[D&D 3.P] Ways to Save Skill Points

[Rubik]

No, I don't mean stocking them for future levels.

What I mean is, what are the ways of getting more skill rank bang for your skill point buck? That includes both direct and indirect.

I never have enough skill points for everything I want, so I want more -- or to be able to do more with what I have.

For instance:

The Able Learner feat makes all cross-class skill ranks cost 1 skill point, rather than two.

A level of factotum grants all skills as class skills; when combined with Able Learner, that effectively grants you all skills as class skills for all classes you take.

Illithid savant allows you to "eat" the skill ranks of other creatures, so if you've got enough skill points for 10 skills, and you eat the brain of a creature with a skill you don't have, you get those skill ranks for free.

The Versatile Performer feat grants you free skill ranks in a number of Perform skills (equal to your Int Mod) equal to the number of ranks in your highest ranked Perform skill.

The ardent's Magic Mantle forces all of your UMD ranks to count as UPD ranks, and vice versa.

Can anyone think of any other ways to get free skill ranks, or to otherwise seriously stretch the skill points you've got?

[Zaq]

The feat Truename Training retroactively turns cross-class Truespeak ranks into as many ranks as you would have had if it had always been a class skill for you.

Versatile Performer makes you "treated as having a number of ranks in [several Perform skills] equal to the highest number of ranks you have in any Perform category." Somehow missed that you already got that one.

There are the feats that actually give extra skill points, like Open Minded and Nymph's Kiss, but they don't do anything to make those skill points more efficient than any others. (There's also the feats that grant extra skill tricks known, though again, they don't do anything extra efficient, aside from letting you learn more than one skill trick at the level you take them.)

One of the Secrets that you can get from Loremaster is 4 ranks in a skill in which you have no ranks. It doesn't say "4 points with which to buy ranks in a skill," it just says 4 ranks, so even if the skill you choose is cross-class, you still get 4 ranks in it. Far from the most efficient way of doing things, but it's there.

[Extra Anchovies]

PF Bards get +1/2 level to Knowledge skills, so instead of maxing one skill you can invest half ranks into two of them. Catfolk bards go one farther, because their FCB effectively doubles the bardic knowledge bonus; you only have to put one point into each knowledge skill for you to get slightly better than max ranks in all of them. Half-Orc or Tiefling Inquisitors (or those with the Improved Monster Lore feat) get a similar effect, but only for IDing monsters.

PF Bards also get Versatile Performance, which lets them use selected Perform skill modifiers in place of various other skill modifiers. You get to choose a new Perform skill to use it with five times, but you actually only need four instances of it to cover all the possible skills: Act (bluff/disguise), Dance (acrobatics/fly), Oratory (Diplomacy/Sense Motive), and Percussion (Handle Animal/Intimidate). Especially useful if your game allows skill retraining, because you can max, say, Diplomacy, and then when you pick up Versatile Performance (Oratory) and move all of your Diplomacy ranks into Oratory to double their efficiency.

Also, if you're in 3.P and want some serious skill cheese, combine the above Versatile Performance ability with the 3.5 Versatile Performer feat that you mentioned to get 2*(1+Int modifier) skills for the price of 1.

[Sith_Happens]

Speaking of 3.5 bards, the Bardic Knack ACF lets you treat any skill as if you had [Bard level]/2 ranks (rounded up) in it as long as you don't take 10. It doesn't let you use trained-only skills that you don't have actual ranks in, but the Jack-of-All-Trades feat takes care of that.

[AmberVael]

Can anyone think of any other ways to get free skill ranks, or to otherwise seriously stretch the skill points you've got?

One thing no one has really touched on so far is using a minimal number of skill points to actually get a skill (if necessary), and then using other bonuses to put that skill to real use. Factotum is obviously the stock example of this with use of Cunning Knowledge, but spellcasters can handle it pretty well too- spells like Divine Insight, Guidance of the Avatar, Improvisation, and Moment of Prescience can really do a lot of work. Just drop a point into an esoteric skill you'd like to have and then, when it comes up that once or twice, pop a spell and suddenly you're an expert.

[Kurald Galain]

Well, the Enhanced Diplomacy spell is basically a free +2 to all diplomacy and intimidate checks. The Guidance spell is a +1 to everything if you have time to cast it, and note that a certain familiar archetype will cast it on you every round. Then of course there's skill boosting gear; for only 200 gp, a ioun stone will boost your favorite skill, and we've had a few threads on these forums that list a potential masterwork tool for each skill.

[LudicSavant]

Masterwork Tools, from the PHB, should never be overlooked. If you're a decent enough writer to give a convincing explanation of a tool that gives you a bonus, pretty much every DM (at least in my experience) will let you have one for every skill you have. At only 50g or less a pop for a +2 circumstance bonus they're a steal.

Always remember to check for skill synergies. Also, there are tons of expanded uses for skills hidden in sourcebooks. Being aware of them will come in handy from time to time.

An Eternal Wand or Drow House Insignia of Magecraft is a cheap way to let you Craft masterwork anything without any ranks in Craft, or help you hit those higher poison DCs at low levels.

For artificers or others wanting some low level UMD oomph, Shape Soulmeld (Mage's Spectacles) is basically a purely superior version of Skill Focus (UMD)

Collector of Stories, a Complete Scoundrel skill trick, is great deal for those who want to identify monsters or use Knowledge Devotion.

Plenty of spells can make you into a jack of all trades when it comes to skills. For example, the 2nd level cleric spell Divine Insight will give you up to a +15 bonus to any skill check in a pinch.

