BookBarbarian
Expert Long Rester
A while back on the DMsGuild WotC released a bunch of premade characters who's 'sheets' looked more like NPC statblocks.
I liked how simple it looked.
Unsatisfied with the D&D 5e skill system
- Thread starter twofalls
- Start date
A while back on the DMsGuild WotC released a bunch of premade characters who's 'sheets' looked more like NPC statblocks.
I liked how simple it looked.
robus
Lowcountry Low Roller
Yeah, but it is quite dense though. Fine for an experienced player, but difficult to grok for a newbie I'd imagine?
BookBarbarian
Expert Long Rester
Easy enough to use if handed to them.
Super difficult to do heavy modification to, for new items or abilities and such.
I think the concept comes down to "if the best person can't do it...there's probably something to it".
When the barbarian rolls a 5 on the strength check to break down a door, you don't treat it as "man the barbarian almost fell on his face when attempting to break down the door".
Instead its "this door is basically welded shut, and is impossible to budge".
iserith
Magic Wordsmith
I find the easiest thing to do and the least prone to a mismatch in expectations is that the DM calls for the ability check and the player adds the skill proficiency that he or she thinks best aligns with his or her description of what the character is doing. This also means the DM need only work about 6 things (the ability scores) rather than all of the skill proficiencies. This method assumes that there's trust at the table and the players are playing in good faith, describing what they want to do and applying the appropriate skill proficiency to that effort as they see it.
robus
Lowcountry Low Roller
I pushed back on Satyrn a bit at that idea, but you’re both probably right. If there’s trust then it should be fine, and, of course, if there’s not trust then there are going to much bigger issues than a skill proficiency battle
DND_Reborn
The High Aldwin
I've been encouraging the other players to narrate their characters actions instead of calling for rolls as well. The DM told me after one session when we discussed it that he'd decided to reward it by doing one of two things.
Suppose the players says, "I'm going to search in the corner behind the chair for a trapdoor or secret passage."
Our DM would either just say "When you moved the chair, one legs pulled on a cord in the floor and triggered the wall to crack open slightly." or if he still felt a rolls was better, would grant advantage on it since the player was specific in his intent and his actions indicate a greater likelihood of success.
I told him it's a great idea to reward good role-playing and game-play both, so maybe it will help your group?
Instead, I represent it as a measure of how favorable the circumstances for that effort were - both in results and the perspective of the charsater.
So, nah, it's not welded shut, but part of the floor or ground gave wsy unexpectedly, or was slicker than expected, or any number things that seem very appropriate to the scene. Next guy, avoids those, maybe shoes up footing etc.
Alternatively, the effort dies push in, creating a slight opening, but something structurally goes awry and shifts and the door gets stuck. Now, future checks are at disadvantage but you can see into the next room, possibly teleport, send familiar etc. (Some progress with setback)
There are a lot of possibilities between the poles often put forth of infinite retries and one roll and that's it.
DND_Reborn
The High Aldwin
Actually, after reading his article, I didn't feel like there was much there not already covered in the PHB. Ability scores are "key", skills are added if they apply to the task.
robus
Lowcountry Low Roller
And yet there seems to be lots of confusion for some people. Certainly WotC doesn’t encourage that interpretation in their adventures when practically every suggested ability check is qualified with a skill...
The biggest problem WotC has is that while there’s plenty of good and useful information in the core books it is generally presented in such a way as to make that information confusing at best or buried under a bunch of unrelated stuff at worst.
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