With that said, you could pick up the Open Minded feat, which gives you (5, I think) bonus skill points to spend on skills. This would help you get ranks in all of the skills that you want to ever use.

 

[BriarMonkey]

Yeah, no feats give ranks - they only give bonuses or ability to use (like "Jack of all Trades" does not give ranks, it allows one to use skills that are otherwise untrained).

I agree with the prior statements, you are just going to have to use skill points and spend them to get the ranks you are looking for. And, if your GM does allow for taking "Jack..." a couple of times to get a rank, I would seriously doubt he'd allow for multiples and multiples to get free ranks (I know I wouldn't allow for that, nor allow for taking "Jack..." multiple times to get any ranks at all).

However, I don't recall where the feat came from, but there is a feat called "Scholarly". When you take this feat, for the purposes of determining skill points (and only that purpose), you can add 2 points to your Intelligence. So in effect, its +1 skill points per level. May haps your GM will allow you to take that feat more than once, which will help with the skill points you will need.

 

[Michael Silverbane]

You should ask your DM if he will allow you to trigger the cunning knowledge ability off of Jack of All trades, since it is pretty close to what you need...

If not, you may want to take the Open Minded feat (Expanded Psionics Handbook, and in the SRD here), which grants you 5 skill points. You can then spread those skill points out amongst various skill that you do not have yet...

 

[kitcik]

What I want to know is if there is some other feat or pair of feats that would give the plus one to all skills that I'm looking for, and if there isn't, whether or not taking "Jack of all Trades" twice is payment enough to gain, "Plus one to all skills" and if it is, whether or not I can push it further.

No one has directly addressed this question, so I will give it a whack. Given all of the Craft, Knowledge and Profession skills, you are asking whether 1-2 feats is payment enough for, say, a hundred skill points, albeit spread accross all of the skills. Since the best skill point feats are Open Minded (+5 skill ponts) and Nymph's Kiss (+1 skill point per level, +2 on Cha checks, +1 saves vs spells & SLA's --> yes, this is a good feat), I would say that 1-2 feats falls far short of sufficient payment. On the other hand, I would say 1-2 feats WOULD be sufficient to pay for being able to use all of the skills the way you want, but untrained (i.e. reduce the minimum to zero ranks and be able to use all skills untrained).