Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 8652858" data-attributes="member: 82106"><p>Right, and in fact if you were to mine back through my entire posting history on Enworld you would find that the FIRST THING that I came up with in terms of 4e being a true Narrativist system was the concept that 4e Skills (which are a lot like 5e skills in basic structure, except you get a level bonus on all of them) represent the APPROACH that the player is declaring a particular PC will take to problems. When you give your character Athletics proficiency, you are not saying &quot;this guy is a great athlete&quot; (maybe he is and maybe he isn't he could have STR 8); what you ARE saying is, that you are going to use Athletics in challenges and you want the reward for doing so, as rolling with nothing but an ability modifier of -1 (if you really had STR 8) sucks and disincentives you. OTOH, the -1 is there, and the mighty thewed barbarian with STR 20 (+5), but no Athletics proficiency, doesn't really roll that way, though if push comes to shove he will likely beat you out in an athletic competition (barely)! I think this explains why proficiency gives a +5, which is basically the same amount as the largest starting ability bonus. Obviously the most straightforward character concept is the guy with BOTH 20 STR and Athletics proficiency, and he's your goto for this kind of thing, but the point is, Athletics just says &quot;I want to do this stuff.&quot; not &quot;I'm great at it.&quot;</p></blockquote><p></p>

[QUOTE="AbdulAlhazred, post: 8652858, member: 82106"] Right, and in fact if you were to mine back through my entire posting history on Enworld you would find that the FIRST THING that I came up with in terms of 4e being a true Narrativist system was the concept that 4e Skills (which are a lot like 5e skills in basic structure, except you get a level bonus on all of them) represent the APPROACH that the player is declaring a particular PC will take to problems. When you give your character Athletics proficiency, you are not saying "this guy is a great athlete" (maybe he is and maybe he isn't he could have STR 8); what you ARE saying is, that you are going to use Athletics in challenges and you want the reward for doing so, as rolling with nothing but an ability modifier of -1 (if you really had STR 8) sucks and disincentives you. OTOH, the -1 is there, and the mighty thewed barbarian with STR 20 (+5), but no Athletics proficiency, doesn't really roll that way, though if push comes to shove he will likely beat you out in an athletic competition (barely)! I think this explains why proficiency gives a +5, which is basically the same amount as the largest starting ability bonus. Obviously the most straightforward character concept is the guy with BOTH 20 STR and Athletics proficiency, and he's your goto for this kind of thing, but the point is, Athletics just says "I want to do this stuff." not "I'm great at it." [/QUOTE]

Verification