D&D 5E Mearls' Interview with Bleeding Cool

[TerraDave]

He doesn't mean how the entire skill bonus is calculated. He's referring to how in 4e you can have a half-level bonus to attacks, skills, and defenses. Depending on your level it's always the same number. And in Next you can have a proficiency bonus to attacks, skills, and saving throws. Depending on your level it's always the same number.

Only real difference is that in 4e you have a +10 bonus at level 20, whereas in Next you have a +6 bonus at level 20.

The lower proficiency bonus and relatively lower amount of other bonuses do make the math cleaner and quicker to work out. But it's an iteration, not an innovation.

Obviously I know what he is referring to, which is why I referred to in the post, and it is something that 5E does not have. You do not get a level based mod to all checks.

But sure, they are both D20 games. d20+ability mod+other mods. Other mods can be linked to level (BAB...). Its worked like that for a while.

 

[The Myopic Sniper]

In truth, while I kind of wish skills were kicked out of the game altogether, I can live with what I saw in the last playtest document. Proficiency and Expertise for expert types seems a nice way to split the difference and brings a whole lot of things under one roof that had different progressions for no particularly good reason pre-4e.

As for the article, it was definitely aimed at the not-we. I am glad to see that they are doing some preliminary publicity at this point. I think a whole lot of folks who might be interested are still pretty far out of the loop.

 

[Li Shenron]

In truth, while I kind of wish skills were kicked out of the game altogether, I can live with what I saw in the last playtest document.

Why exactly do you hate skills?

Proficiency and Expertise for expert types seems a nice way to split the difference and brings a whole lot of things under one roof that had different progressions for no particularly good reason pre-4e.

There was a very good reason for skill points in 3e, and that was max flexibility. Obviously not everybody liked it, or more precisely they didn't like ending up with 20+ different skills scores to keep track of.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

I make online dice cups when playing D&D Next over a VTT. The nice thing about proficiency is that, instead of having a list of skills and saves, the main dice cups for an individual character are such:

Str
Str *Prof*
Dex
Dex *Prof*
Con
Con *Prof*
Int
Int *Prof*
Wis
Wis *Prof*
Cha
Cha *Prof*

There are actually less than that, because almost every character is going to have overlap, ie

Dex, Con
Dex, Con *Prof*

I create cups for attacks for simplicity of reference and to take into account magical bonuses, but what I did above basically covers ability checks, skills, and saves.