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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jester David" data-source="post: 6727725" data-attributes="member: 37579">Originally posted by wrecan:Well, I guess we have to determine what is the benefit of having a Skill system in the form it exists now.Let's take my list of six Exploratory Skills (incorporating Garthanos' suggested change to Stealth)<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Exertion (Strength): This includes climbing, jumping, breaking, swimming, and lifting. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Provision (Constitution): This includes foraging and enduring </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Manipulation (Dexterity): This includes tumbling, juggling, and sleight of hand </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Education (Intelligence): This includes magic detection, deciphering, and monster knowledge </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Perception (Wisdom): This includes searching and detecting </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Deception (Charisma): This includes feinting, sneaking, and hiding </li> </ul>This is supplemented by a bunch of Practices for stuff you only really need one member of the party to have, like First Aid, Lockpicking, Pickpocketing, Sabotage, Speak Language, as well as things to add new options to the six Skills, like Aberration Lore, Know Direction, Predict Weather, and Cantrip, and ways to switch Abilities for some Skills, like Tumble Up Walls (Dex for Climbing), Uncanny Intuition (Wisdom for Learning), and Detect Weak Point (Int for breaking). And every character gets, say, four Practices of their choice at first level.Is there a benefit to adding Heal and Thievery back into this list? I'm not sure what that would be. (Let's assume that social skills, like bluffing, intimidating, insight, and diplomacy, would be handled in a separate Social Mechanic). I'm not saying we need to adopt Monte Cook's ideas of Skill Ranks like Journeyman, Master, etc. That's a separate issue. I'm just not sure what benefit there is to having more than six skills, each linked to one ability.Agreed. I think that a group of PCs interested in capers would likely take Practices that reflect such an interest. But Practices, should only make things easier. They shouldn't be prerequisites to success.Let's take a heist scenario. In the classic heist film, you may have the following five specialists: the safecracker, the getaway driver, the inside man, the skulk, and the lookout. In D&D, the getaway driver would operate the getaway chariot (Athletics, likely with an Animal Handling Practice), the safecracker is disarming the traps (Acrobatics, likely with a safecracker Practice), the inside man knows the locale (Learning), the skulk is sneaking around getting equipment in place (Deception, with a Skulking Practice), and the Lookout is keeping eyes and ears open (Perception). PCs with a variety of Abilities would take different roles in the heist. If two PCs have similar stats, then Practices can help distinguish them. I don't see why the system I describe above would work any worse than the current system.</blockquote>

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