What if all skills were allowed as class skills for all classes?

[Plane Sailing]

True20 does something similar.

So, particle_man,

Looking at the comments above (and apologies if I'm misrepresenting anyone), it looks like there are many people who have tried it in practice, sometimes for quite a while, who are saying 'it works nicely', while there are some people who haven't actually tried it in practice but saying they don't like it in theory.

Experience with Monks and Mystic Theurges to name a couple of examples suggest that sometimes it is worth putting more weight on peoples practical play experience rather than the theoretical issues.

Cheers

 

[Aeric]

I was planning on doing this for my next campaign. I was also planning on throwing out XP penalties for multiclassing.

As far as "niche protection" goes, I honestly don't think it's an issue. Rogues and bards still have a lot more skill points than other classes, and if you're playing a rogue, chances are you're going to focus on rogue-type skills. Sure, the other classes can also buy open locks, et al., but for them to max it out will be much more of an investment than the rogue. The only serious competition for the rogue skill point-wise is the ranger, and he'll be spending all his skill points on the fifty skills which are vital to a ranger anyways.

If nothing else, I think Spot, Search, and Listen should be "everyman" skills. You won't last long as an adventurer if you aren't hyper-aware of your surroundings.

 

[Baron Opal]

I think for most groups every character would max out spot and listen, then followed by sense motive.

You know this was the expected consequence when I installed my house rules above and it simply hasn't happened.

To be fair, about half my group are 38-44 yrs of age and aren't gaming the system. Half of them just assign the points where I tell them to after asking them some questions about their character. The only person with a maxed out Spot and Listen is ... the rogue. She made an observant super-sniper. She's one of the younger, more knowledgable players, but even so the others haven't seem to deviated too far from the stated themes of their characters.

No one in the party has put any points into UMD, and it's been a problem for the past 4 levels as they've had magic items they can't use. And this is regardless of the player's experience.