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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jester David" data-source="post: 6868545" data-attributes="member: 37579">Ability checks/skills vs tools are basically unusable untrained vs usable trained skills. Anyone can attempt an ability check. Anyone can try and climb a cliff, forage in the woods, or sing a song. And you can attempt those skills without special equipment.Not everyone can use rope and pitons, navigate via map and compass, or play the bagpipes. You need to be trained. Even if you can't sing (aka are trained in Perform) you can play an instrument. And you need the equipment; no matter how awesome you are with a flute, if you don't have one you can't apply it's bonus.If you're trained in both, the numbers are the same, so using either Perform or the tool proficiency confers the same bonus to the roll. The exception being expertise. It seems weird to penalize a bard for their check because they're modifying a Charima check with a tool proficiency rather than their perform skill. So in that rare case, pick the higher bonus.</blockquote>