We're in the starting phases of an new saga and we're discussing the possibility of reducing the number of social skills a bit.
I'm assumning we're not the first group who has looked at his and would like to hear from others who has cut and combined some of the social skills.
That looks like a very good take on social skills.
Thanks
Initially, we too felt that there was a problem with "too many" social skills. This tended to create characters who were very good at one type of social interaction, but not others, which felt ... wrong.
Then we realized that it was not that bad: different social skills can achieve the same result in different ways, yielding characters with a different "social flavour". E.g. you can use Leadership, Intrigue, Charm, or Bargain to convince someone to do something for you. With Leadership, you will be assertive. With Bargain, you can make it (appear) worthwhile for the other party to play along. With Charm, you will appeal to his "nice" side. With Intrigue, you will push the right levers and maybe get someone put in the right word for you. In the real world, most people do tend to rely on one particular "tack" depending on their personality and training, so it makes sense.
I think that the debate rules in HoH:S (the Tytalus chapter) are a very good example of the fact that you can convince someone using different "tacks", each carrying a different bonus or penalty depending on the situation.
It's also worth thinking about whether you're happy with the side-effects of reducing the number of social skills. The big one is that it increases the odds of the magi being socially competent (as it's less of an xp sink), which reduces the need for companions (although doesn't eliminate them, as long as you're playing up the social effects of the Gift).
We’ve got three gentle gifted characters, two with a fair amount of XP sunk into social skills backed by mentem magic do it’s safe to say that we’ll have socially competent characters no matter how many social skills there are.