D&D 5E Skills that you u are not proficient with

[redrick]

Any DM that's run with a six player group (or more,) starts to realize that with everybody rolling the same check groups of adventurers succeed at almost everything. If they don't want to do the three pillars thing and are basically just trying to get into the next fight maybe that works for them, but for actually putting some emphasis on the exploration and social interaction parts of the game, a DM will usually only let one player make a roll for a particular check.

As such you want the guy that knows what he's doing to track the dangerous beasty back to its lair or try to get the diplomat to add a corrupt little side clause to the legislation that's being voted on today. As a Jack of all Trades you become the natural fit for whatever skills don't happen to have a more experienced person around for.

D&D gets run a little differently by every DM that puts their hand to it, but I don't think I could stand a group that had everyone hurling their dice on every task, except maybe some custom scenario where we're actually adding them all up for the unusual scenario, and didn't think the help action adequately covered what was going on.

Personally, I like to run this as: only so many characters may attempt a certain thing at a certain time. So, if 5 PCs are trying to track an NPC back to his or her lair, that's 5 PCs scuffing up the tracks.

When one character attempts something, and then fails, and then another player says, "oh, well, can my character make an insight check?" I advance the timeline first, or nix the check, as appropriate. Characters can't round robin every check until somebody succeeds. At best, if more than one character attempts something at the same time (without a good reason why 3 characters are better than one, like a strength check hauling on a series of ropes), it's all just "aid another", which grants advantage. Advantage doesn't stack.

That way, it's on the players to sort of "prioritize" skilled characters over other characters, knowing that if Billy the Absent-Minded Wizard tries to track the beast, Steve the Ranger might not be able to. On the other hand, if Steve the Ranger is otherwise occupied, and Billy wants to give it a shot, more power to him.

(We also use a loose sense of "turns" in most situations, so I'll frequently go around the table and ask everybody what their character is doing before calling for rolls, checks, etc.)

As to the OP, yeah, your DM's house rules sound whack. Maybe he is also new to the system? Don't be afraid to find a new game, but, if it's just another guy (like you) still learning the ropes of a new game, cut him some slack. Focus less on him "shafting your character" and just on having a good game, overall. If after a few sessions, your character is clearly not able to contribute, bring it up again, and, if he still isn't interesting in reconsidering his approach, walk away. But, that being said, as a first-time player, be prepared for your expectations to be way off. You came into this with a lot of analysis and preparation, and, without the context of actually playing the game, that preparation is likely to have steered you a little off-course as to what to actually expect from a 5e game.

 

[Savevsdeath]

About Medicine roll ... YES ! Thats what I am talking about ! Why should a warrior or a sorcerer who does have anything to do with healing has a chance to try it? They must face a penalty even if DM let them to try it out. This way the game will be really fair.

I am a soldier, and I know basic first aid to the degree that I have successfully saved lives more than once, and no i am not a medic. On a battlefield, people get hurt, and if you don't know how to help them, your comrades die. So, my question is why would any adventurer, especially a warrior, NOT know enough medicine/first aid to help their comrades?

 

[Zorku]

Since this stuff is ye olde darke ages you can further argue that the medically trained people don't do a whole lot better than somebody that just knows to try and remove anything currently stabbing you and bandage the wound. Magic automatically trumps any of that, but without magic you're lucky if a practitioner tries to soak the wound in urine and then gives you some leeches.

 

[MostlyDm]

Hehe... Rolemaster. Here's my Rolemaster story. I was at an old, long failed game store in Bellevue, Washington some years back that had a couple private rooms for gaming. On this particular day there were two different groups playing away, one in each room. One group, the group I was a part of, was playing good old fashioned AD&D (1st Edition), the other was playing Rolemaster. Both groups were playing established characters, in ongoing campaigns, with experienced players. About two hours into our dungeon crawl our group took a break, and I wandered by the other room and peeked in. I was somewhat intimidated by what I saw. Each person had several different rules books, tomes, and manuals, including what looked like actual historical reference books, say from the Napoleonic era - and alot of them - they also had what I assumed were various pieces of drafting equipment; dividers and compasses, protractors and t-rulers... not to mention various tape measures, and oh the graphs and tables and charts... it was oh so complicated, complex... I'd even say alien. And they were having a very thunderous and passionate debate about the movement of a goblin; that was chasing a player's character. I believe the issue was the stone floor was uneven, and there was much ado about what rolls the goblin would have to make, to actually catch the elf archer. The fight in question was between two of the players and three goblins. So much passion over textures and resistance and relative speed and physics... I was getting dizzy!

I wandered back into our room, and we played for a few more hours; we finished our crawl, faced several encounters, found and fought the boss - a lich - and ransacked his treasury and made our way back to the city. Another break and once again I wandered next door. Everyone looked utterly exhausted, and it was much, much less chaotic. They were on a break as well. If anything, there was even more graphs and charts and diagrams out. I wandered up to one of them and asked what they were up to.

He brightened, and cheerfuly told me they'd finished almost three rounds of battle. The same battle that they were arguing about some 6 or 7 hours earlier. It turns out the goblin in question was not a skilled enough athlete to smoothly run over the uneven floor and the elf lass was able to elude him, though there was still a bit of disagreement over this. The side debate that continued moments later was about the "looseness" of the small rocks, gravel and pebbles that were strewn across the floor, and just how this should have effected the barefoot goblin...

I think, in all honesty, a part of my soul died as I was overhearing this. Then again, to each their own, right?

Oh man, this takes me back.

Most of my Rolemaster experience was with the Middle-Earth Roleplaying Game, which if I recall right is *substantially* less complex than actual Rolemaster.

... I don't miss it. Even a little.

 

[Inoeex]

As we are getting more through the game, I see some other problems. Lets back to skills, I read the chapter about "Help" at PHB page 192 and "Working Together" at page 175 , they say you need to be proficient with that skill or tool to give someone a hand.

So does JoAT makes a Bard a candidate to help with everything by PHB rules ?
Or my interpretation is wrong?

 

[pukunui]

That'd be a question to put to your DM.

 

[Inoeex]

That'd be a question to put to your DM.

In our game we have -5 on skills we are not proficient with. JoAT adds the exact PB to those skills which means as Bard I have -3 on those skills.

So I know his answer already " Your PB on those skills are below zero thus you cannot help "

But I want to see how is it by defualt, can a Bard help everyone with everything with his JoAT? If its so, then our DM has taken another part of my class from me with his house rules.

And another thing is, JoAT dont give me PB with tools, only with skills ..... ridiculous huh ? : |

 

[pukunui]

But I want to see how is it by defualt, can a Bard help everyone with everything with his JoAT?

The rules don't say. It's up to the DM to decide one way or the other. If I were the DM, I would say Jack of All Trades does count towards making you proficient in something (and thus able to provide help), but your DM might rule differently. It's his prerogative to do so. This edition's mantra is "Rulings, Not Rules" after all. Much of the language of the game is deliberately open to interpretation for this very reason.

And another thing is, JoAT dont give me PB with tools, only with skills ..... ridiculous huh ? : |

Tools require ability checks to use. Jack of All Trades lets you add half your proficiency bonus to *all* ability checks, including those made with tools.