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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 6571075" data-attributes="member: 82106">Yeah, that fits with my description of 4e's skills as 'knacks' or M.O.s. They aren't literally all the categorizations of everything the character can know, they are just highlighting those areas where the player wants to focus. I think the question you ask though brings a counter-question, which is what do you mean by 'always'? The players can only apply their skills to the fiction at the points where they can demonstrate that the narrative will support it, so obviously that's one limitation that we are all aware of. Its great to be a level one 4e PC with a +14 Diplomacy bonus, but skeletons just don't really care...Beyond that there may be reasons why a character may not want to exercise his best skill every time. There could be narrative consequences to pursuing some tactics for instance. I may be a great diplomat, but if I show the orc king a willingness to compromise he'll assume I'm weak, best to Bluff instead, or maybe its time for a show of prowess using Athletics or an attack power even though none of those are really the characters forte (obviously he's got to have SOMETHING to back up this plan, but it needn't be his strongest suite).</blockquote>