Intimi-Beef
I love me some d20 system. The simple formula of “roll die, add modifier” will get you through almost any scrape. Want to lift something heavy? Give me that Strength check. Want to chat it up with that cute warlock? Roll your Charisma. Want to impress that cute warlock by lifting something heavy? Give me an… erm… Athletics? No, I mean Performance. No wait, how about we roll both and take the average?
ಠ_ಠ
This biz is why the core resolution mechanic of the d10 system remains my favorite. For those of you who are unfamiliar, it’s a pretty straightforward “dice pool” setup. Just grab a number of dice equal to your relevant Attribute + Ability scores. Every die showing seven or higher is a success. Get the requisite number of successes and you’ve succeeded at the check. So for example, if your beefy dawn caste solar exalt has a 5 in Strength and 2 in Performance, you’re rolling 7 dice in your sexy powerlifting dance routine.
However, as you may have noticed in today’s comic, Barbarian does not have the luxury of playing mix’n’match. In d20 terms, Intimidation is a Charisma-based skill. You can’t just add your Strength bonus to the check because it happens to make sense in context. You need special training for that! While this rigidity does incentivize careful character building, it can also be deeply disconcerting when the charismatic halfling ballerina has a better chance at scaring that bad guys than your half-orc bruiser.
So in that sense, what I really love about dice pool systems like d10 is their expressiveness. You can really zero in on the specific situation by pairing the right stats. Even better, combining Attribute + Ability in unexpected combinations is often good for a laugh. Want to inspire the troops by posing dramatically on yonder hilltop? Give me Appearance + War. How about faking the symptoms of the Great Contagion? Roll those Manipulation + Medicine bones. Need to fix your broken weapon sans tools? Just punch that sword back into shape with Strength + Craft!
So for today’s question of the day, why don’t we brainstorm a few unconventional scenarios? What is the weirdest combination of Attribute + Ability you can come up with? (Or if you prefer, Ability + Skill)? When would you actually roll it? Tell us all about your weirdest situations and wackiest stat combos down in the comments!
ADD SOME NSFW TO YOUR FANTASY! If you’ve ever been curious about that Handbook of Erotic Fantasy banner down at the bottom of the page, then you should check out the “Quest Giver” reward level over on The Handbook of Heroes Patreon. Twice a month you’ll get to see what the Handbook cast get up to when the lights go out. Adults only, 18+ years of age, etc. etc.
Is there any palpable difference between this d10-System and Shadowrun5’s d6-System? Attribute (Body/Logic/etc.) + Skill (Programing/Biotechnology/Russian/etc.)= xd6. 5&6 count as a success and you need a requisite number of successses to power through a check. The d10-System seems to be largely the same just with other dice and a slightly higher probability of success.
Holding in a mighty catoblepas-steak-fart in the ballroom: Constitution (sustained body-tension) + Social Graces-skill (poker face while mingling/ dining/ dancing)
Not on this very high level interpretation.
Both are Dice-Pool attribute and skill (or whatever name for “broad capability and narrow capability you wanna use), count successes system.
There’s a lot of them with some variance in the details. Many of them even uses the same dice which can make naming them difficult, if we aren’t just going with the name of the RPG that uses them (which in turn produces difficulties when multiple systems uses the same one).
Ah, got it. Though I’m not a fan of the Shadowrun5 system (or Exalted’s d10-system). The amount of dice rolled gets ridiculous very fast. The party rigger has to handle 13 dice about 6 times, every round. D20 might not allow wild skill+attribute combinations, but it’s very fast/easy to learn/convenient.
What, you don’t love stuffing the bottom of your t-shirt full of dice and then dumping them on the table? Different strokes I guess. 😛
Hell, that’s part of the reason I love playing a crit-fishing magus.
“Alright, critical threat with Intensified Shocking grasp on my arcane pool point enhanced Flaming Burst Shocking Burst Icy +3 Keen Scimitar aaaaand confirmed… That will be 2d6+3 weapon damage+1d6 electricity+1d10 electricity+1d6 fire +1d10 fire+1d6 cold +20d6 from the shocking grasp. Wait, why are you taking the enemy off the map!? I haven’t even rolled for damage yet!!!”
