D&D (2024) How would you change skills in 5.5e

[Yaarel]

TOOL PROFICIENCIES

I am happy with how the playtest interacts the proficiencies with skill and tool to grant Advantage.

The tool proficiency still needs to make clear that ability (tool) checks can include ANY associated efforts, including knowledge checks.

A character proficient with Cartographer Tools would know things like astronomy and mathematical calculations, for example.

A character proficiency with Musical Instrument would play the instrument to do the Influence Action to persuade the audience to a better Attitude toward the character. If the character has proficiencies with both Musical Instrument and Persuasion, then the ability (Musical Instrument) check is at an Advantage to gain an audience who is Friendly to the character.

 

[Emberashh]

They need to stop with the binary design. Proficiency and pass/fail are god awfully shallow.

 

[Corinnguard]

Has anyone ever used the Sleight of Hand skill to free their hands after they have been bound behind your back?

A couple weeks ago the party I was with, save our Goblin Druid, had been captured after walking through the 'front door' of an enemy encampment. When everyone came to and had been belittled by the leader of the enemy encampment, I looked at my character's character sheet for the Escape Artist skill. I didn't see it and asked the DM about it. When he told me that 5e didn't have that skill, I asked him if I could use Sleight of Hand. For a second, I totally caught my DM by surprise. He then told me to make a Sleight of Hand skill check for the next couple of rounds, but sure enough, my Bugbear Ranger freed himself of his bonds.

The Half-Elf Paladin of Bahamut used Divine Smite on his bonds. Our Goliath Blood Hunter used his own blood to set his bonds on fire. He was the last to free himself.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

I do not believe that there is an issue with the skills per se, but the resolution system need to move away from a binary pass/fail to a degree of success model, where appropriate.

 

[Horwath]

Some suggestions for those skills:

Medicine: The big one, by a large margin. Occasionally this acts as a sort of knowledge: biology or autopsy skill but even a DM actively looking to make it relevant has a hard time finding uses for this. If this is going to stick around, it probably needs to actually interact with hit points in some way, perhaps by allowing some limited use of healing surges outside of a short rest.

Once per long rest you can heal as a 1min treatment, health restored equal to Medicine check plus targets level(total number of HDs)

Perform: We do not need instrument proficiency and this skill. Moreover, performing on an instrument is too niche to be worth it. If you dig a little, it becomes clear that this skill at minimum is also meant to cover acting giving it some overlap with deception.
My solution would be to replace this with an "Impress" skill that is used whenever you wish to affect an NPC's attitude or emotions. Performing an instrument then just becomes one particular way to impress someone.

this could be molded into Persuasion, instruments can stay as tools.

Intimidate: Perhaps it ought not be so, but Intimidate is just a worse form of persuasion -- most DM's instinctively treat this skill as riskier to use than persuasion, and seldom create situations where Intimidate can work when persuasion can not. This skill could be rolled into the above "Impress" skill.

this should be used for situation where Persuasion does not work or has a higher DC, some RP situations should have higher Persuasion DC and some higher Intimidation DC.

Animal Handling: Too niche. I suppose this can be rolled into knowledge nature. Technically this could still be a charisma check, though very few DM's seem to make use of alternate attributes on a skill check.

Deleted and merged into Survival

Investigation: Part of me wants to go back to calling this "search" like in 3rd, just because when something is an investigation or a perception check seems an endless source of confusion for new DM's.

agree,

Streetwise | Gather Information: I'm not sure why this skill was dropped from earlier editions. Next to persuasion / diplomacy, this used to be one of the most common social skill checks I'd ask for at my table.

You just use Persuasion for the check.

Thieves' Tools, Disguise Kit: It's not good for some tool proficiencies to be mostly background flavor and others to be regularly useful during adventuring.

This two tools should be merged into Sleight of hands and call the skill Thievery.

 

[Yaarel]

It is easy to avoid a binary pass/fail ability check by prioritizing narrative.

A DM can require players to interact with any scene narratively. If what the players say sounds plausible then it is an autosuccess. Only if the outcome is uncertain, does the DM ask for an ability check.

In other words, the players arent rolling if their d20 ability check succeeds − they are rolling to see if their idea works.

For example. The DM can forbid players from saying game-mechanics like, "I roll Persuasion on the guard."

Instead, the players take on the perspectives of the heroes in the story. They need to come up with an idea that the guard might find persuasive. Perhaps, the guard has been dating someone, there is an anniversary coming up, and the guard has no idea what to celebrate it. The heroes might suggest getting invitations to an orchestra thru connections that they have with the mayor. Then, the DM determines if the guard thinks the date would like going to an orchestra for the anniversary, and then asks for a Charisma check to see if they can get the guard to accept the invitation as a "bribe", to let the players thru without a hassle. They might need to actually get the written invitations with the names of the guard and date from the staff of the mayor, before the guard accepts.

And so on.

