Klorox wrote:So, how high do you need in Bluff, Intimidate, and Diplomacy to get all the options?
It varies by how early or late in the game you are. Off the top of my head, I can think of at least 3 or 4 places where those skills is useful, and I'm sure that there are more. It's hard to build a character who will be well skilled in all 3 talky skills. You'd need to be a rogue to have all 3 as in-class skills. And if you're taking lots of talking skills at the expense of other rogue skills.
Diplomacy, IIRC, is considered the most useful of the three. After that, I'd say that Intimidate is next most useful. I can think of one situation where you either want a high Intimidate or a high Alchemy skill to resolve a certain situation later in the game. Of the three, Bluff is the least critical, although I know of at least one or two minor situations where Bluff can be useful.
Klorox, I wouldn't worry so much about having the ultimate uber-perfect, "cover every eventuality" party. Even with "only" 6 characters, it's not really possible to cover all of the bases to perfection.
That said, an interesting build that I've used once or twice is a ftr X/rogue 2. I start the character as a rogue and max out the talking skills. I also have the character have a DEX 14, so that he'll have a decent enough DEX to take advantage of rogue evasion at 2 levels of rogue. I switch over to fighter for a few levels, then take the second level of rogue after 4-5 levels of fighter, and max out the talking skills again. (BTW, any excess goes into the stealth skills.) This sort of build ends up being a chain mail-wearing fighter with a reasonably silvery tongue. Not exactly a powergaming build, but a more than competent fighter with the ability to talk to anyone. And you won't feel bad about having such a character in the #1 slot to be the party's spokesperson. No risk of turning down rewards or placing a weak mage out in front of your tanks.