Why I Hate Skills

[MichaelSomething]

I totally agree with putting locks on things because that's what NPCs would do. And opening those locks is what PCs do! (Well, some And that's how I feel about locks, too. If the goal is to make the exploration challenging, then make it challenging for the players: don't hinge it on whether or not they happen to succeed on a die roll.

Which is why WOTC should sell paickable locks for DMs to have players actually pick during play. Instead of rolling a dice, a GM can pull out a lock and some picks have the players do IRL lockpicking!

 

[Bill Zebub]

Which is why WOTC should sell paickable locks for DMs to have players actually pick during play. Instead of rolling a dice, a GM can pull out a lock and some picks have the players do IRL lockpicking!

I mean, WTOC doesn't need to sell them. My 12 year old has a practice lock that has easy-to-swap pins.

But that's not what I meant about "make it challenging to the players". I meant: don't rely on pickable locks to challenge them.

 

[pemerton]

Not normally, because that doesn't make a lot of sense. I'm just saying that Wisdom (and the other stats) are indirectly used as widgets on the character sheet because they modify skill and attacks that do get invoked directly.

Contrast that with a pure identifier like "hair color" or "age".

In Wuthering Heights, you roll on your age ("oldness", as the translation from the French has it):

To test his wisdom, one should roll below his Oldness
To test his physical well-being, one should Surpass his Oldness​

(This post brought to you by for completeness.)