This doesnt even need to be planned ahead of time. The DM will probably have some idea in mind, but the players might come up with an idea that surprises the DM, so the DM adjudicates the idea on the fly.

Simply paying attention to the story − and requiring all interactions to be narrative, only, turns everything into a nonbinary complex fluid skill challenge.

And the game becomes more immersive too.

 

[Corinnguard]

I do not believe that there is an issue with the skills per se, but the resolution system need to move away from a binary pass/fail to a degree of success model, where appropriate.

Pathfinder 2nd edition has it where a skill check can result in a Critical Failure, Failure, Success or a Critical Success.

Balance (Acrobatics)
Critical Success You move up to your Speed.
Success You move up to your Speed, treating it as difficult terrain (every 5 feet costs 10 feet of movement).
Failure You must remain stationary to keep your balance (wasting the action) or you fall. If you fall, your turn ends.
Critical Failure You fall and your turn ends.

In Level up: Advanced 5th Edition, your character can specialize in a narrow area of the skill they have chosen to become proficient in.

Skill Specialties
In addition to having proficiency in a skill, a character may be an expert at a narrow area of specialization within that skill. For instance, a character proficient in the Deception skill may be particularly adept in communicating through written code. A character gains two skill specialties at 1st level (plus bonus knowledge; see page 405), and gains an additional specialty whenever their proficiency bonus increases (at levels 5th, 9th, 13th, and 17th level). A character may choose any specialty in a skill in which they are proficient. A character may not gain the same skill specialty twice. When a character makes an ability check to which their skill specialty applies, they gain an expertise die for that ability check. The Narrator determines whether the skill specialty applies. While the list of skills below is fairly comprehensive, the Narrator may expand the list of skill specialties to meet the needs of the campaign world. Each of its cultures, historical eras, important organizations, and other unique details might furnish a specialty.

Ex. Acrobatics- you can specialize in balancing, escape artistry, swinging and tumbling.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

Pathfinder 2nd edition has it where a skill check can result in a Critical Failure, Failure, Success or a Critical Success.

Balance (Acrobatics)
Critical Success You move up to your Speed.
Success You move up to your Speed, treating it as difficult terrain (every 5 feet costs 10 feet of movement).
Failure You must remain stationary to keep your balance (wasting the action) or you fall. If you fall, your turn ends.
Critical Failure You fall and your turn ends.

In Level up: Advanced 5th Edition, your character can specialize in a narrow area of the skill they have chosen to become proficient in.

Skill Specialties
In addition to having proficiency in a skill, a character may be an expert at a narrow area of specialization within that skill. For instance, a character proficient in the Deception skill may be particularly adept in communicating through written code. A character gains two skill specialties at 1st level (plus bonus knowledge; see page 405), and gains an additional specialty whenever their proficiency bonus increases (at levels 5th, 9th, 13th, and 17th level). A character may choose any specialty in a skill in which they are proficient. A character may not gain the same skill specialty twice. When a character makes an ability check to which their skill specialty applies, they gain an expertise die for that ability check. The Narrator determines whether the skill specialty applies. While the list of skills below is fairly comprehensive, the Narrator may expand the list of skill specialties to meet the needs of the campaign world. Each of its cultures, historical eras, important organizations, and other unique details might furnish a specialty.

Ex. Acrobatics- you can specialize in balancing, escape artistry, swinging and tumbling.

This is part of what I have in mind but also, take this example: Picking a lock, it really cannot be picked the lock is rusted shut but the player roll anyway.
roll> 5 the lock is rusted shut
roll > 10 the lock is rusted shut and therefore the door must not have been used for several years.
and so on

 

[AnotherGuy]

Fail Forward and Success at a Cost/With a Complication exists within the DMG.
I prefer if those tables above were guidelines rather than being fixed as I'm a fan of the DM having free control over the narrative for Fail Forwards, or creating Costs or providing Complications.

1. The lock is rusted shut.
2. Your lockpick breaks.
3. Your lockpick breaks, but you succeed in picking the lock.
4. You inadvertently jam the lock. It will take some time (2d6 minutes) to unjam with the possibility of making noise (Stealth check to mitigate).
5. Success but you inadvertently hurt yourself in the attempt. Cure Wounds or 1 use of a Medicine Kit to patch yourself up or you cannot carry anything with that hand.
6. You fail, (costs 5 minutes), but you believed you've figured it out, you just need more time. If a new attempt is made, with the same character, the DC is reduced by 5. A further fail, results in a success but at an additional time cost (10 minutes).
7. You pick the lock successfully but the lock now is damaged.
...etc

 

[JAMUMU]

I was working on a skill system for my 5e campaign where the skill-list used a trimmed down version of the skills from Burning Wheel. I was dithering between having 36 or 50 skills in total. Starting skills were acquired much the same way, but they could also be 'opened' during play and increasing them was a function of use, not levelling. I didn't say it was going to be a useable skill system, but it gives some idea of the directions I'd like the skills in D&D to take.