skill points

[Shinoskay]

Google fuu has been failing me a lot today.

I remember seeing a way for a wizard to start with a few more skill points. Anyone willing to offer a helping hand there?

[MaxiDuRaritry]

Google fuu has been failing me a lot today.

I remember seeing a way for a wizard to start with a few more skill points. Anyone willing to offer a helping hand there?Human Heritage and Human Blood both grant more skill points.

Actually being human helps too.

As does a higher Int score. As does starting as a race with a higher base Int, like fire elf and gray elf.

It might also behoove you to start at a higher age category. +1 Int per age category (along with a higher Wis and Cha) at the expense of your physical scores might be in order. I wouldn't go Venerable, though, because that can cause problems.

If you are a kobold (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20060420a) and take the Dragonwrought feat, you can start at a higher age category without taking any physical penalties (made up for by kobolds' terrible physical stats to begin with).

If you're starting at a higher level, you can always use magic to finagle your way into having a huge base Int score (such as via polymorphing into an animal and paying a friendly druid to cast an Intensified awaken spell on you to get yourself a base Int score of 36, among others), then either doing a character rebuild, paying a friendly psion to manifest psychic reformation on you so you can re-choose your skill ranks, or get yourself a thought bottle, store your XP total, get a bunch of negative levels, retrain that level, and then restore your XP total to get all your other levels back.

There are ways and there are ways.

[Shinoskay]

It's all feats for skill points trades, though, right? aside from the int boosts that is.

Any traits or something?

by the by, though. thank you for the suggestions.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

It's all feats for skill points trades, though, right? aside from the int boosts that is.

Any traits or something?

by the by, though. thank you for the suggestions.No traits that I know of. At least in 3e. In PF, however...

You could multiclass, gestalt, or PrC into a class with a higher number of skill points per level. This includes racial classes that benefit wizards (such as human paragon) or legacy champion (which loses a few CLs but has a much better chassis). If you can finagle your way in, illithid savant allows you to eat other critters and take their skills.

You could use planar binding for a couple of genies to grant you wishes and use them to boost your Int score.

You could use a device (nonmagical "magic" item from Ravenloft: Legacy of the Blood) to use polymorph any object on yourself to turn yourself into something with a high Int score, such as a sarrukh (for 30 base Int). Since it's nonmagical, it can't be dispelled or suppressed in an AMF. You'd have to pick a body of a creature you'd want, though. Otherwise, do a mind-swap with another creature, use the device of PAO then, and then mind-swap back to your original body. The other creature gets the body, and you get the Int score.

You could gain a template that grants +Int. Phrenic, for instance.

You could take Item Familiar (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/magic/itemFamiliars.htm) for an item that can't be removed from your person, such as a graft or an implanted item, and invest your skill points into it to nab some bonuses for those skills.

You could use your familiar to Aid Another for +2 to any skill you both have.

You could take the Open Minded feat, from the XPH. +5 skill points.

You could take Nymph's Kiss for +1 skill point per level.

You could take the Primary Contact feat for +1 skill rank cap in one skill.

You could have a bard use Inspire Greatness to give you bonus HD, then hire a psion to psychic reformation you into having skill points where you want them.

You could do that, but with lycanthropy, instead. (Cure the lycanthropy instead of letting the bard stop playing.)

There are more, I'm sure, although I'd have to think on it some more.

[nedz]

Well you could go Human Paragon and trade a level of spell casting for Adaptive Learning and +2 Int.

There are also PrCs — Unseen Seer can be entered without dipping Rogue, though that's quite tricky.

Also, going back to Feats, there's Nymph's Kiss - + Skill point per level.

[ShurikVch]

The "Wild" racial variant from Dragon #306 gets +1 skill point, but:
It don't stack with other racial extra skill points;
"Wild" also gives -2 Int penalty - thus, the net gain is 0: what you gain by increased skill points - you lose by decreased Int...

[Particle_Man]

For a non-human way to go, Changeling Wizard substitution levels gives you 4 skill points/level (and more class skills) for levels 1, 5 and 10.

That said, if you just want a full arcane caster and are not married to "wizard" as such, Beguiller is kitted out with 6 skill points/level.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

You could always try for a swordsage/wizard/jade phoenix mage and go for that sweet, sweet (6+Int)x6 skill points at first level...

