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

[CreamCloud0]

nature is more than knowing what certain plants and animals are and what the weather is doing
survival is more than knowing what not to eat or is dangerous to touch

the venn diagram between the two may have some overlap, but it's certainly far from total overlap

 

[Horwath]

So if the outline of the trapdoor was possible to be seen in the rug and the perception failed, you would not allow the PC to lift the rug and find the trapdoor? But if it wasn't possible to see and the investigation failed and the PC wanted to lift the rug, you'd allow it?

sure,
it's idea outside the roll.
Roll is there for what players did not come up by themselves.

disable device or whatever could be needed to open the doors if there is some secret mechanism involved.

 

[Bae'zel]

Kind of feels like survival and nature should be one skill.

Sometimes I do to, but then I realized that a scholar studying plants and animals may not know how to set a trap or make shelter when lost in inhospitable wilderness.

 

[Maxperson]

nature is more than knowing what certain plants and animals are and what the weather is doing
survival is more than knowing what not to eat or is dangerous to touch

Survival would not tell you about what is dangerous to eat or touch. It's about natural hazards like recognizing unstable rocks or quicksand, hunting for food, making/finding shelter, etc.

the venn diagram between the two may have some overlap, but it's certainly far from total overlap

Any overlap would be much more limited. Survival would let you know not to eat any mushrooms, because some are poisonous. Mushrooms would be a hazard. Nature would allow you to know which ones are poisonous so that you could eat mushrooms.

 

[CreamCloud0]

Athletics as described as a super stat ranging mid table but with some players placing it high. Acrobatics on the other hand was ranked opposite with some ranking it mid and some ranking it very low.

honestly i'm kind of surprised this wasn't the other way around, i feel like i've heard far more stories about acrobatics being allowed to absorb a bunch of stuff athletics is meant to do rather than the other way around, especially with it working off the base stat of dexterity which is typically considered a far more useful stat to strength.

 

[Maxperson]

sure,
it's idea outside the roll.
Roll is there for what players did not come up by themselves.

Okay. You made it sound like any clever roleplay couldn't reveal what you didn't find with a perception roll. I see perception as what you see just standing there looking around. You might or might not notice the small gem sticking a little bit out from behind the jar on the desk, but if you say to the DM that you go look behind the jar, you're going to find it through clever roleplay.

 

[Horwath]

honestly i'm kind of surprised this wasn't the other way around, i feel like i've heard far more stories about acrobatics being allowed to absorb a bunch of stuff athletics is meant to do rather than the other way around, especially with it working off the base stat of dexterity which is typically considered a far more useful stat to strength.

there is more opportunities to jump, climb, swim, break stuff open than balancing on a rope or ice skating in average campaign.

 

[Horwath]

Okay. You made it sound like any clever roleplay couldn't reveal what you didn't find with a perception roll. I see perception as what you see just standing there looking around. You might or might not notice the small gem sticking a little bit out from behind the jar on the desk, but if you say to the DM that you go look behind the jar, you're going to find it through clever roleplay.

yeah.

it's like invisible creature, you might need to make DC 20 or 25 to "see" some outline of the creature, but if you guessed or deduce where it is, and you want to touch it or throw some dust on it a failed check should not prevent you from doing it. It might make the action harder as you need to guess the location or detect it otherwise.

 

[Maxperson]

there is more opportunities to jump, climb, swim, break stuff open than balancing on a rope or ice skating in average campaign.

Yes. Absolutely, though Acrobatics also allows you to flip under the trap blade that come out of the wall, bound across a river on exposed rocks, etc. It's not as limited as some folks in this thread have painted it, but Athletics still surpasses it pretty handily for amount of use.

 

[Horwath]

Yes. Absolutely, though Acrobatics also allows you to flip under the trap blade that come out of the wall, bound across a river on exposed rocks, etc. It's not as limited as some folks in this thread have painted it, but Athletics still surpasses it pretty handily for amount of use.

and Athletics gives you ability to throw the orc corpse further down the hallway for setting off traps, keeping you safer from AoE traps