What the hell is the point of most of the skill feats?

[Eldrin]

For example Alertness gives +2 perception and +4 if you have 10 ranks in the skill

Instead one could take skill focus and take it for perception and gain +3 and +6 if you have 10 ranks in it?

What the hell for would anyone ever take ANYTHING but skill focus if they want extra skill levels?
Like all the specific feats give +2 and +4 like alertness.

And u can retake the skill focus as many times u want once for each skill

[A Big Hairy Monster]

Yeah there's a few odd choices here and there with how they've overhauled a few things to work under their system. Its a bit odd. Part of the answer might be related to prerequisites, but that's not really an excuse.

That's kind of tabletop Pathfinder for you though - there's a lot of trap choices because the designers didn't care about avoiding that sort of thing.

[saice]

"You can gain this feat multiple times. Its effects do not stack. Each time you take the feat, it applies to a new skill."

you can take it more then once but not for the same skill.

[A Big Hairy Monster]

Originally posted by saice:

"You can gain this feat multiple times. Its effects do not stack. Each time you take the feat, it applies to a new skill."

you can take it more then once but not for the same skill.

They might also be different bonus types; if so, you can take both feats and they'll both apply.

[Eldrin]

Originally posted by A Big Hairy Monster:

Yeah there's a few odd choices here and there with how they've overhauled a few things to work under their system. Its a bit odd. Part of the answer might be related to prerequisites, but that's not really an excuse.

That's kind of tabletop Pathfinder for you though - there's a lot of trap choices because the designers didn't care about avoiding that sort of thing.

Prerequisites? There are none for any of these feats

Originally posted by saice:

"You can gain this feat multiple times. Its effects do not stack. Each time you take the feat, it applies to a new skill."

you can take it more then once but not for the same skill.

I never said u can take it more then once, the skill focus is just superior to the indevidual ones since it gives more

Originally posted by A Big Hairy Monster:

Originally posted by saice:

"You can gain this feat multiple times. Its effects do not stack. Each time you take the feat, it applies to a new skill."

you can take it more then once but not for the same skill.

They might also be different bonus types; if so, you can take both feats and they'll both apply.

and the bonuses are identical, no difference just one is more

[Tomice]

Alertness is badly balanced (+2/+4 for a single skill), don't take it!
Use skill focus: perception instead (+3/+6). Or one of those that give +2/+4 to perception and another skill.

Explanation: the pen&paper version has thrice as many skills, which wasn't well-designed in the first place. Later book editions offered "condensed skills", which inspired Owlcat.
Alertness turned out weird due to the "translation" (it gave a bonus to two skills in the PnP version).

Apart from that, don't lightly decide to take a non-combat feat. Use classes that have naturally high skills for skill checks (rogue, bard,...). Only take skill feats if being a master diplomat, a master hidden treasure/trap spotter or master lockpicker is really important to you. And if it is, use the feats to skyrocket the skills of a character that is already very good at them (meaning he has a high corresponding attribute and has them as "class skills" for free +3 points).

Most skill checks in the game will automatically check the highest score anyone in your party has, so boosting weak skills through a feat is often a waste. As an example, climbing checks seem to assume that the first one who makes it up there helps the others.
Exceptions include mechanics (you only get one try per lock per char) and seemingly perception (multiple "spotters" seem to detect more traps/secrets, plus you need them for night watch)

[Eldrin]

Originally posted by big.bumbo:

Alertness is badly balanced (+2/+4 for a single skill), don't take it!
Use skill focus: perception instead (+3/+6). Or one of those that give +2/+4 to perception and another skill.

Explanation: the pen&paper version has thrice as many skills, which wasn't well-designed in the first place. Later book editions offered "condensed skills", which inspired Owlcat.
Alertness turned out weird due to the "translation" (it gave a bonus to two skills in the PnP version).

Apart from that, don't lightly decide to take a non-combat feat. Use classes that have naturally high skills for skill checks (rogue, bard,...). Only take skill feats if being a master diplomat, a master hidden treasure/trap spotter or master lockpicker is really important to you. And if it is, use the feats to skyrocket the skills of a character that is already very good at them (meaning he has a high corresponding attribute and has them as "class skills" for free +3 points).

Most skill checks in the game will automatically check the highest score anyone in your party has, so boosting weak skills through a feat is often a waste. As an example, climbing checks seem to assume that the first one who makes it up there helps the others.
Exceptions include mechanics (you only get one try per lock per char) and seemingly perception (multiple "spotters" seem to detect more traps/secrets, plus you need them for night watch)

I am having a hard time to think what to take on a sorcerer.

Spell focus is broken, as it does nothing. (I added it to evocation, cast fireball, look at combat notes, DC is still the same)

I would assume elemental focus will be broken too

Spell penetration is good

Toughness is good

Dodge and Combat mobility good

Metamagic for high levels

But aside form that i cant really find anything good for it.

[LordQwert]

In the original Pathfinder system Alertness granted +2/+4 in both Perception and Sense Motive. Sense Motive is a skill that didn't make it over to Kingmaker. I'm not sure why they didn't give the feat something else for balance. It could be SM was dropped late. Still, it'd be an easy fix to have it give a +1/+2 to initiative also, which is what I think Alertness does DnD 5.

[Iry]

They stack.

Alertness + Persuasive + Skill Focus (Perception) gives you +14 Perception at Level 10.

Nice for those DC 54 Perception checks in the late game, especially if you don’t run with an Inquisitor.

[For_Science!]

Originally posted by SwiftXShadow:

What the hell for would anyone ever take ANYTHING but skill focus if they want extra skill levels?
Like all the specific feats give +2 and +4 like alertness.

No; none of the other skill feats are messed up like alertness. All the others give +2 (with fewer than 10 ranks) / +4 (with more than ten ranks) to two DIFFERENT skills. Deceptive, for example gives +2/+4 to both Persuasion and Trickery. So you get more total bonus points than you would with Skill Focus, but you don't get to concentrate them all in your top-priority skill.

I assume that with Alertness, they were planning to decide which second skill it should cover, and the question somehow fell through the cracks before release.