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Message: <blockquote data-quote="DEFCON 1" data-source="post: 9662258" data-attributes="member: 7006">At my own tables I found an overuse of Perception when it was also being used for secret doors/traps/objects in addition to finding people hiding using Stealth (and an underuse of Investigation to "figure out how things work" because when I put puzzles and such into the game it's to challenge the players to figure out the answers, not roll checks for them.)  So making Perception about finding people/animals hiding and Investigation about finding hidden objects got both skill onto more of an equilibrium.The thievery issue I've corrected for myself by adding 'Mechanics' as a skill into the game (what others might also call 'Engineering'.)  This skill encompasses engineering, architecture, the various mechanical sciences, as well as picking locks and disarming traps.  I have pretty much removed all Tools and Musical Instruments from the game as proficiency-granting items, having moved all their actions over to skills.So now a standard Rogue's process might be:Intelligence (Investigation) to notice a door is trapped.The player can then narrate the kinds of things they are looking for / trying to find in order to figure out how it is trapped without making a roll, or they can make an Intelligence (Mechanics) check if they can't figure it out and want the dice to decide for them how it is trapped.Once the traps is discovered and deduced... a Dexterity (Mechanics) check to disarm said trap (and might have Advantage on the check if their narrative discovery of what the trap is makes it such that they can narrate a way to disarm/remove the trap as well.)Locked doors usually only involve a Dexterity (Mechanics) check to pick, as no rolls is really necessary to discover a door is locked-- the PC usually just tries the door and discovers "Oh yeah!  Door is locked!"Pickpocketing or hiding objects on your person goes to Dexterity (Deception) as I mentioned above.As far as the Politics / Knowledge Local / Knowledge Nobility skill is concerned... in most campaigns I have just used 'History' as the default "urban knowledge" skill.  So the four 'lore' skills are Arcana for magic, Religion for divine, Nature for wilderness areas, and History for civilized areas.  Although depending on the setting I have added in additional ones as needed.  My Theros campaign I added Politics as its own individual skill because interacting with the polis leaders was one of the focal points of the game.  And in my Eberron game because Eberron has such a long and wild history, I kept the History skill strictly to that and then added 'Etiquette' as a skill for dealing with the upper-class, nobles, and dragonmarked houses, and then 'Folklore' for dealing with the lower class and the stories/legends they tread in.  (And indeed, having seen the use of 'Decorum' as a skill name, I intend on using that going forward rather than 'Etiquette' if/when I need a upper-class / nobility skill.)</blockquote>

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