Actually, the “Variant: Skills with Different Abilities” rules rules cover exactly this situation.
My petard. I have been hoisted by it.
One of the few Variant rules published in the player’s handbook instead of in the DM’s guide and it honestly shouldn’t be a “variant” at all.
I get around most these problems in my own games by simply getting players into the habit of describing their intents WITH the actions they are taking. If a player declares a roll before i asked for anything (outside of attacks), it simply doesn’t count, if a player says “Insight check! or I roll to intimidate! Or I intimidate the guard!”, I’ll just ask them how/what they are doing, and then ask them to roll any number of attribute+skill combo that i see fits their description.
Some of my favorite non-charisma based intimidation checks so far have been:
Half-orc pugilist quieting down a noisy tavern by punching a serious dent in a stone wall (damage dealt to the wall, after hardness + intimidate)
That same Half-orc walking into a thug’s brandished dagger to get real nice and close to his face (constitution + intimidate, taking 1d4 damage)
Human Rogue distractedly playing “pinfinger” while having a “friendly” conversation. (dexterity+intimidate)
as a DM I‘d have no problem giving the Barbarian a feat called „Minor Intimidating Prowess“ as a freebie. (Str instead of Cha)
Would still require the genuine article as prerequisite for Dazzling Display.
as for todays question
https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0808.html
Was Roy rolling STR (Knowledge: Engineering) there?
na, probbably just got a bonus
I have a few thoughts here:
1) Coming up with weird combos of skill and ability can be pretty fun in and off itself, but for actual gaming purposes it’s probably better to do it the other way around (start with a task then decide on what to roll to resolve it rather than vise versa).
2) a weird side effect of these sorts of rolls is that a lot of what people use to justify a switch to an unusual attribute is the sorts of things that might normally grant a penalty. If that penalty is smaller than the benefit of getting to use your good stat instead of your bad stat it can give degenerate results.
For instance if you use Strength + Craft to punch your sword into shape without your tools but would use the baseline Intelligence + Crafts with them (perhaps with a -1 die penalty), then the high strength low Int character would be incentivized to deliberately throw their tools away.
Another classic would be rolling Stamina + bureaucracy to argue a court-case if you haven’t slept all night, resulting in high Stamina characters deliberately staying up and partying all night before important court-cases.
3)In dnd specifically, I think a lot of the problem stems from how few ressources people have for “non-core competency”-stuff, made worse with how Charisma generally isn’t worth it for non-cha based classes.
People dumb Charisma to 7 and doesn’t invest in intimidation because they need the points for their fighty-ness and then are sad when, being a low cha-person with no social skills their character aren’t the cool badass in their head (with the high charisma of the actor that’d play them on TV/in a movie), but instead an awkward unassertive mess stumbling their way through the interrogation with no idea of what they are doing.
(depending on edition it’s also exaggerated a bit, because intimidation is a class skill for barbarians but not for bards or sorcerers, while warlocks really have an equal or better claim to being scary).
3b) dm’s should also be a bit better at “the situation is what’s scary” at times, and in showing prisoners as scared even if they aren’t usefully scared.
4) a fun stat + stat combo I saw once was “ride + strength” for staying on and taming a wild horse until it gave up through the process of “breaking it in”, opposed by the horses Stamina + Athletics.
Trying to reconcile the tropes with the stats is always a tough one. Draconic sorcerers arguably have the same shtick as warlocks as far as intimidating backstories, and bards should know just what to say to get in somebody’s heads. Learning that your PCs “aren’t the cool badass in their head” is tough, especially when the classic “big guy cracks his knuckles and rolls intimidate” is something every dumb lug should know how to do.
Unfortunately, with CHA 7, you aren’t Marv:
https://thumbs.gfycat.com/SilverIllJanenschia-size_restricted.gif
You’re Mugsy:
https://static.miraheze.org/allthetropeswiki/e/eb/Rockymugsy_8654.jpg
And that can be a tough pill to swallow.
