D&D 5E Is expertise badly designed?

[NotAYakk]

(Bolding mine)
How is Arcana not in a wizard's niche? If you have two characters who specialize in arcane magic... they're going to get in each others niches....

Or am I missing something?

Arcana, the skill, is knowledge of magic and how it works.

A Rogue can become an academic, like Dr Jones, who knows everything about how magic works, but can't do any of it.

They might know more magic theory than the Wizard, but they cannot cast a single spell.

The Wizard is the applied magician.

As an applied magician they have picked up a pile of magical theory. But not as much as Dr Jones over there.

 

[Umbran]

Arcana is in the wizards niche yes, but with too many things that used to be individual skills crammed into arcana, it made the wizard better at knowing stuff that is related to artificer. It was the equivalent of a computer programmer who knew more about EE than the specialized EE he worked with.

I don't see how it is a flaw in expertise when you make two characters you know are going to overlap.

And this, I say as I am running an Artificer. Yep, there's people out there with greater knowledge. So long as it is thematically appropriate for them to be really good... that's not a design problem.

 

[Umbran]

A Rogue can become an academic

The example was a wizard....

 

[NotAYakk]

umm.... fyi I think you may have replied to the wrong thread?

A few posts above mine someone mentioned Arcane Sword as a way for a bard to have spotlight.

 

[Anoth]

The problem

Expertise isn't the best designed system ever. It's limiting towards classes that have no access to it, and it's just a number increase, which is effective, but can be a bit boring.
It's not bad though, there are much worse offenders of bounded accuracy in 5e, several of which were mentioned by previous posters.

ths problem is when they set DC for someone with expertise. Set the DC for a proficient person to pass. I personally am very happy with expertises being limited to rogues and Bards. That’s their feature. I don’t think it is driving people away from the game. It may be driving them towards the rogue and bard which is good. That is what they are designed for.

 

[tetrasodium]

The example was a wizard....

who as an evocation specialized wizard in 5e should know less about being a magical electrician than a specialized magical electrician

 

[ad_hoc]

Expertise is well designed.

Shoving and Grappling aren't. They should have been Saving Throws vs 8+Prof+Str.

 

[Anoth]

Expertise is well designed.

Shoving and Grappling aren't. They should have been Saving Throws vs 8+Prof+Str.

Exactly this.

 

[Magister Ludorum]

If automatically succeeding on class skills is unappealing to you, choose different skills for your expertise as a rogue. My rogue took expertise in perception and insight because he has a 10 wisdom. I used expertise to shore up areas of weakness rather than to further increase areas of strength.

 

[Anoth]

Expertise is well designed.

Shoving and Grappling aren't. They should have been Saving Throws vs 8+Prof+Str.

I will add this is an example of little things I would like fixed if they ever make a 6E someday. Don’t throw out the system. Just fix the little things that are broken