| Post/Author/DateTime | Post |
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| #1McMechanismNov 26, 2014 8:35:37 | Whilst I understand that skills/abilities come under their relevant 'master skill/ability' like Wisdom (Perception) for example, I don't understand why the terminology is used in the PHB but also at the table. I've seen various YouTube vids where people ask for a 'Wisdom (Perception) check'. Why not just ask for a perception check? It seems very cumbersome to me or perhaps I am just being pedantic!
Thanks |
| #2iserithNov 26, 2014 8:41:09 | For me, saying "Wisdom (Perception)" is a way of signalling to the player that I agree they can add their proficiency bonus to their Wisdom check if they have Perception trained. As well, there is a variant that allows for DMs to apply a skill to a different ability check than normal. That's probably comes up pretty rarely (and certainly so in the case of Perception), but that's another reason to be explicit. It doesn't really matter though. Whatever shorthand you want to use is fine as long as it gets the point across to the players with as little confusion as possible. |
| #3AnsbachNov 26, 2014 8:57:20 | Yeah, it's basically cumbersome verbiage to remind people that you can use other abilities for skill checks, like say a Con/Athletics check for something requiring endurance. I agree that there was probably a better way to do it.
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| #4IllithidbixNov 26, 2014 11:38:23 | It's kinda a bit clumbersome, but also immediately tells you what ability score you need to use rather than trying to remember which skill comes off which ability score. And sometimes you can use a skill with a different ability score in unusual situations.
Is probably actually easier for newer players who don't know skill lists inside out to know what to roll. |
| (Reply to #3)Timborama |
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| #6McMechanismNov 27, 2014 0:34:00 | Great. Thanks everyone. That cleared it up for me. I'll defintiely stick with just the secondary skill in my dialogue with my players as we are all still fairly new. At least a 'perception' check tells them exactly where to look on their character sheets. 'Wisdom perception' means they may be searching around or adding both mods together etc. Keep it simple. |
| #7pukunuiNov 27, 2014 0:55:43 | Yes, I find it rather cumbersome as well. I mostly just call for skill checks, unless it's something not covered by a skill, in which case I'll call for an ability check. I do like that we can have corner cases where a skill might use a different ability than the default one (for instance, I'm inclined to have checks to diagnose diseases, or recall information about them, be Intelligence-based Medicine checks rather than Wisdom-based ones). |
| #8GnarlNov 27, 2014 15:04:54 | I also find the terminolog cumbersome. I just say use the skill name for the default ability score. My players seem to understand it just fine. Maybe they're much smarter than WoTC's target audience. |
| #9XguildNov 28, 2014 6:29:15 | In general its not nescessary but you have to remember that a perception check is not always a wisdom check. That is the default. Its feasable in different situations that a perception check will be an Inteligence check or a Constitution check.
For example lets say you want to see if a character catches a subtle clue in a speech a Wizard is giving about the nuances of alchemic formulas. Its perception, but you would really only catch the clue if you where smart, so IQ/Perception. Or for example lets say a character has been running for 8 miles non stop and runs through a goblin ambush, is it a wisdom perception check or perhaps more appropriate to test his endurance to see if he would still notice things when exhausted from running.
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