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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Gradine" data-source="post: 6340861" data-attributes="member: 57112">I gotta say I don't understand that rationale at all. A skill is a bad skill because a party can get away with only character having it? That's preposterous; you're always going to have skills that require only one person to pull it off. Anything thievery or social related is going to suffer needlessly under such a rubric. This doesn't make them poor skills. On the contrary, it shows that the skill is well designed in a system that encourages specialized roles. Heck, a party doesn't even need more than one or two people with Perception. All it takes is one person to notice the ambush and shout "Ambush!" and the ambush is ruined. A poor skill is a skill a DM would struggle making important enough to justify taking. And even then if a PC finds great or fun uses for the skill, it has its place. These are the more "flavorful" skills; things like Sleight of Hand, Animal Handling, Intimidation, and the various Knowledge skills. Skills that are handy but hardly ever necessary. These are great skills for establishing and portraying characters.A skill is poorly designed when it's something that everybody wants.With that idea in mind, here's my rankings:Athletics - B+ It has a lot of applications but I think few PCs will clamor for this other than burly warrior types.Acrobatics - B+ See above, replace burly with nimbleSleight of Hand - A- Fun, flavorful skill. Easy for the DM to throw tempting uses of it, hardly necessary thoughStealth - A We'll have to see how it works in practice, but a simple stealth system is always appreciatedArcana, History, Nature, Religion - B Cuts out the middleman in finding a sage. History might see too few uses but I can think of some handy applications in dealing with ancient riddles and puzzles. Probably won't be taken unless it comes with a Background though.Investigation - B Would be an A+ except the designers couldn't stop themselves from giving all of its strongest uses to Perception. Still a good flavorful skill, esp. in Eberron. I really dig how it's the save v illusionsAnimal Handling - D There's no reason why this isn't Charisma based. At my table it will be. Otherwise it's most useful property (Ride) seems to be covered by Vehicles proficiency. I get why it exists, but probably the most superfluous skillInsight - A- Will come in very handy for the one person who thinks to take it.Medicine - C Really doesn't strike me as all that necessaryPerception - F Terribly designed. Everyone will take it if they can. Unnecessarily overlaps with Investigation. Needs to be toned down so that it's great for the scout not really needed for anyone else.Survival - B- I'm sure this will come in very handy in some campaigns, but other than tracking I don't see situations requiring this skill to be particularly fun.Deception, Intimidation, Persuasion - B As always these varied social skills work best when players describe their actions and DMs decide which skill is being used. That these are separate skills will always be a consternation for players who consult their skill list before deciding what to do. Intimidation always seems to be the odd one out but I think it's because DMs and designers fear making it a necessary tool for dealing with NPCs, because party faces prefer being diplomatic. Make Intimidation necessary and allow clever uses to key off of other stats and you'll find it to be an excellent role-playing tool.Performance - C I want to defend this but I'm really not sure. Between Disguise, Deception and Instruments I only see a use for singing/speechifying. Could have its uses but even I'm skeptical</blockquote>

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