House Rule - Skills by Character, Skill Feats, and Skill Synergies

Skills by Character
Which skills are class skills, and which skills are cross class skills are not determined by character class. Instead, they are determined by the player during character creation. Each character has a pool of twenty class skill slots that they may use to define the class skills for their character. For most skills, choosing them as a class skill costs one slot. Specific Craft, Knowledge, Perform, and Profession skills can be purchased for one skill slot each. To purchase Craft: Any, Knowledge: Any, Perform: Any, or Profession: Any costs four skill slots. Players must define the skill list for their character during character creation, and once set, this is the list of "class skills" for the character for the remainder of his adventuring career.

Note: Using four skill slots does not grant the skill Craft: Any, Knowledge: Any, Perform: Any, or Profession: Any. Those skills do not exist. Using four skill slots places all of the individual skills on the character's class skill list, but each skill must be taken individually. For example, a character who spent four skill slots during character creation to add "Craft: Any" to their class skill list could then spend skill points on Craft: Blacksmithing, Craft: Weaponsmithing, and Craft: Goldsmithing as skills, purchasing each of these skills separately.

Skill Feats
The various “+2 to two skills” feats such as Athletic, Diligent, Negotiator, and Self Sufficient are not used. Instead, the following feat replaces them all:

Skill Augmentation [General]
   You display an aptitude for certain skills.
   Benefit: Choose two related skills (subject to approval). You gain a +2 bonus on all checks involving those two skills.
   Special: You can gain this feat multiple times. Its effects do not stack. Each time you take the feat, it applies to a new pair of skills.

Synergy Bonuses
The following synergy bonuses are used. To gain a synergy bonus from a feat, one must simply have the feat. To gain a synergy bonus from a skill, one must have a certain number of ranks in that skill. Feats provide a flat +2 synergy bonus to the specified skill. Skills provide a bonus depending upon how many ranks in the skill a character has. If a character has 5 ranks in a skill that grants a synergy bonus, the character gets a +1 synergy bonus on checks involving the affected skill. When the character reaches 10 ranks in a skill, the applicable synergy bonus increases to +2, when the character reaches 15 ranks, the synergy bonus increases to +3, and finally when the character reaches 20 ranks, the bonus increases to +4.

Note that a character has to have at least one rank in a trained only skill in order to benefit from the synergy bonuses provided to that skill by other feats and skills.

The feats and skills in the left hand column provide synergy bonuses to the skills in the column on the right.

Feats

Brew Potion	Craft: Alchemy
Run	Evasion and Pursuit
Scribe Scroll	Profession: Scribe

Skills

Bluff	Diplomacy
Bluff	Disguise (to stay in character)
Bluff	Intimidate
Bluff	Sleight of Hand
Concentration	Ritual Casting
Craft	Appraise (related to the subject of the Craft skill)
Craft: Alchemy	Profession: Cook
Craft: Alchemy	Spellcraft (when identifying magical oils and potions)
Craft: Locksmith	Open Lock
Craft: Trapmaking	Disable Device
Decipher Script	Use Magic Device (involving scrolls)
Disable Device	Craft: Trapmaking
Escape Artist	Use Rope (when binding someone)
Gather Information	Profession: Guide (in urban areas)
Handle Animal	Profession: Farmer
Handle Animal	Profession: Teamster
Handle Animal	Ride
Handle Animal	Wild Empathy (class feature)
Jump	Tumble
Knowledge: Arcana	Spellcraft
Knowledge: Architecture and Engineering	Search (involving secret doors and compartments)
Knowledge: Astronomy	Profession: Astrologer
Knowledge: Dungeoneering	Survival (when underground)
Knowledge: Geography	Profession: Cartography
Knowledge: Geography	Survival (to keep from getting lost)
Knowledge: History	Bardic Knowledge (class feature)
Knowledge: Law	Profession: Barrister
Knowledge: Local	Gather Information (in local area)
Knowledge: Nature	Profession: Sailor
Knowledge: Nature	Survival (in aboveground natural environments)
Knowledge: Nobility and Royalty	Diplomacy
Knowledge: Religion	Turn or Rebuke Undead (class feature)
Knowledge: the Planes	Knowledge: Astronomy
Knowledge: the Planes	Profession: Astrologer
Knowledge: the Planes	Survival (when on other planes)
Knowledge: War	Profession: Siege Engineer
Open Lock	Craft: Locksmith
Perform	Profession: Actor
Profession: Actor	Bluff
Profession: Actor	Disguise
Profession: Apothecary	Craft: Alchemy
Profession: Apothecary	Knowledge: Nature (natural properties of animals or plants only)
Profession: Barrister	Knowledge: Law
Profession: Barrister	Diplomacy (when used to persuade or convince)
Profession: Cartographer	Forgery
Profession: Cook	Knowledge: Nature (for plants and animals commonly eaten)
Profession: Farmer	Knowledge: Nature
Profession: Fisherman	Knowledge: Nature (for fish, fish life, and coastal areas)
Profession: Groom	Handle Animal
Profession: Guide	Survival (to keep from getting lost)
Profession: Herbalist	Heal
Profession: Innkeeper	Gather Information
Profession: Prostitute	Bluff (when used to seduce or deceive)
Profession: Prostitute	Diplomacy (when used to seduce or deceive)
Profession: Sailor	Balance
Profession: Sailor	Use Rope
Profession: Scribe	Forgery
Profession: Scribe	Decipher Script
Profession: Soldier	Knowledge: War
Profession: Teacher	Knowledge (applies to one specific Knowledge skill)
Profession: Teamster	Handle Animal
Profession: Woodcutter	Knowledge: Nature (in relation to plants)
Search	Survival (when following tracks)
Sense Motive	Diplomacy
Sense Motive	Profession: Innkeeper
Spellcraft	Use Magic Device (when using scrolls)
Survival	Knowledge: Nature
Survival	Profession: Farmer
Survival	Profession: Fisherman
Survival	Profession: Guide (in wilderness areas)
Survival	Profession: Woodcutter
Tumble	Balance
Tumble	Jump
Use Magic Device	Spellcraft (to decipher spells on scrolls)
Use Rope	Climb (involving climbing ropes)
Use Rope	Escape Artist (to escape rope bindings)

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