This is one of the things I like about the various white wolf char-gen systems.
By splitting your points among several categories you end up with a bunch of points that you simply CAN’T spend on being even better at your core competence, which then gives you some points for secondary ones.
So the big powerful combat monster, put’s the primary category into physical for instance, but even if the tertiary goes in social that’s enough for one decent social attribute which then with the leftover ability dots do allow our big lump a pretty decent “being scary” dice pool, even if he isn’t in a situation where he is allowed to to use his strength instead of his social attribute
(This is particularly the higher powered branches like exalted where you have more char-gen resources in general to invest in stuff.)
“(depending on edition it’s also exaggerated a bit, because intimidation is a class skill for barbarians but not for bards or sorcerers, while warlocks really have an equal or better claim to being scary).”
Yes, I’ve just started playing a Warlock character, and while he’s not at all physically imposing, the combination of high charisma and proficiency in intimidation means that he’s damned scary when he chooses to turn it on.
Because it’s not about how big and strong he is… it’s about how convincingly he can sell “answer my questions, or I feed your soul to my spooky-looking sword”.
I’ve seen a Bard roll Constitution (Performance) to keep dancing for his captors until the party came to save him. His successful check kept him on his feet despite the exhaustion, which was good since he was going to be sacrificed once he tired out and couldn’t perform any more.
I also like instances where it’s an unexpected skill that’s called for, rather than an unexpected combination. I just bought Tomb of Annihilation, for example, and there’s a fun little bit on gathering information by asking around, which is typically always Charisma (Persuasion). Well, in gregarious Port Nyanzaru, getting people to talk isn’t the hard part that requires the dice. Sorting out the truth from the rest is what’s tough. So gathering information is an unexpected Wisdom (Insight) check. I love it!
The longer I play, the more I’m convinced that the rules are there as a tool to describe the world rather than define it. Port Nyanzaru is a great case in point. That one little tweak tells us so much about the situation.
IIRC DnD5 actually says in the PHB that the DM can allow alternate stat-skill combos?
I think using Str for intimidation is even the specific example given.
I had no idea some people didn’t allow str to be used for intimidation. I’d just consider that a standard yeah
Even though it makes no dang sense. Why is the barbarian scarier than the sorcerer? How is sorcery not scary?
And there’s more to Intimidation than just scaring people, anyway.
See today’s scrollover text.
The important thing to remember is that it’s a variant rule. You can make that call. Plenty of GMs don’t.
Now I want to make someone do an Athletics (Charisma) check to wow judges in a swimsuit competition or the like.
I think I might be broken.
I think we did that in the beauty pageant arc over on Handbook of Erotic Fantasy.
It honestly bugs me how many DMs are unfamiliar with mixing and matching skills and abilities. No Sorcerer should be able to intimidate anyone; they’re a Sorcerer. What are they going to do: What the Wizard would do, but less effectively? Take up Warlord’s rightful spot in the PHB?
Some of my favorites are…
Dexterity (Athletics) to catch a falling ally. Charisma (Stealth) to blend into a crowd. Charisma (Investigation) to replicate 4E’s Streetwise/3X’s Gather Information skills. Constitution (Athletics) to replicate the Endurance skill. Intelligence (Deception) to track a web of lies, and make sure you don’t contradict yourself. Intelligence (Stealth) to assess defenses against infiltration. Spellcasting ability (Arcana) to do something fancy with your magic. Charisma (Religion) to evangelize.
A sorceror can’t intimidate someone? .. really?
The ones who can no doubt cast ray of frost and start freezing off parts of your body?
The ones who can summon fire to their fingertips?
The ones who can cast spells which invade your mind and leave you with hidden commands to murder your family the next time you see them while in the public square? Leaving you to get arrested and/or executed and having to live every day in that time between knowing what you did?
Those sorcerors?
