I have been playing quite a bit of 5E SRD lately, and I am coming to really dislike the 5E skill list. When you are not fighting, the skill list takes over the game. The list is enormous, typically presented in bold on character sheets, is visually unwieldy, and has this overbearing control of your actions and what you feel you can attempt.
The list, by default, feels like it has this "mind-controlling" effect on play.
Even to the effect that you would never really think to check ability scores - which is what you would do in B/X, roll equal or under. In 5E, would I ever check DEX? Well, it depends since acrobatics covers most of the uses of DEX. Lifting a heavy gate? Don't check STR; check athletics. Would I ever check medicine? Only as a last resort with that -1 modifier.
The list feels like it constrains actions more than it enables or encourages them.
I have had players at my table who froze up when they saw their skill lists. I presented a challenge, and their eyes locked on their character sheet's skill lists as they tried to figure out what to do. If they did not have the skills to do it, or they felt their chances were too low, I got blank stares like they were helpless.
I am not kidding. These were new players. I had to tell them, "try anything!"
The D&D 5E skill list is the 5E game. You could eliminate ability scores and just use a few tag-like modifiers (strong, fast, charming) and eliminate the ability scores entirely. Why make a DEX save when I should be making acrobatics? Why make an STR save when I should be rolling athletics? This would also eliminate the fight between the skill list and ability scores as players wonder what an ability score roll is versus a skill roll. And the game makes more sense since if I have skill proficiency in acrobatics (or a double proficiency), why isn't that used for DEX saves?
I am serious, get rid of the 3-18 stats in 5E, and it is a better and more consistent game.
Contrast that with Castles & Crusades, where you have no skills - only ability scores and the concept of primary (target number 12) and secondary (target number 18) attributes. Your skills are "baked into" the system. Pick STR as a primary? Well, your target number is 12 for all STR tasks and saves. Add your STR mod plus level, apply a negative difficulty per the CK, and you are good to go.
Having an ability as a primary means, "I picked all the skills that this ability uses."
Which is what you typically do anyways in most games. If I have a high STR and a game gives me STR skill picks, guess what I will do? Buy all those sweet STR skills and load them up!
Better yet, the system has a lot of flexibility. Want to know if someone is lying about a subject? WIS would be reading body language, while INT may know more than the person telling the tall tale. Tell the CK how you are trying to detect the lie and pick the best score.
Want to try something? Make a roll. So if CHR isn't a primary, you may not have the best chance at it, but your level may be added in there; plus, the CK can adjust for difficulty, so there is always a chance. In C&C, a mage in a cell can attempt to pick a lock with a piece of metal, just stick it in there, and wiggle it around. The mage won't get to add their level, but he or she will get to add DEX and try.
C&C just handles actions and ability scores so much more cleanly than 5E. It does everything 5E does in a sixth of space and complexity. And since one of your primaries is tied to your class, you get those by default. Non-humans get two primaries (and many special abilities), one they can select; and humans get three, meaning they can select two and be skilled in many areas.
My human rogue gets DEX, and I can pick STR and CHA, and I am done with my saves and skills.
And C&C does not really feel all that different in play than 5E. I want to make a history check? INT is the score; the target number depends on the character. Stealth? DEX. Intimidation? CHR. Want to ballpark difficulties? Well, by the rules, monster HD is the difficulty. Intimidate a 1 HD goblin? That is difficulty 1.
CHR (primary) modifier +3, level 4 character, versus a 1 HD goblin?
3 + 4 = +7 versus a target number of 12 + 1 = 13.
Meet or beat a 6.
And since the target numbers are fixed, as a referee, I am only throwing out a difficulty number, typically 0 to 10, and negatives are also used for easy tasks (or just rule the action a success). I do not have to set a task DC from 5 to 30.
Unlike 5E, you add your level to most checks, unless you would be copying a class ability from another class, like lockpicking. So that is like adding your proficiency bonus to all ability saves and checks in 5E. In C&C, it is easier for high-level heroes to do "hero stuff" like jump pits, make perception rolls, charm guards, or do things everyone can do. So the system has a hidden "skill improvement" factor baked into the rules, and it feels like a pulp-action game.
C&C is a cleaner design, and it plays smoother. It does everything 5E's skill system does. The game also plays exactly like B/X or 5E, or anywhere between.
The 5E design is very bolted-on and clunky as they try to make that skill list work alongside the ability scores. For every problem this hybrid system introduces, they have to write pages of rules to fix the problems of the basic design. Once you introduce "ability score skills," you run into all sorts of problems explaining why a high STR character can't bend bars as easily as someone "trained" to bend bars with a skill.
If you eliminate the skill levels of the 5E list and make them "toggle skills," such as having the medicine skill allowing you to make medicine-related ability score rolls, then the game cleans up, and the ability scores take the leading role. Let everyone try stealth with DEX checks and make specialized rogue abilities with better names: disappear, shadow step, and so on.
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