Skills: How many of them? How much do you get on level 1 and after? How many for MC

[Trance-Zg]

1. How many different skills do we want or need?

I have come up to a list of 21:

-1. Athletics (strength); jump, climb, swim, escape a grab,
-2. Endurance (constitution); holding breath, forced march, endure hunger/thirst, endure extreme weather, long distance hunt,
-3. Acrobatics (dexterity); tumble, balance, escape bonds, escape a grab,
-4. Thievery (dexterity); disabling traps, opening locks, picking pockets, making bonds,
-5. Stealth (dexterity); moving unseen/unheard, following, setting up ambushes,
-6: Ride (dexterity); ride an animal, animal driven vehicle,
-7: Linguistics (intelligence); Speak additional languages, decipher ancient scripts, innuendo messages, make and detect forgeries,
-8: Appraise (intelligence): Determine value of items, get better prices for buying and selling, detect magic items made to look mundane,
-9: Craft (intelligence); Craft items(one category per skill level taken)
-10: Knowledge Arcana (intelligence); Identify magic, dragons, aberrations, constructs, magical beasts,
-11: Knowledge Religion (intelligence); gods, outer plance, outsiders, elementals, undead,
-12: Knowledge Nature (intelligence); Handle animal, animals, plants, humanoids, monstrous humanoids, beasts, giants,
-13: Knowledge Civilization (intelligence); history, geography, nobility, engineering, royalty,
-14: Perception (wisdom); senses, searching,
-15: Survival (wisdom); outdoor survival, predicting weather, foraging, tracking, defend against severe weather, crafting simple traps and snares, finding rare herbs,
-16: Insight (wisdom); sense motive, discern lies, read emotions, read feints, detect innuendo,
-17: Heal (wisdom); first aid, long term care, treat poison, treat disease,
-18: Bluff (charisma); lie, misdirect, maintain a disguise, feint, innuendo,
-19: Diplomacy (charisma); negotiate a deal, barter, gather information,
-20: Intimidate (charisma);
-21: Perform (charisma); one category per skill level taken,



2. How much do you get on level 1?

depending on class/background/theme it should be from 3 to 7.

getting skill training will give you +4 in that skill.
also it will give you minimum roll of 5 in that skill(mundane tasks are easy, even when rushed then),

skill focus will give you additional +3 in that skill and a minimum die roll of 8(requires level 3),

skill mastery will give you additional +2 in that skill and a minimum die roll of 10(requires level 7),

skill grandmastery will give you additional +1 in that skill and a minimum die roll of 12(requires level 12),

Skill training, skill focus, skill mastery and grandmastery will also be general feats that all will be able to take after meeting prerequirements.



3. How many skills do you get after? I was thinking that every class gets certain fraction of a bonus skill feat per level.
-lets say that a rogue gets 0,90 skill feat per level. So at level 1 he has 0,90 feat to spend(round down) that is zero, at level 2 he has 1,80 feat to spend or round down exactly one bonus feat skill. For a total of 18 bonus skills at lvl 20.

-fighter would get 0,4 and get 1st bonus feat at level 3 and 2nd at level 5 for a total of 8 bonus skills at level 20.



4. As for multiclassing;

for later levels it's easy. Just add up fractions of both classes and determine when you can get a bonus feat.

As for starting number of skill I would add from second class 3 skills less that that class at 1st character level. So fighter would get 0 skills if not on first level and rogue would get 4. Third class would give you 5 less skills for multiclass.

 

[Deadboy]

Ugh. I hate perform and craft skills. There's no real reason to ever roll them even if you're performing those actions and they mean you have to waste perfectly good resources if you want to be able to do those things. I'd prefer to just write any of those applicable things in my character bio. People keep seeing them as role-playing enhancers but in my mind they're limiters.

 

[the Jester]

I want a skill system without a skill list.

I like what we've seen in the playtest; I don't think we need a ton of skills, and I think linking them to background is far superior to linking them to class. I think having "mastery" and "grandmastery" and so forth just continues the numbers inflation- we don't need that IMHO. With flatter math, we need a couple of bonus points here and there, but (not counting your ability bonus) I think a maxed out 20th level skill bonus should be about +6 (so a total of +11 with a 20 stat).

 

[Herremann the Wise]

Rather than seeing skills through the lens of the ability scores, my own preference is for the following lenses through which to use skills:

Physical Skills
- Agility
- Athletics
- Deftness
- Perception

Mental and Social Skills
- Adventuring
- Communication
- Cunning
- General Knowledge
- Lore

I think just about any skill you can think of can be seen through one of these. Is it worth doing this compared to the current plan for 5e? Most probably not.

Best Regards
Herremann the Wise

 

[BobTheNob]

I would just like backgrounds to be well enough defined that explicit stating of skills isnt even required. If its approriate that your background is appropriate to what your trying to do, get a +X bonus. As long as players have an ability to define their own backgrounds, they can create the character they want.

The important thing is that a characters capabilities match player expectations, and skill lists arent needed for that.

After 2 versions of skill lists, Im not convinced they are the best method of modelling capability.

 

[Minigiant]

I would like a relatively small skill list 10-15 skill. But the size is less of a concern.

What I prefer is less of a mix between mostly abstract skill (ie Forbidden Lore and Heradric Lore) and mostly defined skills (Stealth and Acrobatics).

Those abstract skill often require a 20 minute discussion on what they can and can't do.

Woe be on the group where the player and DM have different opinions and views of a barely defined skill in a game that is not extremely rules light.

 

[Chris_Nightwing]

I would just like backgrounds to be well enough defined that explicit stating of skills isnt even required. If its approriate that your background is appropriate to what your trying to do, get a +X bonus. As long as players have an ability to define their own backgrounds, they can create the character they want.

The important thing is that a characters capabilities match player expectations, and skill lists arent needed for that.

After 2 versions of skill lists, Im not convinced they are the best method of modelling capability.

The trouble with relying only on background is how you develop further skills later in the game. In that sense, deciding what 3-4 skills your background covers (with no finite list) works better.

 

[Trance-Zg]

I would just like backgrounds to be well enough defined that explicit stating of skills isnt even required. If its approriate that your background is appropriate to what your trying to do, get a +X bonus. As long as players have an ability to define their own backgrounds, they can create the character they want.

The important thing is that a characters capabilities match player expectations, and skill lists arent needed for that.

After 2 versions of skill lists, Im not convinced they are the best method of modelling capability.

Background/class will define how many skills you get and what you get and can you pick some by your own taste.

But I have also suggested how you can advance skills and characters must be able to advance in their skills somehow.