But yeah, sure, axe hurty bad, oww, plz no choppy with axe
I think intimidation is more what you do with it, than the class
It’s mostly just me throwing shade at the second-worst-designed class in 5E just ahead of the Ranger, but unlike the Ranger it has no place being a core class.
Good one!
I bet there’s a bit of a learning curve with new groups though. It’s just proficiency + different mod, but I could picture the pause it takes to recall “am I proficient with that or not, what’s my proficiency mod again?” bogging down the flow a bit.
If I were to design the official character sheet for 5E with said mixing in mind I would simply list next to each ability what ability + proficiency is for that ability. Then you could just look at your skill list and see if you have that proficiency, and already know your bonus in either case.
Yeah, having them all listed out in alphabetical order, with one ability and one number listed for each one, is really limiting, because when there’s one number for something that is THE ONLY NUMBER for that roll, and because it looks like these are the only 18 buttons you can push to make stuff happen in the game.
Much better to list the four or five things you’re proficient in (and not any of the other ones), with no numbers attached. Then, instead of thinking, “who here at the table has the highest Perception? I have a +3, you have a +5, you do all the Perception stuff forever”, the thought process goes, “I’m good at Animal Handling, how can I apply that to this? What does Arcana have to do with this situation?” which is a lot more open-ended.
Did… did you forget that sorcerers are equally powerful adventurers to barbarians, and that they’re capable of casting spells? Which is utterly terrifying?
I do not use the “old” d20 method from 3rd edition D&D or Pathfinder, so I wouldn’t know about how they do it, but there are still a few “alternate” interpretations of skills for 5th that I think work (and you don’t need that “special training” either, just roll a different skill proficiency)
for the record, if you have a proficiency or expertise in a skill, you also have that same proficiency or expertise in the alternate version of that skill, your base just alters. It can create some interesting altered skill levels in the same character if their relevant attributes are vastly different.
▫ Acrobatics (Dex)
▫ Animal Handling (Wis or)
▪ Animal Whispering (Cha) just an alternate concept
▫ Arcana: Knowledge (Int or)
▪ Arcana: Study (Wis) alternate method of how you learned
▫ Athletics: Muscle (Str or)
▪ Athletics: Endurance (Con) for those times when it is less about how strong you are and more about how long you can maintain that strength
▫ Deception: Lie (Cha or)
▪ Deception: Subtlety (Dex) this is the version you are using when you are trying to blend in with the people and/or environment around you. Hiding in plain sight as it were. Your body movement is more important here
▫ History: Knowledge (Int or)
▪ History: Study (Wis) alternate method of how you learned
▫ Insight (Wis)
▫ Intimidation: Threaten (Cha or)
▪ Intimidation: Bully (Str) very different method than Charisma based
▫ Investigation (Int or)
▪ Examination (Wis) really the same, just a different way to have learned the skill
▫ Medicine: Diagnose (Wis or)
▪ Medicine: Treat (Int) two different versions of the same idea or a completely separate skill
▫ Nature: Knowledge (Int or)
▪ Nature: Study (Wis) alternate method of how you learned
▫ Perception (Wis)
▫ Performance: Sing, Speech, Story [Tell] (Cha or)
▪ Performance: Dance, [Play] Instrument (Dex or) because these skills don’t use Charisma
▪ Performance: Paint, Write (Wis) same thing as the above here
▫ Persuasion (Cha)
▫ Religion: Knowledge (Int or)
▪ Study (Wis) alternate method of how you learned
▫ Sleight of Hand (Dex)
▫ Stealth: Sneak (Dex or)
▪ Stealth: Hide (Wis) because you are trying to figure out how well you think you are hiding in your current environment not physically moving quietly
▫ Survival (Wis)
Wouldn’t Deception: Subtlety just be stealth? I feel like the suggested scenario would be better served with stealth.
I think this is just an unnecessary overcomplication of “if you can tell me why another ability would be relevant for the check, I allow to use that ability for the roll”. No need to have 20 extra skills, and track which expertise belongs to what, just ask “can I threaten him by crumbling a stone into sand with my bare hand?” and allow the DM to say “sure, roll Intimidation (Strength)”.
