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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Staffan" data-source="post: 9755591" data-attributes="member: 907">I like how Pathfinder 2 has a skill for Society, which basically covers everything dealing with people ("local history, important personalities, legal institutions, societal structure, and humanoid cultures"). I'd extend it to knowledge of some geography as well, at least as pertains to various settlements and national borders and such. When running 5e, that's basically what I do with History as well. I can see the use for both, but it depends on how skills work in the game. In a primarily skill-based system my preference is generally for broad skills with optional specializations. But I'm also somewhat fond of the ridiculously narrow "expertise" or "characteristic" skills found in the Swedish RPG Eon. You both have relatively broad skills like History or Warfare or Leadership, but as part of the character creation process you can also get narrow Expertises like Food Tasting, Brothel Knowledge or Quote Libera (the equivalent of the Bible in part of the setting), or Characteristics like Smells Good, Scar, or Friend to Animals. These are generally easier to raise, and can be very useful if you can find a way to apply them, but in most cases you can get by with the "normal" skills.Another instance where narrow skills work well is when they act as a bonus on top of what is expected, and ideally when you get a fairly large number of them. The former was, I think, part of the intended design for 5e, but it's not how things have developed with skill use. That's why the game usually refers to things like "DC 13 Intelligence (Arcana) check" – it's not meant to be a check requiring Arcana proficiency, it's meant to be an Intelligence check that gets easier if you're proficient in Arcana. But I think a lot of DMs still rely on old habits where many skill checks required you to have the actual skill, particularly for knowledge-type stuff. Personally, I'd be more inclined to do the opposite: give a PC with the right proficiency an automatic success, or at least a partial success, without even rolling. For example, in Eberron someone with proficiency in Religion should know all the Sovereigns (including the Dark Six), along with their basic portfolios and tenets and such. But they might not immediately grasp that the goddess Rowa of the Jungle Leaves worshipped by giant clans in the vicinity of Stormreach is identified as the same as the Sovereign Host goddess Arawai.</blockquote>

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