D&D 5E Heavily used skill proficiencies

[Blue]

One of the thoughts behind this poll was the idea of both combining some skills and adding granularity to other skills in order to even out usage. That any skill picked would have a chance (depending on campaign, of course) to come up. That the "always skills" get either given to everyone (so no skill tax) or broken up into smaller bits. But as we can see from Pecerption & Investigation (& possible Insight), there still can be unevenness when breaking down skills. And I know when 5e started many were struggling for when which was appropriate.

Thanks for the info, including the follow up comments about the "next tier" of high usage and especially for the ones that never see use. I want to compile them and come up with some ideas in a follow-up post.

 

[iserith]

One of the thoughts behind this poll was the idea of both combining some skills and adding granularity to other skills in order to even out usage. That any skill picked would have a chance (depending on campaign, of course) to come up. That the "always skills" get either given to everyone (so no skill tax) or broken up into smaller bits. But as we can see from Pecerption & Investigation (& possible Insight), there still can be unevenness when breaking down skills. And I know when 5e started many were struggling for when which was appropriate.

Thanks for the info, including the follow up comments about the "next tier" of high usage and especially for the ones that never see use. I want to compile them and come up with some ideas in a follow-up post.

The question I have is what is the goal of trying to "balance" out skills usage? To my mind, some tables and campaigns will use some more than others and players aware of this can make their choices accordingly. Further, even if a player does choose a proficiency that doesn't normally see a lot of use, the player can simply keep engaging in tasks which might be resolved by the DM calling for an ability check with the corresponding proficiency. Animal handling doesn't normally see a lot of use? Well, go handle some animals!

I think that works just fine and don't really see any good reason to call things a "skill tax." Bounded accuracy ensures that many characters can succeed on ability checks even without a skill or tool proficiency, depending on the DC. Working together, Help action, Inspiration, guidance, or other resources further make this possible. This might have been a problem in other editions of the game. I just don't see it in this one.

 

[billd91]

It's almost enough to do what PF2 did and give everyone proficiency in Perception. It is the most commonly used skill in the game - by far.

 

[Flamestrike]

Perception, then daylight then Stealth and Acrobatics, then the rest.

 

[Stalker0]

I'd say the most interesting note in the poll so far is Investigation. Even considering its a "new skill" to 5e, and one that in some ways can overlap with Perception, it still seems to get a lot of use out on the table.

 

[iserith]

I'd say the most interesting note in the poll so far is Investigation. Even considering its a "new skill" to 5e, and one that in some ways can overlap with Perception, it still seems to get a lot of use out on the table.

And yet people are continually saying Intelligence is a dump stat!

 

[Maxperson]

And yet people are continually saying Intelligence is a dump stat!

There isn't a stat out there that I like as a "dump" stat. All of them are too useful in too many situations.

 

[Stalker0]

And yet people are continually saying Intelligence is a dump stat!

And for a 5 player party, it is for 4 players

Now it will be interesting to see how various tables do it, but in my experience while Perception is often a group activity (spot the ambusher), similar with Athletics, often the whole or a good portion of the party might have to make it over a cliff or swim through a stream kind of thing. Meanwhile Investigation tends to be a more personal one (I'm going to investigate the scene for clues).

Doesn't mean that the whole group can't use the skill of course, but failing your perception and having the enemy get a surprise round on you sucks...whereas not having everyone with investigate isn't as big a deal.

So unless I am the "investigator", I am not going to raise my int and lose out on other stats just to have a little more of this skill. So yes, unfortunately int is still the dump stat of 5e.

 

[Don Durito]

I'd say the most interesting note in the poll so far is Investigation. Even considering its a "new skill" to 5e, and one that in some ways can overlap with Perception, it still seems to get a lot of use out on the table.

It's not new. It's just Search renamed.

 

[Stalker0]

It's not new. It's just Search renamed.

ooooooh yeah. I feel like search was a skill we never used. Talk about good PR, no one likes to "search", search is drudgery. But change the name to "investigation" and suddenly everyone's "investigating" and just using the skill like candy