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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 5643358" data-attributes="member: 82106">You know, I'm thinking hard about this siloing thing... First of all how do you do it? "almost entirely non-combat uses" and "combat-enhancing" are pretty vague. Every skill in 4e except History and Streetwise IIRC has a combat function outlined for it in the PHB. I admit there are a FEW things that can MOSTLY be partitioned, but there is a VAST middle that really can't.Secondly I have discovered that I have a fairly deep philosophical issue with the whole concept of siloing this way (and maybe in any way). People talk about a disconnect between combat and non-combat play in 4e. Is this not a consequence of this very sort of siloing? It is as if you have two characters and two character sheets and they barely intersect at all. At best this situation encourages and amplifies the disconnect between the two kinds of activity.I understand the motivation, but I think the problem that siloing is trying to solve is the wrong problem. If the game provides reasonable weight to combat and non-combat activities then there's no need to silo anything. It is all 'playing my character' and just like I can trade off accuracy for more damage I can trade off accuracy for a more charming personality.In any case, I would point out that you'd have to effectively wreck the game to make this kind of separation complete because my 'two character sheets' will still always intersect at ability scores, unless of course all of that goes away entirely and I'm kinda thinking that would be a very different kind of game that really won't deserve the name "D&D". It is an interesting way to look at it. I'm not sure it isn't really just semantics and level of detail. That is In your last example one group rolls a Diplomacy check to negotiate a peace treaty, the other group rolls a Diplomacy check to flatter the ambassador enough that he will let you in the door (etc). There is a question of course about what list of skills are appropriate at different levels of detail, some other things too. At a very coarse level of detail it is hard to see one particular character attribute or area of knowledge/expertise being key. For example if you did a 'skill' check to cross the dark continent what would you use for a skill? What ability scores would modify that? I'm not sure you NEED a rules module for that kind of high level stuff, it is all going to be DM judgment call.</blockquote>

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