Yaarel
🇮🇱 🇺🇦 He-Mage
When the Athletics skill swallows up Acrobatics, and Strength is used for all physical stunts − including running across a tightrope or a tree branch at top speed − then Athletics becomes a powerful skill for exploration encounters.Now, I do want to say. Yes, there is a great argument to be made that martials need more utility outside of combat, but in practice... this isn't an easy thing to do for the fighter.
The Rogue gets expertise in skills, reliable tallent and has excellent mobility.
The Barbarian is now allowed to take skill checks with strength (only while raging which is a desperately needed combat mechanic) and has a different form of reliable talent that only works with strength.
So... what do you give fighters? Even at low levels, what do you do to push them beyond normal skills. You don't want to make them MAD by adding mental skills to their physical checks. You can't do expertise. You can't really do reliable talent. You can't copy the barbarian move. They kind of end up stuck in a rut because everyone else got every other possible idea.
I went with giving them an extra die prof times per day, but that kind of mechanic is difficult to figure out how to scale into high level stuff like mind control effects. And that may just be because the skill system itself is very mundane and hasn't been written to give some of those abilities that mid to high level magic can give.
A warrior with expertise and-or advantage in this agile Athletics, helps make the Fighter competent or even expert at various mobility challenges.