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Message: <blockquote data-quote="EzekielRaiden" data-source="post: 6641795" data-attributes="member: 6790260">@<a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/member.php?u=20998" target="_blank">tyrlaan</a> has the right of it, as far as I see things. The (Totem) Barbarian and Elemental/Shadow Monk strike me as good (sub)classes designed with "everyone participates in all the pillars." They still feel a little too low, but I am more than willing to accept that my standards might be too high (especially given the "increased floor" type benefit from skills). Certainly I feel like, even with the rituals granted to the Barb, it's pretty damn slim pickings for the "socialization" pillar--it's long been a beef of mine that Barbarians (and Fighters) are at extreme risk of being the Big Dumb Oaf whenever socialization is the name of the game. To bring the Barb up to the level where I'd be happy, you'd only need to add one or MAYBE two small things. Frex, benefits to intimidation (you're a scary outsider), insight (your connection to the spirits, or your instinctive appraisal of others, makes it hard to pull a fast one on you), or maybe even diplomacy (as an outsider, other outsiders understand and empathize with you--you speak the "language" of those who struggle daily for survival) would all be highly thematic, and could be minor but useful. Since the Berserker Barb is almost totally combat, maybe add in a minor exploration-related ability too, like being able to hunt up food and potable water to feed yourself, plus a number of people equal to your Proficiency. Simple, minor, but in a tight spot or where food becomes important (for the party members themselves, or for others!) it could be valuable.Similarly, I can't help but think a Way of Shadow Monk should have some ability with either telling or detecting lies (or both), simply because "Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? THE SHADOW knows." And the Way of the Elements Monk could EASILY ape stuff from Avatar: the Last Airbender, or at least find some inspiration there. Open Hand is harder, but I'm sure the designers could come up with something. With being explicitly magical ("the magic of Ki"), it should not be hard to find ways that the Monk could do cool, useful, and largely combat-useless things.In fact, here's a nice, simple way to put it: Y'know those "ribbon" abilities the designers mentioned in UA? That's the kind of thing I'd like to see a lot more of. I think everything should have "ribbons." I especially think that more classes should have socialization- and exploration-related ribbons, akin to the "control the direction of the wind" Storm Sorcerer ability: something super useful in the right circumstances, but often just flavorful. (I really wish the 5e Dragonborn had gotten more "ribbons"--I wouldn't be nearly so PO'd about them if they had.)That said though, Tyrlaan, you technically aren't quite accurate about Remarkable Athlete. Loath as I am to say anything positive about it, it is not just "athletics." It's all physical ability checks--regardless of whether they can get proficiency normally--that you aren't already proficient in. Unfortunately, this means the biggest benefit is Initiative. The Fighter is almost guaranteed to have one of Athletics or Acrobatics, given that those are skills on their class list. Technically speaking, RA also benefits any attempt at a "nonstandard" Skill use--for example, wanting to roll a Strength (Intimidation) check would technically allow a Fighter that isn't proficient in Intimidation to get half-proficiency on it, if the DM allowed such a check, though this is forging into a pretty serious grey area. (That is, AFAICT the books neither support nor refute the possibility of using "off stats" for a particular skill.)</blockquote>

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