The skills list is consolidated for a reason and I think the right reasons. You don't want to put skills that are not useful for dungeon survival vs. those skills that are. It is also true that you don't need the following rules to roleplay with, but if we really didn't want complex rules to spell out things in exacting detail, we wouldn't play D&D. I think a Talents system would reward you for having particular character traits, and would encourage you to use those traits to your mechanical advantage in skill checks and challenges. This would theoretically lead to more roleplaying.
I want to make it clear that this isn't a replacement for the skill system, and in fact works precisely because it is largely superfluous to it. The skills system generally works because it gives skills that are used every session, and all the skills allow PC's to generally be proficient in their stock in trade (the business of traversing dungeons and killing monsters). The talents system will explore expanding skills with benefits so minor that you generally would not waste a feat on it.
The purpose for highlighting these talents is to also add a little variety to each character. Right now for example, a rogue is largely always as good at picking a lock as he is appraising a gem. A rogue with the "locksmith" talent would be slightly better at picking locks than the rest of his thievery skills, while someone with the "connoisseur" talent would be better at appraising treasure. A ranger with the "tracking" talent would be better at hunting animals, while a ranger with the "animal empathy" talent would be better at calming or training animals. This would also help distinguish overlapping skills, such as when you have a bard and a warlock who both have thievery. Rather than having them both be mediocre in the same way, they can divide up the common tasks of Thievery between the two, with the bard disabling traps and picking pockets, and the warlock appraising found treasure.
Largely I see talents being of the 4 following types:
Talents that expand skills: This would be techniques that introduce a new use for a skill. For example, the "poisoner" talent might allow you to use the heal or nature skills to craft poisons and introduce poison rules. The "heraldry" talent would allow you to use diplomacy to identify famous people in the kingdom, whereas you would normally use streetwise.
Talents that tweak skills: My minotaur barbarian can't intimidate because he has a lousy charisma. I don't want to sacrifice my feat slot to fix that because I'll still never be as good at it as the cleric or paladin with a skill focus anyway. If I could use a Talent to substitute strength (or intelligence if I'm a fearsome master of the arcane arts) to use as the relevant ability score, that would be great.
Talents that are non-combat feats: Like feats improve the ability to hit and damage in combat or improve your defenses, Talents that improve your ability to do a certain application of a skill would be nice. The best example I can think of would be a Talent for "Animal Empathy". You can do this now with the Nature skill, but it is extremely difficult. Allowing a character to take "Animal Empathy" as a Talent would allow an almost supernatural affinity for calming and handling riled up animals, without increasing his general proficiency with the nature skill like Skill Focus (nature) does. I would never want to take Animal Empathy as a feat (since I'd probably only use it every few sessions, but it would be good as a talent.
Talents that are rituals: The obvious one that springs to mind is the enchant item ritual. It would be good to play a dwarf that can craft his own magical arms and armor. There are boundless other options that are limited only by your imagination. A gnome could pick up an illusion based ritual as a Talent (such as silence or hallucinatory item), casting it for free 1/day. A person with the Talent of "expert cook" could whip up a hero's feast ritual (paying component cost).
This is perhaps a bit of a power creep, but I think the impact of this would be minimized if you don't use the errata'd version of the DC's for skill challenges and checks. With what is already printed in the DMG, there is room to grow a little bit. I would imagine you would gain Talents at about the same rate as feats, though on odd rather than even levels. Your background would be your level 1 Talent.
I want to make it clear that this isn't a replacement for the skill system, and in fact works precisely because it is largely superfluous to it. The skills system generally works because it gives skills that are used every session, and all the skills allow PC's to generally be proficient in their stock in trade (the business of traversing dungeons and killing monsters). The talents system will explore expanding skills with benefits so minor that you generally would not waste a feat on it.
The purpose for highlighting these talents is to also add a little variety to each character. Right now for example, a rogue is largely always as good at picking a lock as he is appraising a gem. A rogue with the "locksmith" talent would be slightly better at picking locks than the rest of his thievery skills, while someone with the "connoisseur" talent would be better at appraising treasure. A ranger with the "tracking" talent would be better at hunting animals, while a ranger with the "animal empathy" talent would be better at calming or training animals. This would also help distinguish overlapping skills, such as when you have a bard and a warlock who both have thievery. Rather than having them both be mediocre in the same way, they can divide up the common tasks of Thievery between the two, with the bard disabling traps and picking pockets, and the warlock appraising found treasure.
Largely I see talents being of the 4 following types:
Talents that expand skills: This would be techniques that introduce a new use for a skill. For example, the "poisoner" talent might allow you to use the heal or nature skills to craft poisons and introduce poison rules. The "heraldry" talent would allow you to use diplomacy to identify famous people in the kingdom, whereas you would normally use streetwise.
Talents that tweak skills: My minotaur barbarian can't intimidate because he has a lousy charisma. I don't want to sacrifice my feat slot to fix that because I'll still never be as good at it as the cleric or paladin with a skill focus anyway. If I could use a Talent to substitute strength (or intelligence if I'm a fearsome master of the arcane arts) to use as the relevant ability score, that would be great.
Talents that are non-combat feats: Like feats improve the ability to hit and damage in combat or improve your defenses, Talents that improve your ability to do a certain application of a skill would be nice. The best example I can think of would be a Talent for "Animal Empathy". You can do this now with the Nature skill, but it is extremely difficult. Allowing a character to take "Animal Empathy" as a Talent would allow an almost supernatural affinity for calming and handling riled up animals, without increasing his general proficiency with the nature skill like Skill Focus (nature) does. I would never want to take Animal Empathy as a feat (since I'd probably only use it every few sessions, but it would be good as a talent.
Talents that are rituals: The obvious one that springs to mind is the enchant item ritual. It would be good to play a dwarf that can craft his own magical arms and armor. There are boundless other options that are limited only by your imagination. A gnome could pick up an illusion based ritual as a Talent (such as silence or hallucinatory item), casting it for free 1/day. A person with the Talent of "expert cook" could whip up a hero's feast ritual (paying component cost).
This is perhaps a bit of a power creep, but I think the impact of this would be minimized if you don't use the errata'd version of the DC's for skill challenges and checks. With what is already printed in the DMG, there is room to grow a little bit. I would imagine you would gain Talents at about the same rate as feats, though on odd rather than even levels. Your background would be your level 1 Talent.
