Quick synergy question

[SangoProduction]

Is it strange to anyone else that the perception skills (spot/listen) and stealth skills (hide/move silently) have no synergy bonuses to hunting (survival)? I mean, I would presume that having great skill in those would make you a much better hunter. [Let alone mindsight and similar stuff, which is...interesting.]

[AvatarVecna]

Is it strange to anyone else that the perception skills (spot/listen) and stealth skills (hide/move silently) have no synergy bonuses to hunting (survival)? I mean, I would presume that having great skill in those would make you a much better hunter. [Let alone mindsight and similar stuff, which is...interesting.]

One of the things they tried to avoid with synergy's was giving small bonuses on situations that were too niche to be worth mentioning, and they usually overdid it; oftentimes, they just gave bonuses to 'any use of the skill' whenever possible. For making houserule synergy bonuses, here's some things to keep in mind:
Firstly, a synergy bonus is a naturally-progressing reward for all people who specialize in a particular skill. Anybody who's good at lying has an advantage when it comes to negotiating, because they have a more solid understanding of tricking people into accepting something, and can use such skill in small ways. Similarly, anybody with a solid understanding of magical theory has an advantage trying to use magic scrolls because of their insight into the basics of how magic works. You have to ask yourself how closely the skills are tied in their uses, that a master of one would naturally gain significant advantage in the other.
Secondly, you need to consider everything the skill involves, and whether a blanket synergy bonus applying to all uses is appropriate. Knowing how to tie someone up properly involves knowing what methods of escape you need to learn to prevent; this gives you knowledge on methods of escaping situations...but only the ones pertaining to your knowledge (rope-based restrictions). Similarly, you need to consider exactly what using the skill represents.
Thirdly, you need to keep in mind how ridiculous things can get when you stack a bunch of synergies together: a half-elf Bard 2 with the right skill investments can be rocking a +16 Diplomacy check before even taking their Charisma bonus into account.

So, thinking through these, I don't think it's weird at all: under the first point, an urban sneakthief could easily have all four skills, and yet the idea of them possessing a sizable bonus to tracking animals is hilariously stupid based on the character concept; under the second point, it should be pointed out that tracking is just one part of what Survival represents (the skill also includes, and this may come as a shock, surviving in the wilderness) and is, in fact, a part of Survival that most characters can't even use without the proper feat; under the third point, even if we're just talking about a bonus to tracking, a +8 is ridiculous.

Tracking involves locating clues as to the animal's passing and using those clues to determine where the animal has gone. Does mastering the skill of methodical perception warrant a synergy bonus? Sure it does, that's why one already exists (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/skills/usingSkills.htm#skillSynergy) in the form of the Search skill. Do you have a great knowledge of the underground, or flora/fauna, or the planar wheel? Then you have a synergy bonus in the appropriate environment as well...and I think stacking two synergy bonuses together is enough.

Beyond all that, even if synergy bonuses didn't exist at all, it's not like skills are that hard to optimize anyway, but that's a minor complaint.

[John Longarrow]

Real world hunting, especially set in a medieval setting, doesn't use perception much. You already know where the animals will be as you've staked out a game trail/watering hole/prime pasture spot/migratory choke point/what ever. You know were your selected game will be. You are just waiting for it to come by. Likewise hiding/move silent won't be used much as you are either in ambush (not moving, carefully prepared spot) or you have beaters our driving the game toward you/towards a kill pit.

Most of what hunting is about is knowing what game will be doing, when, and where. Your not going to chance across a deer often unless you know where you will find it.

These skills also have no bearing on setting/using snares, pits, or other game traps.