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Message: <blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 6512675" data-attributes="member: 2067">I'm  not sure I'd like that as a player, and I probably wouldn't personally do that in DM, in 4e, or any other D&D version. For me, one of the big issues with that is: If any character can use a Religion check to pray for a miracle, why would they do anything else?"Pray for a miracle" or "Perform a feat of magic" has a virtually unlimited possibility space. Presuming that this extends to things like being able to use Nature to supernaturally manipulate the natural world (cause plants to grow or whither, rivers to lower, skies to clear, remove toxins from a thing, etc.), and possibly other skills (can Insight read minds like a telepath? Can Persuade duplicate charm effects?), this makes selecting a skill largely a superfluous process. Every character just has one "Do Almost Anything" skill (whatever that skill might be), and can use it to do almost anything. The difference between saying "I roll Religion and pray for a miracle!" or "I roll Arcana and harness arcane forces!" is simply one of set dressing, without mechanical distinction. Mechanically, why not just say, "Here's your 1-20 chance to Do Whatever, roll the dice and tell me what you do?"It also seems an odd fit for a skill system in a game with levels, where the suggestion is that one "gets better" at the skill as the modifier increases, and the sense that one "gets better" about wishing for miracles is a fairly counter-intuitive one. Miracles in narrative don't seem to conform to the idea that one can "fail to pray hard." It's simply a decision on the part of the miracle-granter. I'd lastly worry a bit (but only a bit) about stealing the thunder of any actual divinely-inspired characters. If the party Druid is better at getting miracles from gods she doesn't even worship than my devout fighter just because she's got a better Wisdom and training in Religion, that's not going to be something I'm going to like. Since I like my set dressing to have a mechanical effect that aligns with the story we're telling, these would not be results I'd struggle with when playing in or DMing with such a system. Which isn't to say that these are inevitable problems at every table, of course.</blockquote>

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