Thanks all for the ideas!

One modification I'm considering is giving extra skill points to everyone except tier 1 classes. Most of them are Int-based so get plenty of bonus SPs that way, and the Cleric and Druid certainly don't need any help.

Quote Originally Posted by El'the Ellie View Post
Pathfinder has Background Skills. Essentially 2 free skill points per level that can only be spent on things that aren't 'crucial to the game'. It makes players feel better about putting those points in Craft(Basket weaving) they mentioned in their background because those skill points couldn't be used for something more optimized anyway. It's worth considering implementing them in your game.
I like the idea of the skills that don't tend to get taken seeing some use. I'm not sure about Sleight of Hand, and I think Perform should count as an adventuring skill to any class which has Bardic Music or similar, and likewise Handle Animal for any class that gets an animal companion, but apart from that their list looks about right. I might implement this in addition to the extra base SPs or instead of it.

Quote Originally Posted by Eldariel View Post
In the game described in my signature, we ran with 8 extra skill points per level each and it was a lot of fun. Finally some extras to do things beyond the bare essentials.
8? Blimey, it seems I'm worrying unnecessarily about 2...

I didn't think it would cause any major problems, but if there's one thing I've learned about D&D, it's that there's so often something important you didn't think of that it's always worth canvassing opinions before you make any changes.