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<blockquote data-quote="Falling Icicle" data-source="post: 5954671" data-attributes="member: 17077">Now that I have had plenty of time to think about the way they're doing skills in 5e, that is, not having a defined list of skills, but characters having a few skills that can be made up, I though I'd post my thoughts on the idea. While I like the idea of characters getting skills from their background (though I'd like them to get skills from their class as well, and not just rogues), I do not like the lack of a defined skill list for the following reasons.First, it creates confusion. One of the common questions I ran into with the playtest was things like &quot;what the heck is Forbidden Lore?,&quot; &quot;what can I do with Commerce and Folklore?&quot; and &quot;what's the difference between Wilderness Lore and Survival?&quot; All of those are good questions, and nothing in the playtest packet was any help at all in answering them. Sure, the DM can decide to allow certain skills to be used whenever he feels its appropriate, but I think it's better to have a solid foundation of defined uses for each skill to build upon rather than having to make such rulings constantly. It makes things more consistent and saves me alot of time and headache as a DM.Second, the skills are going to be unbalanced. One player might have a skill called &quot;History&quot; that ends up, intentionally or not, being much more useful than &quot;Religious Lore&quot; or &quot;Forbidden Lore.&quot; Likewise, just about any skill is less ueseful than Perception. Perception is something that will constantly be useful while things like Folklore will rarely every come into play. Yes, characters should be creative and try to find uses for their skills, but they can and should do so whatever skill system they're using. That's no defense for this particular way of doing skills.I understand why they wanted to try an open-ended skill system. But players can be just as creative and make just as meaningfully diverse characers with a defined skill list as they can with an undefined on, IMO. People are always free to create their own homebrew material if they wish, including new skills. I'd even say that having a defined skill list makes it easier for people who want to create new skills, because it gives them a solid basis of comparison to balance against.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Falling Icicle, post: 5954671, member: 17077"] Now that I have had plenty of time to think about the way they're doing skills in 5e, that is, not having a defined list of skills, but characters having a few skills that can be made up, I though I'd post my thoughts on the idea. While I like the idea of characters getting skills from their background (though I'd like them to get skills from their class as well, and not just rogues), I do not like the lack of a defined skill list for the following reasons. First, it creates confusion. One of the common questions I ran into with the playtest was things like "what the heck is Forbidden Lore?," "what can I do with Commerce and Folklore?" and "what's the difference between Wilderness Lore and Survival?" All of those are good questions, and nothing in the playtest packet was any help at all in answering them. Sure, the DM can decide to allow certain skills to be used whenever he feels its appropriate, but I think it's better to have a solid foundation of defined uses for each skill to build upon rather than having to make such rulings constantly. It makes things more consistent and saves me alot of time and headache as a DM. Second, the skills are going to be unbalanced. One player might have a skill called "History" that ends up, intentionally or not, being much more useful than "Religious Lore" or "Forbidden Lore." Likewise, just about any skill is less ueseful than Perception. Perception is something that will constantly be useful while things like Folklore will rarely every come into play. Yes, characters should be creative and try to find uses for their skills, but they can and should do so whatever skill system they're using. That's no defense for this particular way of doing skills. I understand why they wanted to try an open-ended skill system. But players can be just as creative and make just as meaningfully diverse characers with a defined skill list as they can with an undefined on, IMO. People are always free to create their own homebrew material if they wish, including new skills. I'd even say that having a defined skill list makes it easier for people who want to create new skills, because it gives them a solid basis of comparison to balance against. [/QUOTE]

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