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

[Maxperson]

That's not true. Knowing if a mushroom is poisonous or not comes under foraging. Obviously. Since if I cannot tell between harmful and beneficial plants, how can I forage for food? Nature tells you exactly what kind of mushroom is and what family it belongs to and all the academic knowledge around that mushroom, but, Survival absolutely will tell you if it's safe to eat.

1) It's lore, so by RAW it's Nature. So it is true.
2) You can just forage and hunt stuff that has no poisonous versions. You don't HAVE to get mushrooms to survive.

 

[Hussar]

No they aren't. A hazard in D&D is a dangerous obstacle, not food. Look up hazards in the DMG. Mushrooms won't be listed. Essentially, hazards function as a kind of trap.

You would be wrong:

2024 DMG:

Brown Mold

Deadly Hazard (Levels 5-10) or Nuisance Hazard (Levels 11-16)

Brown mold resembles a furry, light-brown carpet. This fungus feeds on warmth


Fireball Fungus

Deadly Hazard (Levels 5-10)

A fireball fungus is a Small, inanimate mushroom that can grow anywhere fungi are found in abundance

 

[Hussar]

1) It's lore, so by RAW it's Nature. So it is true.
2) You can just forage and hunt stuff that has no poisonous versions. You don't HAVE to get mushrooms to survive.

OIC,

So, skill checks now rewrite the world. If I roll that I successfully forage in an area, then that area cannot contain poisonous mushrooms, since, it would be entirely possible that, since I cannot tell poisonous from non-poisonous mushrooms, that I would pick the poisonous ones to eat. Therefore, they cannot be where I am foraging.

But, I thought you absolutely opposed any alteration of the game world based on skill checks. If the DM had placed poisonous mushrooms in the area, but, a successful Foraging check will never, ever allow the PC's to pick those mushrooms, Survival is, what, a measure of just being incredibly lucky all the time?

 

[Maxperson]

OIC,

So, skill checks now rewrite the world. If I roll that I successfully forage in an area, then that area cannot contain poisonous mushrooms, since, it would be entirely possible that, since I cannot tell poisonous from non-poisonous mushrooms, that I would pick the poisonous ones to eat. Therefore, they cannot be where I am foraging.

But, I thought you absolutely opposed any alteration of the game world based on skill checks. If the DM had placed poisonous mushrooms in the area, but, a successful Foraging check will never, ever allow the PC's to pick those mushrooms, Survival is, what, a measure of just being incredibly lucky all the time?

What?! No. Who said the area doesn't contain mushrooms? You aren't foraging every single possible plant in the area. You're just skipping mushrooms because you don't know which ones might be poisonous.

 

[Maxperson]

You would be wrong:

2024 DMG:

That doesn't show me to be wrong at all. Hazards are like traps. Brown Mold and this Fireball Fungus are hazards, not mushrooms you are trying to eat. Hazards like Brown Mold, Quicksand, Rockslides, etc. are Survival. Knowing which mushroom is poisonous is Nature.

The former are hazards, and the latter is lore.

 

[Hussar]

What?! No. Who said the area doesn't contain mushrooms? You aren't foraging every single possible plant in the area. You're just skipping mushrooms because you don't know which ones might be poisonous.

That means that I DO know that these specific mushrooms aren't poisonous. Or, are you saying that it's impossible to forage mushrooms? What exactly do you think people are eating when they forage?

 

[Hussar]

That doesn't show me to be wrong at all. Hazards are like traps. Brown Mold and this Fireball Fungus are hazards, not mushrooms you are trying to eat. Hazards like Brown Mold, Quicksand, Rockslides, etc. are Survival. Knowing which mushroom is poisonous is Nature.

The former are hazards, and the latter is lore.

You said that it was impossible for fungus to be hazards. Would you like me to quote you? I am just showing that it is entirely possible for fungus to be hazards. Or are you claiming that the only hazards a DM can use are the ones listed in the DMG? Even the descriptions in the DMG don't support that - those are specifically just some examples of hazards.

Poisonous mushrooms absolutely could easily be a hazard.

 

[CreamCloud0]

That means that I DO know that these specific mushrooms aren't poisonous. Or, are you saying that it's impossible to forage mushrooms? What exactly do you think people are eating when they forage?

No, you don't know if these specific mushrooms are poisonous, but you are aware of the possibility they may be, so you instead decide to skip the risk entirely and forage on the other plants and animals that that don’t have a possibility for mistaking them as something not poisonous,

 

[Hussar]

No, you don't know if these specific mushrooms are poisonous, but you are aware of the possibility they may be, so you instead decide to skip the risk entirely and forage on the other plants and animals that that don’t have a possibility for mistaking them as something not poisonous,

Yes, but, it's not like only mushrooms can be poisonous. There are all sorts of things out there that you cannot eat. And, since apparently survival does not grant you ANY information, you cannot possibly know which animals or plants are not poisonous without using the Nature skill.

It's a ludicrous interpretation of the rules.

 

[Maxperson]

That means that I DO know that these specific mushrooms aren't poisonous. Or, are you saying that it's impossible to forage mushrooms? What exactly do you think people are eating when they forage?

What specific mushrooms? You didn't forage any with Survival in that area. You made a roll and got X pounds of foraged food. If you want to forage mushrooms safely, per RAW you need Nature to discern which mushrooms are safe and which are not. Otherwise you either forage other things and leave the mushrooms in that area alone, or you tell the DM that you want mushrooms to be included and hope you didn't forage the wrong kind.

5e RAW does not give you the ability to discern which mushrooms are safe with Survival. Plant lore is explicitly Nature, and you can in fact make a Survival check to forage and get pounds of food that don't include the mushrooms from that area.