iserith
Magic Wordsmith
They don't really "do" anything though in this game. Ability checks just exist as a mechanic to sometimes resolve things the players describe their characters as attempting with skill proficiencies offering a bonus if and when they apply to the task. So you could split Athletics into, say, Climb, Jump, and Swim, if you wanted to. It just means individually they will tend to apply less often to a Strength check than an Athletics skill proficiency which covers all three.Yeah, all this talk of skill splitting/lumping doesn't really matter if we're not going to establish what skills actually do. You can always make athletics 3 skills and give out additional proficiencies or points, or 1 and give out less.
It is a problem if we're evaluating something like 3.5 Use Magic Device and Swim as equally investments in a scarce economy, but there's a lot of ways to solve that problem.