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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Kurotowa" data-source="post: 7552303" data-attributes="member: 27957">They're separate because that's where the designers pegged the abstraction slider. Push it all the way to one end and you've got a single abstract skill, Social, that's used for everything. Push it the other way and you get a social combat system as complex and detailed as D&D's physical combat system. Put it somewhere to the more abstract side but not all the way to the end and you get four skills: Persuasion, Intimidation, Deception, and Insight. That's where 5e is at.So from one perspective, yes it's completely arbitrary that the designers pegged 5e at four social sklls, not more and not less. From another perspective, that "arbitrary" point was their best judgment on the optimal number for the game, and is the result of their testing and expertise in game design. Could you nudge it up a little and add a few more specialized skills? Sure, that's exactly what 3e had with things like Sense Motive and Gather Information. Could you nudge it the other way and abstract it down to only two social skills, one for getting other people to do what you want and one for resisting being talked into things? Sure, there's games like that too.I kind of like the default 5e setup. Persuasion, Intimidation, and Deception are a fairly balanced trio reflecting most things a PC will attempt to do. But if you're the DM and you wanna house rule that sucker, well, you'd hardly be the first.</blockquote>

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