There is a problem with stapling this system onto d20. You wind up having to do the “I should always be able to roll my best stat because reasons” dance, as described over here:
https://www.handbookofheroes.com/archives/comic/utility-shot
…like adding Strength to Intimidation just because it’s your best stat?
This is the fundamental tension, yes.
As I mostly run in the d10 systems, I see this sort of thing all the time.
When my Dawn Caste Solar with Str 5, Int 1, and investigation 5 needed to search someone for evidence, apparently the description “I pick them up, flip them upside down and shake for a bit” got a 1 dot stunt and a str+investigation check.
Don’t worry, since then I’ve got Int 2. I now know to hold the guy and let the Twilight/Night caste go through the people’s pockets.
Strength + Expression was once used for shouting really loudly so people all over the area could hear their amazing rendition of God Bless America (and incidentally not look at the rest of the party sneaking away)
Resolve + Politics once came up for a research thing. I made them roll it to read through the boring details of politics in a large business where none of the names meant anything and the back and forth was mostly based off grudges rather than smart business sense without falling asleep.
I think by this point my players have rolled every Attribute + Drive at some point.
A challenge! Hmmm…. Appearance + Craft?
This just shouts “salespitch” for an unusual crafted item to me
There is a variant rule right in the PHB which allows you to use a different ability for your skill if you feel it’s more relevant. You try to impress someone with a feat of strength? Permformance (Strength). You try to persuade an academic type person with a strong proof and logic? Persuade (Intelligence). You want to charm your way over a narrow ledge? …okay, that would probably not fly with your DM.
The important thing to remember is that it’s a variant rule. You can make these calls. Plenty of GMs don’t.
Dice pool systems are made for this style of play rather than trying to staple it on. In the case of d10 system, for example, you wind up with 9 Attributes and something like 25 abilities. That allows for more permutations and more esoteric combinations.
Ah, charisma. Both hated and loved a stat in Pathfinder.
Sure, I might be a Ratfolk Wizard with more INT than Elder Gods, capable of creating entire Demiplanes of existence, turning people into snails, crushing buildings with Clashing Rocks, summoning a Planetar Angel or simply wishing someone’s horrible demise to show off I’m a very dangerous individual…
…but unless I grabbed the Bruising Intellect trait or flexed those powers and wealth to grab some CHA-boosting tomes, headbands and/or wishes, I am incapable of frightening your average humanoid. You even get a penalty to it for being small (which needs more traits or feats to overcome).
Luckily, being a Wizard means you have a solution to every problem, in this case Frightful Aspect and Form of Dragon 3, to grab those nifty fear auras and size increases. You’ll still suck at intimidating anything of your CR, though.
A similar issue crops up with my Kobold Gunslinger, who is as lethal as our Samurai, flexing about 100+ damage per turn around level 11 on a decent full attack… But his race, size, lack of skill points and charisma make him incapable of scaring others, even when capable of demonstrating his lethality (i.e. killing two Babau Demons in the same turn, before they even got their turn).
Unless of course you’re super-specialized in Intimidate. Then, even if you’re an adorable mouse person, you can cause great wyrms to leg it by going “booga booga.”
Pretty much! But the number of feats/traits/charisma investment, coupled with fear-immune enemies at the later stages of the game, make this a usually difficult investment and something you’ve got to plan in advance.
Plus, intimidate can only get you so far in social encounters, especially if the rest of your party isn’t too keen on you being a bully to the NPCs/monsters, or frowns on torture and similar tactics. This doubly applies to Paladins who might have a code not to beat up a tied up and unarmed individual, even if they excel at being a scary boy. Bluff ironically works better if you want to pretend you’ll drop someone from a great height (not unlike Batman).
Even the act of scaring enemies out of an encounter can be problematic, as then you have a cowardly enemy announcing your presence to the rest of the dungeon as they flee for backup and reinforcements deeper into the dungeon – at least unless you leave them a open path to evacuate the dungeon entirely, or scare them into utter silence/surrender on the spot.
