On beyond CHA

Local Knowledge should definitely be a CHA skill. The IQ nerd might know where George Washington slept, but he won't know the hottest bar in D.C. Like I mentioned, 'Contacts' was a potentially great aspect of Shadowrun.

Haggling is a fine CHA skill. Roleplaying bartering is the WORST and unfun. Just make your roll, take your goddamn money and go. Haggling is anti-roleplaying, it's far better to make a check.

Gambling. If you believe in Pick Pockets and Haggling, this is the same kinda skill. Gaming could be the alt IQ variant of this skill- poker vs. chess. Better handled in game as a die roll rather than playing out a game of chess.

Likewise, Leadership is good. I'm talking about raising a peasant army. Henchmen get used if there's a workable system for it- the Leadership feat in 3E is one of the best, as it brings in new friendly NPCs, always difficult in a game. Roleplaying should be part of this to some degree, but that's true for most skills anyways (Disguise, Pick Pocket, Alertness,...).

Intimidate and Cheer. Nonmagical Curse or Bless, maybe alter initiative instead. Decreases foes' morale for the former, increases allies' morale for the latter. Maybe Jimmy Swill wouldn't do it, but other chars would; this is a lot like the 3E Bard.

Singing/Dancing/Performing. In addition to their fluff value, could be used for augmenting sleep/charm spells. Again like 3E bard.

Distract could be a related skill. Could augment thief abilties or again affect other die rolls like init or saves. Skills like this would allow me to make my fuckin' Enchanter, finally. Enchanters could be great, but suck in games compared to blast mages. Time to remedy that.

Animal Handling. Oh yeah. Not IQ, not STR, not END, not AGI. This is 100% CHA.

Demonic Bargaining. Actually, instead of an Enchanter, the Summoner should be the boss mage. There's a time to roleplay demonic negotiations, but for a guy who does it routinely in combat, systematizing it makes it functional.

Hypnosis. Extract information or implant false memories into a captured foe.

Cool Head. Resistance to mental spells.

Meager. Not seem like a threat- DM rerolls if foe is targeting you. Or, the opposite- Insult, could make a foe target you.

Also importantly, CHA gives a base to nobility and priest classes.

How crazy do you want to get? It's pretty crazy to think that with skills alone, someone can get three attacks in a round. What about CHA-based abilities or skills for Telepathy? Or direct Summoning? Or, Saints never had to 'cast' to speak with God... God talked *to* them. A 'Hear Voices' skill for prophets. 'Presence', which is like a non-magical Sanctuary. No one mugs Gandhi because he cast a magic spell. They don't mug him because he's mother fucking GANDHI. 'Reputation' could have 'Circles' just like spells do. I'm just trying to get away from Fishing-like skills and make the kind of games and characters more interesting.

Look, you need to step back I think. Just because you don't personally like something doesn't mean it shouldn't be in there. I never really thought Iron Cloth was a cool skill, or good or useful. But I added it just to expand the list- to show the sorts of things that *could* be done with skillpoints. Not specifically but generally. Honestly, who the fuck cares about the Fishing skill? I've had several players with cool character ideas, but the system support just wasn't there, and ultimately, it was the blast mage and the butch fighter that end the campaign, every time.

When I added the 'Critical Hit' skills to the system, it gave fighter types an end point. A skill to acheive that actually meant something- that you've hit the peak of the art. I'm not seeing that here outside spellcasting.

I think it's silly to think other people are going to use this system wholesale. What's not silly is to think that some DMs out there might steal some novel ideas from it. They're not going to steal goddamn 'fishing' or your encumbering rules. At least I wouldn't, I just look for cool skills, abilities, and new ideas for magical systems.

I don't understand Paul's sentences "I like reducing the number of skills in my game as much as I can, while still having as many of the options mapped out that players may want to take advantage of. I like fewer skills because it gives the players more tools. " I'd nderstand giving the players more skills to increase the numer of options, naturally. How does fewer skills equal more tools? What do you mean by 'tools' anyway?
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Now onto other problems. Why do you stop getting prof points? That seems retarded. I can't learn to make armor or about the other planes when I start getting powerful? Total ad hoc mechanic... remove. Just give like 5 prof points each level.

Likewise, just give one more health point every level. It's fine. I'm not sure why'd you be concerned with pseudo-realism in combats for 15th level characters anyway, when Raise Dead gets tossed around liberally.