Saeviomagy said:What IS the object of having a limited list of explicit skills? The ability to have a consistant mechanic for various different potential actions? How do knowledge skills break that?
It maintains a balance between the variety of the skill list and the number of skill points each character gets per level. If skills start multiplying, it gets harder and harder to justify focussing on any particular skill, because there are so many places you could put the points. WOTC has made a very good move in reducing the number of skills by folding some into others for 3.5, IMO.