D&D 5E Skills as mundane Spells

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

I imagine it's more like a "spend a day gathering" type thing, in concept.

The OP was comparing it to the summon monster spell. If it were mechanically similar to a spell, while still following the original flavor, it would be similar to Call Planar Ally instead. (Something that takes a long time to do, but also gets you friends for a long time.)

Actually, in Next, they're pretty badass. 12 2nd-level guys are likely tons more effective than the 9th level fighter himself - at least, until they die

Well, you learn something new every day. (I've read the packets, but only played the first.)

 

[amerigoV]

I did this with Savage Worlds for a psionic character. If you are not familiar with Savage Worlds, there is a much lower number of spells in the systems and you give them magical trappings. So instead of having to pick through 9 thousand minor variants of magic missile and fireball from the Spell Compendium, you pick Bolt / Blast and define all the look and minor tweaks. Extending the trapping concept to the systems skills and Edges (~feats) really enhanced the experience for me. At the end of a campaign, another player said they had no idea if my character was casting a spell, using a skill, or an Edge whenever I declared an action. That was very satisfying.

Making fighter skills and feats "magical" may not fully jive for most people, but the concept certainly can work - ie, reskinning. Perhaps Dwarven fighters, while having access to the same stuff, have different descriptions for how the result occurs ("I hit him Dwarven-style!"). I again did this in Savage Worlds to make what was equivalent to a Psychic Warrior from 3e. The PC had no spellcasting abilities from the system at all, but all the skills and Edges (feats) all were based off the concept of the PC being able to see a couple of seconds into the future (Jedi without the JarJar). So Edges like First Strike (a free attack on someone comes up to you), Block (like Dodge in D&D), Initiative Edges, etc are all standard combat stuff that takes on a new feel by providing a theme/trapping/reskin.

 

[Rhenny]

I think there are some skill/abilities that are spell-like in nature and they should be that way.

For instance, I'm a big fan of giving a wizard the skill/spell detect magic and read magic all bundled within Arcane Lore (or Arcana). Of course, the more experienced the wizard, the more easily he or she can detect or read magic.

Similarly, the thieving abilities tend to function the same way. Open lock, disarm trap, etc.

The problem is that in D&DNext, there is very little granularity with skills as PCs level up. Skill die changes, but not for a number of levels.

I love the idea of skill dice, and advantage/disadvantage, but I'm not sure I like how it sets up "bump" levels instead of a constant more gradual scaling.

 

[keterys]

The other trick is that I'm not sure skills are meaningful except in a "feel good" 'Hey I rolled well' kinda way.
[MENTION=26651]amerigoV[/MENTION] Sounds like how Champions/Hero plays as well. Everyone picks their theme and how they work, reskinning powers appropriately.

 

[The Choice]

Not at most tables that I've seen. And if he could, the caster will be better at it (better skill access, enchantment spells, etc).

I'll add to this that it's a common problem for most D&D groups out there : frame something as "magical"? Cool! You can do this, no roll needed outside of maybe a saving throw or perhaps an attack roll. Give the ability to create the same result to a "non-magical" character? Watch as the number of rolls/the difficulty of the whole thing skyrockets. Also, it'll lead to the game grinding to a screeching halt as the GM picks his brain trying to either a) stop the player from doing what he wants; or b) figure out the exact difficulty/the steps required to achieve the player's goals.

It stems from a (wrong-headed) belief shared by many players : that any character wielding magic is a supergod, but that a character choosing a non-magical profession basically stumbled into it by chance. "Yeah, I found this sword in chest in my attic, guess that makes me a fighter, huh." "I went to wizard college! I'm special."

Needless to say, I like this idea. If I'm investing a limited resource into something, I want to get as much use as I can from it (be that spell selection, or picking a skill or a feat. Heck, feats should be more powerful than spells considering how few you normally get.)