[paranoidbox]

Well, the Enhanced Diplomacy spell is basically a free +2 to all diplomacy and intimidate checks. The Guidance spell is a +1 to everything if you have time to cast it, and note that a certain familiar archetype will cast it on you every round. Then of course there's skill boosting gear; for only 200 gp, a ioun stone will boost your favorite skill, and we've had a few threads on these forums that list a potential masterwork tool for each skill.

How much of a bonus is that for 200 gp? And it only improves one skill? What bonus type is that? Sorry, so many questions, but this peaked my interest :D

[AmberVael]

How much of a bonus is that for 200 gp? And it only improves one skill? What bonus type is that? Sorry, so many questions, but this peaked my interest :D

+1 competence bonus to one skill, assuming he's talking about the cracked ioun stones. (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/wondrous-items/wondrous-items/h-l/ioun-stones)

Its piqued, by the way, not peaked.

[shaikujin]

Those I know of that have not been mentioned:

1) The well known Polymorph into Barghest/Dusk Giant to increase HD by eating chickens (and thus Max skills ranks). Then use Psy Reform to swap skill points

2) Bloodline levels

3) Primary Contact feat from Cityscape

4) Swordsage x6 multiplier at level 1

5) Affiliation from PHB2. Setup your own affiliation of the Government type. One of the Executive powers of a Government is Law. If you pass a Law requiring a state religion or a state industry, every citizen gains at least 1 rank in Knowledge (religion) or Profession (relevant industry). Affiliations require no time or cost to set up beyond the Leadership feat. Declare each inch of your Stronghold it's own state and under a separate Government affiliation. Be a citizen of all of them.

Note that the skill increase only requires you to be a citizen, and is not a membership benefit of the affiliation (so the limitation where you can only gain membership benefits from 1 affiliation at a time does not apply). Also, this free rank is not from your level bonus and should not be capped by HD.

6) Illithid savant chaining.
a- start with 23 ranks in Spellcraft. Ice Assassin yourself.
b- eat brain of the Ice Assassin. Use (or Psychic reform) Acquire Skill class ability to acquire Spellcraft from the consumed brain. You now have 46 ranks.
c- Repeat the 2 steps above, you will double your skill ranks with every iteration.

7) Not really required since you can already have NI ranks, but it was a thought exercise I had, on perfectly cloning a character to become it's own guest/host. Once you get to NI ranks, change your race into a Dvati using the Savage Species Wish ritual. You have cloned yourself. Since spells affect only 1 twin, use Wish again to separately make each of your twins into a non Dvati. Apply Symbiont template and have 1 serve as a host of the other. Gain another NI ranks of Spellcraft as a racial bonus.

Btw, that Wish ritual is considered a greater effect of Wish and has defined rules that you have to roll to see if you get each ability of the target race. Since there's such a thing as the Save Game Trick, you get to redo this until you pick up only the abilities you want, skipping the detrimental ones (like vulnerability to sunlight, cold iron etc)

[avr]

There are PF traits which let you change the ability score used with some skills; get one of the ones which makes a skill based off intelligence instead of (say) charisma and you can dump charisma to raise intelligence more, which gives you more skill points.

The Orator (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/general-feats/orator) feat lets you use linguistics for of some of the commonest uses of social skills.

[Twurps]

A 1 level dip in marshal nets you Cha-modifier as a bonus to all checks related to a ability score of your choice.

[Amphetryon]

Totally rudimentary, but remember that 5+ Ranks in some Skills gives a +2 bonus in others.

[ben-zayb]

What, no mention of Extract Gift spell yet? Make it supernatural to prevent dispels.

Speaking of spells, UMD +.certain wands can substitute or be an alternative on a limited degree: Knock, Find Trap, etc.

[Darrin]

Skilled City-Dweller ACF (Cityscape Web Enhancement (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20070228a)).

Human Paragon dip.

Planar Touchstone -> Catalogues of Enlightenment -> various cleric domains that grant class skills.

Feats that add class skills:
Aereni Focus.
Martial Study.
etc.

[Extra Anchovies]

What, no mention of Extract Gift spell yet? Make it supernatural to prevent dispels.

Oooh, nice. On the topic of that spell: I don't know how to parse it (and thus don't know how to pronounce "extract"). Are you extracting a gift, or gifting an extract?

[Zaq]

The Third Eye Improvisation (MIC pg. 141) gives you a 1/day +5 competence bonus on an untrained skill check and lets you count as trained. This is usually limited in how useful it can be, but if you happen to be an Incarnate (who has terrible skill points but still gets a zillion on-the-fly skill boosts, and who thus tends to have untrained skills with really high bonuses), it's perfect. Cheap, too . . . only 1,000 gp each, so it's not expensive to buy a handful of them (and there's no 24 hour attunement period).

For that matter, Incarnates in general get crazy good skill boosts, even though they have absolute crap for skill points and class skills. Even just a few levels in Incarnate can get you a reliable +4 to +6 bonus on a good handful of skills (swappable each day as needed). Doesn't count as ranks or training (though some soulmelds do let you count as being trained), so it won't meet any prereqs, but if you're just looking for skill boosts, you could do worse than a dip in Incarnate. Most of their boosts are insight bonuses, for what that's worth. (Totemist also has some skill boosts, but most of their boosts are competence bonuses, so they don't stack with much.)

[Troacctid]

The Master Linguist feat gives you an extra language at every level, saving you points on Speak Language.

[Telonius]

You can invest skill points in an Item Familiar (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/magic/itemFamiliars.htm), which can give you untyped bonuses on skill checks (at a rate of +1 for every 3 invested). Note that the mention of an Item Familiar will set off many DMs' cheese detectors.