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Message: <blockquote data-quote="KarinsDad" data-source="post: 6340883" data-attributes="member: 2011">Not in 5E.The ambush happens and the four PCs with high perception are not surprised and get to act in the surprise round. The two PCs with lower perception are surprised.Since we are talking 5E skills here, I am including in my thought processes 5E rules.And perception does not overlap with investigation. People who think that will allow players attempting to investigate to use their perception skill. Investigation is Sherlock Holmes or Batman. The ability to take what you see in front of you and piece together information intellectually. Perception is Tarzan. He sees, smells, and hears better than normal people.The investigation PC might know that the blood on one side of the knife might mean that the blood was put on the knife after the murder happened. The perceptive PC might be the one to point out that there is blood on only one side of the knife, but he doesn't know why.The OP asked for best skills. To me, that are the skills that will be used, not the skills that some player will once in a blue moon want to incorporate into their PC, just to be different or kooky.My numbers were not because a party can get away with only character having it, my numbers were the number of players who would probably want to take it on average out of my group.Most of my players will create their PCs in a bit of a bubble without knowing too much about the other PCs. They will take what they want to play, not what fits the party best. They understand that there might be overlap, but so what?Also, most of the social skills in our game are rarely used as dice rolls. The players roleplay, I roleplay the NPCs back in response. The rolls are only made in cases where the NPC is on the fence.That brings up a minor pet peeve of mine about skills. The player who tries to shoehorn social skills into a dice roll instead of roleplaying.Player: "I want to convince the shopkeeper to lower the price by 10%. I roll Diplomacy, a 22."DM: "Did I ask for a roll?"I rather have the interaction be:Player: "Good sir, surely you could lower the price by 10%. After all, we did just save the town from those bandits,"DM: "Bah, those bandits helped out my trade by interfering with my competitors. Tell you what, I'll give you 5% off."If the player wants to still get 10% off and continues the conversation in that direction, then maybe I'll ask for a die roll at some point after a little more roleplaying.I also have the same problem with the player that says that he wants to use any other skill and reaches for the dice to roll, but not to the same extent as with social skills. I'll ask for roles when I think it is necessarily. Page 2 of the Basic Rules has a fine example of this. Investigation is rolled when the DM asks in that example, the player does not just reach for his dice.Now, some skills I ask for a dice roll practically right away. If someone wants to track, I'll ask them where they are trying to do so and ask for a Survival roll. But, social skills should be roleplayed.And before anyone says the obvious "but I am not as socially adept as my PC", yup. You aren't. The purpose of the roll is to lean the direction of the conversation into what the PC could manage but the player can not. And a player can ask for a die roll if he explains a reasonable rationale for why he wants it ("I'm trying to convince the shopkeeper to lower the price more"). But, the words still have to come out of the player's mouth. I don't use dice rolls for roleplaying.</blockquote>

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