[ThanatosZero]

If you're starting at a higher level, you can always use magic to finagle your way into having a huge base Int score (such as via polymorphing into an animal and paying a friendly druid to cast an Intensified awaken spell on you to get yourself a base Int score of 36, among others), then either doing a character rebuild, paying a friendly psion to manifest psychic reformation on you so you can re-choose your skill ranks, or get yourself a thought bottle, store your XP total, get a bunch of negative levels, retrain that level, and then restore your XP total to get all your other levels back.

Intensified Spell requires the druid to be a epic character and that again can be tricky pre-epic with NPCs, as they are under the DM's control.
As a alternative we have Sudden Empower and Sudden Maximise.

To set it up, PAO (Polymorph Any Object) is prepared in a Spell Trigger spell and the wizard energy drains themselves back to a level 1 wizard. PAO is triggered and transforms the wizard temporally into a tree.
Now the druid casts Awaken with both Sudden Empower and Sudden Maximise on the now tree wizard.
The wizard gains new mental stats and due Savage Species for awakened PCs they gain 3d6 for Int and 4d6s (drop lowest) for Wis and Cha, which are affected by the metamagic feats. Without Savage Species, it is only 3d6 for the three mental stats.

The wizard gains mental stats in this range 18+1-9, which overwrite the preexisting mental stats.

This can be repeated several times, till the wizard gets 27 Intelligence for level 1.

[Shinoskay]

You could always try for a swordsage/wizard/jade phoenix mage and go for that sweet, sweet (6+Int)x6 skill points at first level...

Jade pheonix requires 9 ranks in concentration. cant do that level 1

[MaxiDuRaritry]

Jade pheonix requires 9 ranks in concentration. cant do that level 1I know. Go look at swordsage's starting skills points.

Then you use that (and wizard) to eventually enter jade phoenix mage.

Yes, I know it's a typo. It's still there, and it's never been errata'd.

[ThanatosZero]

Jade pheonix requires 9 ranks in concentration. cant do that level 1

It can be done at level 5 with the feat Primary Contact (City Scape) and the feat Able Learner (Races of Destiny).

Primary Contact grants this benefit:

... Choose one skill associated with the organization to which your contact belongs. You gain 1 bonus rank in that skill (even if doing so would put you above your normal maximum ranks for that skill). ...
Said organisation, can be easly one of the Jade Phoenix Mages themselves.

With the two feats a Swordsage 1/Wizard 4 (or Wu Jen 4)/Jade Phoenix Mage 10/Abjurant Champion 5 becomes possible, rather easly.
It has 17 BAB, IL 15 with 8th level manuevers and 17/20 Wizard spellcasting with 9th level spells.

[Zaile]

So PF traits were brought up earlier and those are good ways to add skills to your lists.

It's a little obscure, but check out "Iron Heroes" from Monte Cook. There is the core rulebook and the "players companions" (this one's like 20 pages). The traits in there are fantastic and really flavorful if your DM loves background bonuses.

For skills the two I remember are "Edict memory" (or something close) which gave +2 to all Knowledges and perfect recall; the other was "Intuitive learning" that uses WIS mod for skill points and languages. The other traits often give bonuses to certain skills or in certain terrains.

Other good traits include +2/-2 for each stat, tons of background traits, 4e's weapon stat-substitute for STR, powerful build, go check it out.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

A level 10+ dominant ideal ardent with awaken as a power known through various means (possibly learned from a StP erudite, who absorbed it from a Child of Eberron draconic archetype dragon, or a druid with Southern Magician, or a wyrm wizard, or an arcane caster with Extra Spell, or an arcane scroll or power stone from one of them, or any number of other ways to get a divine-spell-as-an-arcane-spell), and who altered one of his (or her, or its, or attack helicopter) mantles, and who has Metapower (Empower Power + awaken), could hit you with an awaken spell, Empowered dozens, if not hundreds of times, boosting your Int score literally as high as you want. Since the only limits on metapsionics are the manifester's pp cap and the number of psionic foci you have to spend, there's literally no limit to how many times awaken can be Empowered. Metapower reduces Empower's pp cost to 0 (as does dominant ideal), and dominant ideal negates the need for psionic foci.

So get a level 10+ dominant ideal ardent as a minion, or even a hireling for spellcasting manifesting services, and you can have nigh infinite Int (and Cha). If you're capable of turning yourself into a plant (and if you can become an animal via polymorph then a plant isn't out of reach), this extends to Wis, as well.