D&D 5E (2024) Rank 5e skills from most useful (1) to least useful (18)

[TheSword]

Of the three social skills I feel intimidation is so much lower than the others. It forces a hostile position there and then. Not only that, it reduced the potential targets to someone who you would be willing to intimidate.

Deception potentially does the same thing. Reducing the available targets to someone you’d be willing to lie to. Who might find out.

Persuasion works on almost everyone and doesn’t turn people against your. For me intimidation is low in this table and persuasion is near the top.

 

[Tonguez]

The Essentials:
1. Athletics – The Do everything skill
2. Perception – veni, Vidi, vici (I'd get rid of it in favour of Investigation)
3.Survival – The Exploration Skill

The Nice to Haves
4. Investigation – Good for looking for hidden clues
5. Persuasion – Lets avoid combat and talk instead
6. Sleight of Hand – Picking pockets and tinkering is nice
7. Stealth – should be more important but I cast Pass Without Trace
8. Acrobatics – filling in gaps that Athletics misses
9. Intimidation – You listen and we can avoid combat


The Other Skills
10.Deception – I'm a Liar Skill
11. Insight – I'm a Lie detector Skill
12. Animal Handling –maybe for a druid or ranger (should combine with Nature)
13. Performance – You got big dreams, you want Fame, well fame cost...

LORE DUMP
14 Arcana – The games all about magic, so this can help
15-17 History, Religion, Nature mostly just lore dumps, what can Nature do that Survival can't?
18. Medicine – Should be more valuable as first aid, but worthless in the face of Healing magic

 

[sevenbastard]

I would say perception is most important, but i couldn't find it on the list???

 

[Tonguez]

I would say perception is most important, but i couldn't find it on the list???

you may need a reroll

 

[DrJawaPhD]

Why animal handling so good?

In my experience, Animal Handling is the best skill in the game and I will absolutely die on that hill. Like all skills it is very DM-dependent but across many DMs I have always seen this skill to be ridiculously overpowered.

The risk is generally low, you encounter an animal which was indifferent/hostile, and you attempt to improve its demeanor towards you. Risk is low because without a skillcheck it already doesn't like you, and if you fail, it still doesn't like you (similar to Persuasion). Reward is extremely high, because the upside is only limited by what the DM allows. I have seen this skill do anything from end/avoid combats to gain a powerful animal NPC companion usable in future battles.

Take for comparison a universally agreed-upon S-tier skill like Perception, which has also has low Risk but has lower Reward ceiling. With Perception or Investigation, the worst that may happen is you miss out on some treasure or secret door, or get ambushed by some enemy that surely you end up beating anyways. Potentially missing out on treasure is extremely impactful so I'd also rate these as S-tier, but even these are not as quite impactful as missing out on a powerful animal companion (even if only temporary)

 

[Parmandur]

I don't think a ranking is really possible, since the utility information all of them is highly situational and DM dependent.

Yhr key as a DM is to make the Skills which players have chosen relevant to the story.

 

[DrJawaPhD]

Of the three social skills I feel intimidation is so much lower than the others. It forces a hostile position there and then. Not only that, it reduced the potential targets to someone who you would be willing to intimidate.

I very much agree with this, but one big advantage of Intimidation is that most DMs allow this to work off Strength and not just Charisma.

I always allow Strength to be used in place of Charisma, although it comes with the downside of emphasizing the hostile position on an unsuccessful roll, whereas using Charisma to Intimidate lets the DM ignore a low roll as "they laugh at you and don't take you seriously"

Another benefit of Intimidation in my campaigns, which I've had some limited success with other DMs, is that I allow it in combat as a "taunt" for characters wanting to tank and draw aggro from enemies

 

[TiQuinn]

In my experience, Animal Handling is the best skill in the game and I will absolutely die on that hill. Like all skills it is very DM-dependent but across many DMs I have always seen this skill to be ridiculously overpowered.

The risk is generally low, you encounter an animal which was indifferent/hostile, and you attempt to improve its demeanor towards you. Risk is low because without a skillcheck it already doesn't like you, and if you fail, it still doesn't like you (similar to Persuasion). Reward is extremely high, because the upside is only limited by what the DM allows. I have seen this skill do anything from end/avoid combats to gain a powerful animal NPC companion usable in future battles.

Take for comparison a universally agreed-upon S-tier skill like Perception, which has also has low Risk but has lower Reward ceiling. With Perception or Investigation, the worst that may happen is you miss out on some treasure or secret door, or get ambushed by some enemy that surely you end up beating anyways. Potentially missing out on treasure is extremely impactful so I'd also rate these as S-tier, but even these are not as quite impactful as missing out on a powerful animal companion (even if only temporary)

I think that’s fair but keep in mind every skill can be made powerful or game-changing based on the DM. As a counterpoint, I’ve never seen gaining an animal companion be particularly game changing either - even though it is undeniably cool.

 

[DrJawaPhD]

I don't think a ranking is really possible, since the utility information all of them is highly situational and DM dependent.

Very true, but it's definitely possible for everyone to rank based on their highly situational experience, and combine the aggregated results

 

[Parmandur]

Very true, but it's definitely possible for everyone to rank based on their highly situational experience, and combine the aggregated results

I do think it is significant that the official sheets have a dedicated spot for Passive Perception...no need to quickly access Passive Religion.