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Message: <blockquote data-quote="roguerouge" data-source="post: 5084811" data-attributes="member: 13855">What you're doing then is saying that because the rogue has lock picks, the barbarian can open the chest with his axe with the same skill. That doesn't make any sense to me. And, yes, there's the face man role in the 4 person party, but yes, bad things happen if you don't let the face man do his job. Build the character you can play and want to play. If you can't play dumb or unwise or unpersuasive, don't build your character to require you to role play that. I can't understand why this is difficult. So, if you make house rules to allow players to play their own personality or to use other people's skills rather than their own and then find that social skills and CHA aren't working, the problem is not with the rules as written but with YOUR implicit or explicit house rules. Every advantage comes with a disadvantage. Your players should know that. Bards (and enchanters and rogues, to a lesser degree) pay very, very dearly for the ability to be important in the social interactions part of the game. The sacrifice hit points, AC and combat ability to have that strength. If your house rules make that strength less powerful, you send the very clear message that only a sucker should invest in social skills because you'll never make there be consequences for not having those skills.</blockquote>