There is something paradoxal in charisma being tied to intimidate, really, especially when you take races that have hits to charisma into account.
Let’s take Tieflings, for example – the race best known for fantastic racism due to their fiend-tainted heritage, they’re hated, feared and despised (well, in the settings, at least – players love themselves some hot Tieflings), which is reflected in their charisma having a penalty.
Unfortunately, you can’t actually leverage that to your benefit when the dice need to be rolled. The fact you’re feared by others somehow translates to you sucking at scaring others rather than being better at it.
Meanwhile, Aasimar, their ‘holier than thou’ counterpart with divine blood and a charisma bonus, are both adored and feared better when push comes to shove.
It makes more sense with races like Kobolds/Goblins, who are monstrous and small/annoying more than anything, but legitimately scary or scorned races like Orcs get all the scorn and none of the ‘street cred’, so to speak.
Actually, it varies between games/editions. In D&D 3.5e (and I assume Pathfinder), tieflings have a charisma penalty — but in 5e, they have a bonus. Along with half-elves, they’re the optimal race for playing charisma-oriented classes like bards, sorcerers or warlocks.
I always appreciated that Pathfinder added a size modifier into Intimidate. That struck me as a nice touch.
Hmm, weird skill usage? Let’s see…
Using Knowledge (Arcana) to help yourself create artwork with a draconic or golem focus. Similarly you can use other knowledges for other creature types, e.g. Sylvan for Fey, Religion for Undead and various religious symbology…
Bluff or perform (acting) as a substitute for intimidate, as you are very convincing at playing a villain or an evil individual, even if you’re a LG sweetheart who’d never harm a fly.
Perform (Dance) to send secret messages to your party, via interpretive dancing.
Move over, Bluff! There’s a new confusing secret communication mechanic in town!
I get the feeling that the smith owning the establishment Barb is conducting her interrogations in is going to be more than a little shocked by the war crimes committed within.
Forgemistress? Naw. She’s a dorf. They hate the green ones.
https://www.handbookofheroes.com/archives/comic/mithril
This issue tends to come up less in DnD 5e since Intelligence is the designated dump stat rather than Charisma. But in general, if you wanted your fighter or barbarian to be intimidating, then maybe make some choices in character creation that reflect that…
I think the problem comes up because the power fantasy of “big guy that hits things hard” incentivizes you to be good at physical activities. Dumping resources on something you “ought to be good at naturally” is counterintuitive.
“What do you mean I’m not scary? I’m a huge, scar-faced bruiser!”
Vampire the Masquerade gave me Strength+Academics, to run through a library collecting a huge stack of books that looked relevant to my problem whilst pursued by an angry szlachta.
Some other combinations: Stamina+Firearms (hold down the trigger on an overheating machine gun)
Survival+Appearance – “oh my, Brad! I can’t seem to get this fire lit! Do you thing you could give me a hand… you’re so rugged and strong!”
Finance+Charisma – muffled laughter sounds
Man, I miss my old d10 adventures. I need to run another Werewolf one day.
What about Strength + Bureaucracy to make more damage with the form in the Meditative Battlefield Escalation duel? 😀
If i can use backgrounds what about Seduction + Gossamer to buy the loyalty of a Realm’s satrap? Satraps love money 🙂
Meditative Battlefield Escalation seems unnecessary. I’d think that you could use Strength+Bureaucracy to deal more damage by just throwing the book at them.
Meditative Battlefield Escalation:
https://www.handbookofheroes.com/archives/comic/overconfidence
But your idea is also good. I like that kind of bureaucracy 😀
So do the creators of the game. At least, I assume that’s why one of the canonical Sidereal characters is called Crimson Banner Executioner… i.e the slayer of red-tape.
XD
Creation. ‘Tis a silly place.
In our Steampunk Pathfinder campaign, Herr Doktor Krauss had some memorable moments that might be modeled as Constitution + Knowledge (Science), to hold forth on his theories over an alarming quantity of Celden whiskey. Followed by Strength + Knowledge (Science), to defend those theories when they sparked an abrupt paradigm shift (read: tavern brawl).
