- Intelligence dependency in Misc skills is a bad idea. It makes Intelligence overpowered: people with minmaxed Intelligence will have bonuses to bartering, talking, forging swords, picking locks AND doing magic. That's just wrong.
But do remember that it will be cut in half since the misc schools all need a second attributes.
That only makes it worse. People with 40 Intelligence willl have a +1 bonus, just like people with 40 Charisma and people with 20 Intelligence/20 Charisma. Why should I put points into Charisma when putting them into Intelligence will yield the same results?
Following an only-int route will leave your character very, very weak compared to others. What you gain in skill bonuses, you suffer in actually being able to fight. With a lack of agility, you get hit very often. With a lack of strength, you cannot carry what you buy. With a lack of toughness, you die quickly. With a lack of charisma, you might as well say goodbye to selling, buying, or even talking. Think this through. Spells are not the only thing around. Sure, you will mince anything that walks around the block, but there will come a time where a monster will be very resistant to magic, or a time where a monster will get into melee, or where you need to talk your way out of getting mauled, or where you are affected by a poison, or when you cannot carry the fabulous loot. When that time comes, you will wish you had gotten some other attribute.
Obviously those will rarely happen since the other members of your group are specialized, but there's absolutely no way to avoid that.
Besides, that's only in the later stages. Early on, it's more profitable to put 10 points into charisma, instead of intelligence; it takes
20 int to overcome the -2 penalty. And even in the late game, you will suffer, since attribute points get rarer and rarer, you will have a harder and harder time trying to adapt to what is needed if you are highly specialized. I promise, I will make you pay for specializing.
Also,
bartering has a background formula. I said this before. Charisma plays a large role in this.
If the above is poorly worded, then I'm sorry, it's late here and I'm not really in the right mood or state of mind to argue. Regardless, I'm not changing it until It proves itself to be actually game breaking. I've balanced it enough. Intelligence has no real secondary bonuses, so it gets this as it's secondary. Charisma doesn't get anything, but when you need it, you will likely
really need it.