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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Einlanzer0" data-source="post: 7317868" data-attributes="member: 6788934">I've never been satisfied with 5e's skill system. The skill lineup itself has problems, having a binary for proficiency is too simple, and I also find Expertise and jack of all trades a bit overpowered for the classes that get them. I'm working on some custom rules to address this while trying to keep the same spirit as the official skill system. Here's what I've got going at the moment:Revamped Skill Lineup (tools remain unchanged)Strength – AthleticsDexterity – Legerdemain, Stealth, AcrobaticsConstitution – FortitudeIntelligence – Medicine, Machinery, Arcana, Folklore, TacticsWisdom – Composure, Insight, Nurturing, Focus, SurvivalCharisma – Deception, Intimidation, Performance, PersuasionDeprecated skills:Investigation – A poorly thought-out, confusing, and thematically redundant skill. Int’s role in searching, spotting, and solving puzzles is now baked into the individual knowledge skills. So, for example, investigating a mechanical object might involve Machinery checks and Insight/Focus checks.Animal Handling – now consolidated into the Nurturing and survival skills where appropriate. Additional bonuses for livestock management could be tied to an Animal handler background. I find this too specific and niche to be included as its own skill.Perception – Perception is now a fully passive mechanic rather than a trainable skill that has active applications. Focus partially takes the place of Perception, but has uses that Perception did not. New skills:Fortitude – Not having a Con based skill for non-athletic physical conditioning was weird, because endurance/fortitude unrelated to athletic prowess is a real thing that can be trained. Fortitude can represent things like attempts to tolerate pain for long periods of time without passing out or dying, or attempts to avoid injury or conditions in situations where a strength or athletics check isn’t thematically appropriate (such as exposure, or exhaustion). It sometimes synergizes with skills like Focus or Survival.Folklore – governs all general knowledge and lore, including things like religion, history, geography, and politics. Different backgrounds may provide bonuses or advantage to specific uses of this skill.Machinery – governs all knowledge of mechanical objectsTactics – provides a combat-oriented skill for Intelligence. Takes the place of RAW Inspiration (which is revamped in my rules). Allows players to gain advantage or impose or remove disadvantage as a reaction once per short rest. The DC for doing this can vary by context, but 15 would be a standard DC.Focus – often used in conjunction with other skills in situations like searching or investigating objects. Sometimes needed to maintain concentration in distracting situations. Usage varies, but it partially folds in the former Perception skill.Composure – Used to ward off effects like fear and madness, and to maintain poise and balance in trying or socially difficult situations. Sometimes used in conjunction with skills like Fortitude and Focus.Nurturing – Provide long-term care, raise/train animals, provide mentorship to others. Sometimes used in conjunction with Medicine for helping others recover from ills and injuries.For the system itself - there are now 4 levels of proficiency - none, amateur/dabbler, proficient, and expert. All classes get double the number of starting proficiencies as RAW, +/- their Int modifier, but proficiency now takes two proficiency slots; one represents amateur skill (1/2 of proficiency bonus). Expert tier grants a static +3 rather than doubling the proficiency check, which I find far more balanced given the overall design of 5e. Gaining expert tier requires class features or feats.Modified Class features/ Feats – the two abilities below, class features of the Bard/Rogue, do not work well with the new skill rules (and were arguably overpowered to begin with), so they have been modified as follows.Jack of All Trades – Gain six new proficiency slots, which can only be used to gain amateur proficiency for new skills/tools. This is a class feature for Bards and an optional feat for other classes. Gain +1 to Intelligence when taken as a feat. (requires Int 13)Expertise – Gain a permanent +3 bonus to any two skills/tools that you are already proficient with. This is a class ability for Bards/Thieves and an optional feat for other classes. Gain +1 to Intelligence when taken as a feat. (Int 13)In addition to adding a bit more desired complexity to the skill system, these rules help shore up Int as being such an underpowered attribute in 5e. Thoughts and suggestions welcome - particularly with regard to redesigning jack of all trades and expertise in the new system.</blockquote>

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