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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 6550571" data-attributes="member: 4937">In one of my typical sessions, I there are more skill checks than attack rolls.  How important skills are to play is mostly up to you.This is a topic unto itself we'd need to fork from, but in general I think it's going to be less of a problem in 5e than it was in 3e - which was plagued by a combination of the designers being too conservative about skills and too faithfully translating 1e spells into the new mechanics.  It's correctable in most cases with a little thought.Avoid arbitrary DC's as much as possible.  All DC's have a certain level of arbitrariness - even AC is in a certain sense arbitrarily picked by a DM.  But if the DC relates back to the situation in a understandable way, and is documented (my diplomacy house rules describe the process I outlined above in much greater detail), the fact that a given DC could be +/- 2 or 6 from a declared difficulty depending on the DM's interpretation ("does your PC count as an acquaintance or valued companion?"), isn't really going to be a problem.  If the PC's question you regarding the fluctuating DC, "Why is the DC 35 in this case, but just an 8 in the other?", simply be prepared to justify your choices.  In some cases that's obvious: "Well, in one case you are trying to climb a smooth worked stone wall coated with ice, and the other you are trying to climb a broken cliff face that leans slightly back from vertical and is hardly more difficult to climb than a ladder."   In some cases, it might require more explanation, "Well, you are asking the guard to almost certainly risk his life if he's found to have helped a prisoner, so that increased the base DC by 9, but on the other hand, the guard is a casual acquaintance so I lowed the DC by 1 and the guard knows you are a sworn Templar of Aravar and respects your rank so I lowed the DC by 1 on account of that.   The guards current attitude to you is dislike, and you are asking for a favor, so the base DC here is a 20.  However, your appeal is spot on.  The guard also dislikes his boss and believes he's unnecessarily cruel and unjust (to both him and the prisoners), and the thought that the boss will be the one blamed and removed from authority appeals to him so I'm ad hoc lowering the DC by 3.  Putting that all together, we get a DC of 24."  In practice, once the player's get a sense that you are being fair and giving proper consideration to their plans, you'll generally not have a lot of questions of this sort.I'd encourage you to work on those skills.  The proffered narration, "The baker stares at you for a long moment, confused on why you want a triple layer pie, but nevertheless shrugs and tells you it will take 3 days to make", isn't bad but you could improve it quite easily.   I'd suggest that "The baker stares at you for a long moment, seemingly confused, but then he shrugs and says, "Oh god's bells, what do I care why you want a three layer black bird pie, so long as you pay for it in advance.  But, I need to acquire and prepare the ingredients.  Is Thorsday morning soon enough?"  You want your NPC's to be memorable and have traits and mannerisms, and you won't get that out of third person narration quite as easily.  Narrating in first person will make NPCs much more likable (or hate worthy).   Secondly, you want to as much as possible show and not tell.  The PC's probably don't know what the Baker is thinking (unless they have detect thoughts) so don't tell them what the baker's motivations are for behaving in a certain way.  Indeed, it would be better if you can to express "confusion and surprise" through a facial expression if you can, though this will take practice.  The only reason to skip dialogue is when it isn't meaningful or entertaining.</blockquote>

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