DMs, Do You Pander To Player Skills?

[francisca]

Pander to skills? No way!

Design encounters/adventures with classes in mind? Yes, to a degree. I mean, if there is a barbarian, a druid, and a ranger in the group, I certainly will not confine them to the walls of Lankhmar or Sanctuary, for example. I'll spin some yarns requiring exploration of wilderness environs in that case.

A more well-rounded party will get a variety of backdrops to adventure against.

 

[Greylock]

My DM does make room for chars to use skills, although none of us have anything odd or unusual. He even said once that he considered it part of his job to make sure we get to use our skills. It is much appeciated, and makes the game that much more fun.

He even once allowed me to switch out a skill which had gone entirely unused in four levels of play with ranks in a skill my char used every day.

Yes, I am blessed to have a gawd-like DM...

 

[Starglim]

I try to present a range of different challenges in general, and to be flexible as to what skills might be useful in each situation. Maybe allow a check as normal against the appropriate skill, or three or four other skills each with a -2 or -5 penalty. This is more appropriate for fuzzy sorts of skills such as Knowledge or Profession, rather than actions that are tightly defined by core rules such as picking a lock or making an attack.