Penny Arcade Podcast with Mike Mearls

ZombieRoboNinja · Aug 13, 2012

mlund said:
I kind of wish every class got one skill - Cleric: Religious Lore, Ranger: Nature Lore, Fighter: Athletics, Wizard: Arcane Lore etc. Well, except for the Rogue archetypes would've got a slew of skills, what with it being their shtick and all.

Honestly, rogues should get Stealth, because I can't imagine a 5e rogue functioning without it. And I wouldn't be surprised if rangers got, say, Survival AND Perception to give them a leg up on skills over other classes (except rogues).

The only trick with this system is that a lot of the best-suited backgrounds for a given class would cover the default skills. For example, the "priest" background obviously should include Knowledge: Religion and equally obviously should be a good choice for clerics. I'm guessing there will be a "pick one other suitable skill of your choice, at DM's discretion, when they overlap" line to cover those situations.

mlund · Aug 13, 2012

ZombieRoboNinja said:
Honestly, rogues should get Stealth, because I can't imagine a 5e rogue functioning without it.

I can't imagine a thief functioning without it, but if say, the Bard is a sub-set of the Rogue again then maybe Bluff would be more appropriate. Every rogue knows how to create a diversion, an opening, or pretend like he's not up to know good. Anyone in their lines of work without those skills winds up jailed or dead quick enough.