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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Li Shenron" data-source="post: 6023643" data-attributes="member: 1465">The first sentence made me cringe. Then I read the rest and it got me thinking...I absolutely hate when detaching abilities from skills leads players to pick their highest ability possible for every skill check. The famous example is the barbarian player that pretends every single time to Intimidate using Strength instead of Charisma and starts breaking wooden boards and bending iron bars, then the wizard player pretends to Intimidate using Intelligence as in "I come up with a clever logical argumentation on why he should crap his pants off", then the Rogue pretends to Intimidate using Dexterity as in "I just show off how fast I can twirl my nunchakus", then the Dwarf pretends to Intimidate using Constitution as in "I chuggle down a pint of poison in front of him, I am immune anyway, it'll scare them all that not even poison can kill me".They might all sound imaginative, but it's only fun the first time. The bad side is that it becomes a method for getting a constant benefit (high Intimidate score) without paying the price (spending some ability points in Charisma).BUT your post got me thinking that if instead this idea is meant the other way around, then it's pretty good. "The other way around" meaning when the player cannot choose what ability to use, but still gets the skill bonus.Let's take Climb.Instead of just letting each PC freely choose Str or Dex (i.e. the highest, obviously), it would be interesting if the DM calls which one depending on the circumstance, for example:- you're pushing yourself up a vertical rope with a backpack full of treasure: Strength check with your Climb bonus- you're walking up a steep hill with thorns and rocky spikes: Dexterity check with your Climb bonus- you're on a forced march for hours on a slanted terrain: Constitution check with your Climb bonus- you want to know which spot is best on this cliff to lure your enemy to, and then try to make him fall: Intelligence check with your Climb bonusSo in other words, not so much "allow applying different ability modifiers to a skill check" but instead "allow applying a skill modifier to different ability checks".I don't know if this is what you mean, but I like how it sounds <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f60e.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":cool:" title="Cool    :cool:"  data-smilie="6"data-shortname=":cool:" /></blockquote>

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