Our whole team made occasional but satisfying use of Intelligence + Intimidation, in laying out to outmaneuvered foes exactly how f*cked they now were and forever would be, unless they took the one escape path we offered.
Real-life honorable mention for a Strength-plus-Con-plus-Knowledge-plus-Stupidity combination goes to the astronomer Tycho Brahe, for losing his nose in a drunken broadsword duel over a mathematical theorem.
I think that may be a series of failed checks, lol.
I seriously had a guy on reddit who tried to argue AGAINST this being possible. He could not get the idea that someone being physically capable of harming them could in any way convince them to give that person what they want. “Oh, sure, I’m scared, but I might just try to trick them” Well sure, if you pass beat their intimidation check, but you might also try to trick the guy who is attempting to intimidate you via his charisma.
Had to figuratively beat him over the head with his own words to show how he was treating charisma as if it was autosuccess and strength as if it was an autofail, and completely ignoring the presence of the intimidation SKILL in both cases.
I really do like Intimidation(Str) as an alternative, because it means that using Rage actually gives you advantage on that check, which makes absolute sense to me.
I think there’s this fear that PCs are somehow trying to “take advantage” of rules by always rolling their best stat. My attitude is that, if a player cares enough about the story to try and do that, you’ve got an engaged player on your hands. And that’s a good thing, even if there are overtones of power gaming.
Appearance + Computers. Bow before the sheer might of my fashion catalog in this single garment of programmable clothes. Oh and also I just hacked every device at this fashion show. =P
lol. Nice. A fashion ad so irresistible you can’t help but click it!
Alright, I’ll roll some d6’s for a D&D attribute and some d18’s for 5e skills.
Strength+Athletics…darn you, random.org.
Wisdom+Acrobatics: Carefully looking down a precarious slope, plotting a path for your clumsier friends to safely follow.
Intelligence+Investigation…Int has a lot of skills, this shouldn’t be a shock.
Intelligence+Survival: …actually everything I can think of sounds more like a Nature check.
Constitution+Religion: You know that thing where Daenerys needs to eat a raw horse’s heart in a Dothraki ceremony?
I admire your adherence to random number generation.
You touched on this in the Handbook of Yore, but I really dislike how Evasion works because it makes no sense. I keep considering a house rule like making you burn next turns movement to get out of the blast radius if you have Evasion/Improved Evasion.
What, this one?
https://www.handbookofheroes.com/archives/comic/dodgy
Weirdest one I can think of for D&D 5e would be CON(Deception). Put on a suit of plate armour at the crack of dawn, stand on a pedestal in the King’s throne room impersonating a statue for a full day without moving or arousing suspicion, then feed the tyrant a ceremonial halberd in the middle of his grand speech!
From any system or situation, the strangest I can think of right now would be CHA(Mecha), for elegant ballroom dancing with giants. Or, I guess, normal people if you are a Small or lower size class.
I’d like to volunteer to play in this game.
A bit late, but here goes: Strength + Computer, for when you need some percussive IT support
Dex+ Computer, for when you need to dodge incoming attacks while hacking
Stamina + Computer, for when you need to pull an all-nighter during google-fu (this last one was actually used in a printed WoD game!)
I don’t know that I’ve ever read a WoD module. Do you remember the title?
The way I see it, Intimidation, Diplomacy, and Deception are only needed to make someone act differently than they already would. If an enemy is at your mercy, they should be willing to surrender or cooperate if it doesn’t go against their nature. You need intimidation to force a surrender when it’s not obvious they have no chance, or to interrogate someone who is a loyal, or scared of their boss.
https://www.handbookofheroes.com/archives/comic/self-destructive-evil
I just have to sympathize with Barbarian, here: NOT wanting to have to kill somebody who is too unafraid of you to recognize that your options are “kill them” or “get them to cooperate,” and that yes, killing them is an OPTION even if it isn’t a desired one, is very disappointing.
For serious. Goblins are just the worst.