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<blockquote data-quote="Benimoto" data-source="post: 4126039" data-attributes="member: 40093">While it's true that if you always roll the same skill against the DC, there's not much difference, in terms of probability between just rolling once, or rolling until you get 5 successes or 5 failures.What makes it somewhat different is the group participation.&nbsp; The way I've seen it, you're encouraged to go around the table, so that every player can contribute either a success or a failure towards the whole resolution of the task.&nbsp; This makes it so that players share the spotlight, as opposed to a lot of the combined diplomacy or other checks I've seen in 3.x, where only the best player rolls for the actual skill use, and the rest of the players assist if they can.As to why there are different skills, the answer is that the spirit of the game says that a player should try to use his or her most applicable skill.&nbsp; And the rules say that a DM can disallow nonsensical skill usage.Really the whole exercise is intended to help roleplaying by encouraging the players to tell a story and play in character.&nbsp; Sure, you could achieve the same mechanical result by just giving each character five numbered skills at random values, and the players could pick one and say &quot;I use skill 2 to solve the problem,&quot; but that wouldn't solve the goal of encouraging roleplaying.&nbsp; The goal is for each character to have skills that they feel their character is good at, and that their character can use to solve challenges.It's true that if you stare at the system too hard, it falls apart.&nbsp; It's a system where you get out of it what you put in to it.&nbsp; If you just say &quot;I use my best skill, Athletics at +17&quot; to every challenge, and the rest of the group goes along with it, there's not much point to the system.&nbsp; Possibly, you'll be getting XP rewards and accomplishing the quest, but the system used to achieve that will seem pointless and unnecessary.&nbsp; If you try to have fun and play your character, you'll probably find the system more rewarding on those fronts.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Benimoto, post: 4126039, member: 40093"] While it's true that if you always roll the same skill against the DC, there's not much difference, in terms of probability between just rolling once, or rolling until you get 5 successes or 5 failures. What makes it somewhat different is the group participation. The way I've seen it, you're encouraged to go around the table, so that every player can contribute either a success or a failure towards the whole resolution of the task. This makes it so that players share the spotlight, as opposed to a lot of the combined diplomacy or other checks I've seen in 3.x, where only the best player rolls for the actual skill use, and the rest of the players assist if they can. As to why there are different skills, the answer is that the spirit of the game says that a player should try to use his or her most applicable skill. And the rules say that a DM can disallow nonsensical skill usage. Really the whole exercise is intended to help roleplaying by encouraging the players to tell a story and play in character. Sure, you could achieve the same mechanical result by just giving each character five numbered skills at random values, and the players could pick one and say "I use skill 2 to solve the problem," but that wouldn't solve the goal of encouraging roleplaying. The goal is for each character to have skills that they feel their character is good at, and that their character can use to solve challenges. It's true that if you stare at the system too hard, it falls apart. It's a system where you get out of it what you put in to it. If you just say "I use my best skill, Athletics at +17" to every challenge, and the rest of the group goes along with it, there's not much point to the system. Possibly, you'll be getting XP rewards and accomplishing the quest, but the system used to achieve that will seem pointless and unnecessary. If you try to have fun and play your character, you'll probably find the system more rewarding on those fronts. [/QUOTE]

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