D&D 5E Getting Bonus Skills from a High Int Score

[Kinak]

I think this could serve as an alternative for backgrounds (choose 3 + Int Modifier skills) but doesn't really mesh with backgrounds as they stand.

I can see the 3rd-fashioned bonus languages (which, at least in my campaign, come in pretty handy).

Going deeper on that, I could see your Int bonus increasing the bonus you get from your skills. Something like "+3 plus your Int bonus (if any)" or, only really helping wizards, "+3 or your Int bonus, whichever's higher." I think that's a nice way to show depth of knowledge and gives skill-based rogues something to shoot for.

Cheers!
Kinak

 

[BobTheNob]

No thanks. My preference is to keep to a small number of skills. I love the way backgrounds work with skills; adding bonus skills for high Int would just make an elegant setup messy.

Ditto.

(I was going to write some verbose response, but this pretty much stated my position nicely)

 

[pemerton]

At the moment, a wizard doesn't have to engage with STR unless s/he gets caught up in unwizardly things, like melee combat or hauling around huge sacks of loot. I think it is bad design to make the fighter have to care about INT to any greater degree if s/he wants to be an equally contributing member of the party.

Not to mention, that wizards traditionally are the most flexible of PC classes - giving them a default bonus to the number of skills just exaggerates an existing advantage.

If INT is not mattering in your game at present, the solution is not to make it more important in PC building, but to make it more important in action resolution. For example, create opportunities for the PCs to proper by recalling obscure and/or esoteric facts.

 

[Grydan]

No.


This dramatically over-rewards wizards for focusing on what they're already expected to focus on.

Meanwhile, every other class has to step outside of their traditional stats just to play keep-up.

 

[mach1.9pants]

With the excess number of Lore skills, I could certainly see getting an INT bonus on trained Lore skills only.

But with each background getting 3 (soon to be 4 in next playtest) an 18 INT is doubling your trained skills, which is wrong, if it applies to all skills.

 

[MarkB]

My preference would be that a particularly high value in any ability score (16-ish) should grant you one additional skill related to that ability.

 

[mach1.9pants]

My preference would be that a particularly high value in any ability score (16-ish) should grant you one additional skill related to that ability.

Like it!

 

[mach1.9pants]

My preference would be that a particularly high value in any ability score (16-ish) should grant you one additional skill related to that ability.

Like it!

 

[slobo777]

My preference would be that a particularly high value in any ability score (16-ish) should grant you one additional skill related to that ability.

Good idea. Make it ~15 (so that value is worth having), and exclude the stat you applied your class bonus to - because you already get all the "skills" inherent in your class mechanics for that one!

However, the bad news for this idea is that the skills and stats are going to be separated again. Which in itself is good, just it makes it harder to implement this quoted suggestion.

 

[Falling Icicle]

My preference would be that a particularly high value in any ability score (16-ish) should grant you one additional skill related to that ability.

That's an interesting idea, but they have said they're going to detach skills from abilities once again. That way, a skill can apply to any ability roll, as long as it makes sense. For example, a person could make an Intelligence + Commerce check to appraise an item or a Charisma + Commerce check to haggle. I prefer it that way.