D&D 4E Handling things like Riding and Craft with 4E Skills.

[Melkor]

Hi folks,

I wanted to get a consensus of what 4E skills you guys are using to cover a couple of skills that were in 3.5.

Namely - Ride, and Craft.

I'm assuming that in 4E, you look at the action in question, and apply it as an application of another skills - Say Athletics or Acrobatics for Ride, depending on what the character is attempting to do on the mount...

I was just curious how you folks are handling this stuff in your games.

Thanks.

 

[Dalzig]

With the Mounted Combat feat, your mount can use your Athletics, Acrobatics, etc. for itself. This is a close approximation to riding skill.

As for craft... haven't done anything with it yet, but I plan on doing a skill challenge. Dungeoneering, Nature, Arcana to find out how to build something. Athletics, Thievery, etc. to build it. Stuff like that...

 

[Lucas Blackstone]

Yeah, riding in my opinion falls under Nature ( Handle Animal ), and then once you have Mounted Combat, you can apply other skills as needed, as per the feat like Dalzig said.

 

[defendi]

For craft, if they have a background that makes the crafty, I'll just let them do it, and judge the end results on their level. If I really need a skill roll, I'll just invent a floating skill for the purpose and make it trained or not based on character background. I think the intent here is to not make characters have to spend resources on stuff with no game effect. If a player says, "My character is a weaponsmith," then I'm not going to question that unless they try to do something really spectacular with it.

 

[Byronic]

Hmm, another use for the Jack of trades feat.

 

[Jonathan Drain]

Craft was a terrible skill. You spent valuable skill points to take a discount on a limited subset of mundane equipment. It's easier to make that part of your character's background detail.

 

[erik_the_guy]

There are no required skills for mounted combat, so there are no skills needed to ride a mount. If the PC encounters something difficult have them make a check appropriate to the situation. Acrobatics to stay on the horse if it falls, stuff like that.

 

[Arbitrary]

Craft was honestly just a terrible, terrible skill.

Ok, now that we are back in town I'm going to start crafting my bow. Look up the price, convert the price into silver pieces, find the DC, pay 1/3rd the price in raw materials, make a skill check to see how much progress I make in a week, multiple that number if it succeeds by the DC of the item.

Week One - I make progress 361/3000 on a Mighty Composite Longbow that can handle a +2 strength modifier.

Bleh. You know what? Forget it. I'll spend the 300 gold. Done.

I do not miss the mechanical component of Craft (or Profession for that matter). If someone wants to know the formula so they can spend ten weeks crafting an item to try and save a little cash I am going to be immediately concerned.

 

[Toras]

I think we made craft a worth while skill by allowing you to craft magical items using magical components. Leather armor crafted from the hide of the dragon will be far more impressive and its magical abilities will reflect the nature of the components.

I find that Craft also serves as a decent skill for making things like traps or siege weapons as well. Both can have a rather significant benefits if you need to take on orc encampments or large creatures, as well as defend villages.

 

[Archus]

Ride I handle with Nature (understanding the beast), Athletics, or Acrobatics. Skills like Craft, Perform, Profession, etc. I've rolled into an optional "Profession/Skill X" skill available to all classes. A profession skill can be used to perform relevant actions or knowledge checks and is based on whatever stat the player can convince me is relevant. The skill should be a broadly useful as any other skill and while it may overlap part of multiple existing skills, it should not supplant them by overlapping all of them.

Examples:

• Sailor
  • Actions - Navigation, tying knots, ship maintenance or simple ship building.
  • Knowledge - Sea legends, sea monsters, famous sailors.
• Miner
  • Actions - Actually mining without cave ins.
  • Knowledge - Appraisal of mined ore/gems/etc. Knowing what might be mined in an area. Some limited knowledge of monsters that directly interact with miners but most miners should take Dungeoneering.
• Entertainer
  • Actions - Singing, dancing, acting, playing instruments. Most actors would take some Bluff, Diplomacy, and Intimidate to truly pull it off right.
  • Knowledge - Plays, poems, songs, other entertainers.
• Smith
  • Actions - Making weapons, armor, horseshoes, etc.
  • Knowledge - Appraisal of same. Famous smiths and their creations.
• Soilder
  • Actions - Setting up camp (digging latrines and the like) and standing watch (circumstantial perception).
  • Knowledge - Famous battles and tactics.

Overall I'm pretty happy with the skill list as it is. I think much of what I listed above could just be color and use an attribute check or covered by another skill (I argue that a performer often is using Diplomacy, Bluff, or Intimidate through song to sway the audience). But some of my players really want it as part of their background and it does allow for some sense of skill specialization "Rolo the singing sailor knows naught of the monsters of the land". It is still a work in progress and intended to be a bit fuzzy.