I was recently introduced to Fantasy Flight Games Star Wars RPG system at a convention and I was very impressed with its "narrative" approach to skills. Because I clearly have nothing better to do, I decided to write up my own "overhaul" for 4e's Skill system to replicate the FFG "Core Mechanic". If you're not familiar with it the "basic" version of the system is you create a dice pool based off of your rank in a skill and your core ability. The larger of the two is how many dice you roll, the smaller is how many of those are "upgraded" to a different type of dice. These dice have symbols instead of numbers, and you end up counting those against what the DM rolls. Positive dice can come up as "Success" "Advantage" or "Triumph", while negatives are "Failure", "Threat", and "Despair".
Now, to actually apply this to D&D. First, because of the Skill Rank/Ability mod interaction I had to take ability scores down a bit. I use 5e's point buy now, as "16" is a better early cap. Adjust all 4e math accordingly. Next, all classes have "Skill Points" back. Everyone gets 5+Int mod per level, save for Rogue and Bard, they get 7. Being "trained" in a skill automatically grants you "Skill Rank I" for free. You purchase ranks down a tree, or across the linked branches. A single talent in each row costs a certain amount of skill points (2/3/4/5/6). You can buy non class skills for *triple* the skill point cost for Skill Rank I and then double for any other talents.
The game is Earthsea like, so I added the "sailing" skill. Likewise, I collapsed 5e's "Investigate" into Insight and Survival/Nature into one. With that, I also allow a good range of "flex" on the ability players can use for a skill. Athletics/Acrobatics can be either Strength or Dexterity. Insight and Survival can be either Intelligence or Wisdom.
The attached PDF has the skill trees. I worked in as many of 4e's skill powers as I could as well, since I wanted to integrate those better than they have been before.
Also, if anyone is wondering this is one of the smaller changes I've made to 4e.
Now, to actually apply this to D&D. First, because of the Skill Rank/Ability mod interaction I had to take ability scores down a bit. I use 5e's point buy now, as "16" is a better early cap. Adjust all 4e math accordingly. Next, all classes have "Skill Points" back. Everyone gets 5+Int mod per level, save for Rogue and Bard, they get 7. Being "trained" in a skill automatically grants you "Skill Rank I" for free. You purchase ranks down a tree, or across the linked branches. A single talent in each row costs a certain amount of skill points (2/3/4/5/6). You can buy non class skills for *triple* the skill point cost for Skill Rank I and then double for any other talents.
The game is Earthsea like, so I added the "sailing" skill. Likewise, I collapsed 5e's "Investigate" into Insight and Survival/Nature into one. With that, I also allow a good range of "flex" on the ability players can use for a skill. Athletics/Acrobatics can be either Strength or Dexterity. Insight and Survival can be either Intelligence or Wisdom.
The attached PDF has the skill trees. I worked in as many of 4e's skill powers as I could as well, since I wanted to integrate those better than they have been before.
Also, if anyone is wondering this is one of the smaller changes I've made to 4e.