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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Charlaquin" data-source="post: 8476421" data-attributes="member: 6779196">Yes, and look how many pages it took for me to get across to you that I don’t see skills or ability checks as actions. I think that’s because of this vernacular usage that treats skills as if they were actions in and of themselves - itself a holdover from previous editions where they functionally were actions. They don’t work that way in 5e and the fact that we (even the developers, as you note) still talk about them that way contributes to widespread misunderstandings of the rules.Sure, and if a player did that at the table, I would acknowledge that I understand they are seeking to apply their medicine proficiency to any roll that might be required to resolve the action, and then request more information about the action itself so that I can properly adjudicate it.Literally they are there to allow the player to apply their proficiency bonus to checks with the ability they are defined as facets of, when the DM calls for them, so as to make those checks less likely to fail.In my view, the smart play is to aim for automatic success, and failing that, to insure that the ability that must be checked to avoid failure is one you have a decent bonus in, and ideally have proficiency and/or expertise in facets of. So, if I’m playing a rogue for example, I’m going to expect to do a lot of looking for traps and secret doors, disabling mechanical devices,  and picking locks. Since I know I won’t be able to eliminate the possibility of failure in all such situations, I want to make sure I have decent modifiers in Dexterity, Wisdom, and Intelligence, and proficiencies or expertise in Perception, Investigation, Thieves’ Tools, and maybe Sleight of Hand. I might want to take Feats like Observant and Dungeon Delver. But even if I’m totally stacked with high modifiers, expertise, reliable talent, all that good stuff, I still want to avoid having to make checks with them if possible, because succeeding automatically is always a safer bet than risking even a small chance of failure. It’s like insurance; ideally you don’t want to need it, but if you do need it, you’d rather have it be good insurance.</blockquote>

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