Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 abs1nth Apr 28, 2015 9:22:27	If I would cut one skill from 5e it would be Animal Handling. It's such a tiny nieche that can easily be covered by Survival or Nature. It's the one skill that sticks out, none of the other skills are that narrow in scope.   Thoughts? Defenses of Animal Handling?
#2 Kentus Apr 28, 2015 10:00:49	I like animal handling. You can use it for everything that has to do with animals. Knowledge, social interaction, using animals as mounts, etc. As long someone have this skills in my campaign, it's fair game to use it for about everything regarding animals.
#3 AaronOfBarbaria Apr 28, 2015 11:17:56	Insight and medicine both have less that they can do from the point of view of numbers of uses, and many of the skills have less that they can do from the point of view of "actually gets rolled during a session," so I don't see Animal Handling as especially niche in any comparative sense.   I'm also not into the idea of rolling that particular skill's functions into other skills, except for letting Insight overlap and also allow a character better chance to intuit an animal's intentions.   Now, survival... that's a skill I'm all for dismantling and splitting up amongst other skills: following tracks goes to investigation, perception, or both; everything else survival does goes to nature   Of course, I am actually happy to leave all the skills as-is, have them overlap (perception, investigation, and survival can allow follow tracks - nature and survival have tons of overlap, etc.), and enjoy that the presence of each skill represents a different way in which a character learned something or a different process used to reach the same end. i.e. perception is "those look like tracks and they go that way" while survival is "looks like kobold tracks, heading east toward the hills... likely a cave that way."
#4 mrpopstar Apr 28, 2015 16:31:53	AaronOfBarbaria wrote:
#5 Greenstone.Walker Apr 28, 2015 16:51:43	Animal Handling covers riding, managing wagon trains, caring for pets, training guard animals, working in a stable, and the like. I don't think any of these are covered by Nature or Survival.   I see Nature as "knowledge about plants and animals" and Survival as being "how to use plants and animals to survive". Someone proficient in Nature could name all the parts of a tree or the life cycle of an animal but wouldn't have any idea of how to make a shelter or to catch dinner. Someone proficient in Survival could tell you how to kill and cook a horse, but not how to attach it to traces to pull a carriage. Someone proficient in Animal Handling couldn't tell you the names of the parts of the horse but could tell you "do that and the horse will kick you!" An Animal Handler knows how to care for items like horseshoes and saddles and reins.   I'm reminded of a story from one of the James Herriott books, where Herriott comes across a horse for the first time. He looks at it, proud he can name all the parts of the animal. It then bites him and he has no idea how to deal with it.
#6 abs1nth Apr 28, 2015 17:40:26	mrpopstar wrote:
(Reply to #6) AndrewJO	abs1nth wrote:
#8 Echamil Apr 28, 2015 17:57:19	Personally, It's all about the group.   A group I played with, put emphasis on the skills in different situations.   An example I remember clearly, we were playing a small One-shot campaign. We had just earned some downtime, and as we were in an area of relative peace, we decided to camp next to this small lake. The DM described it very beautifully. Our Fighter, though it would be fun to jump from an over embanking rock into the lake water (from 15 feet), trying to do a backflip. He did poorly on his acrobatic check. He jumped, but he came down rather awkwardly and landed on a rock that was just below the surface of the water, hitting the edge of the rock at the base of his neck. He was down to a single Hit Point.   The DM took that moment to explain that the air was knocked from his lucks and his head was filled with explosions of pains. He was seeing dots of colors in his eyes. Worst of all, he wasn't able to feel his legs or his arms. The Cleric (A man of Oghma), rolled a Medicine check, with a 5 over the DC. He was able to determine that the Fighter had a severe spinal cord injury. Needless to say, the Fighter, a young man of level 4 and less than 24 summers, was completely paralyzed from the waist down.   We managed to get him back to a Temple of Lathander, but even after multiple Priests had spent several days attempting to heal him, there was nothing to be done.   TLDR; The DM allowed the use a Medicine Check done by a Cleric of Oghma to determine what type of injury a companion had sustained.   That same group's DM expanded on the skills. The players were only limited by their imagination, but those skills covered a lot and even if they crossed over other skills for certain tasks, those other skills may not be as helpful or used in the same situation in the same manner.   Nature; Knowing what kindling is best used for a campfire to keep certain predators at bay. Knowing how to set a proper campfire as not to risk an accidental fire. Having the abilities to light a campire using various methonds.   Sleight of Hands: Having the ability to quickly strike an object to create a spark. Having the ability to use the known methods of lighting a campire.   Perception: Having the ability to grasp where best to sleep as not to be chocking on smoke.   etc. etc.
#9 Kentus Apr 29, 2015 4:23:53	abs1nth wrote:
#10 mrpopstar Apr 29, 2015 5:03:50	It is interesting that Animal Handling specifies domestic animals.
#11 abs1nth Apr 29, 2015 9:07:51	I've decided to cut both Survival and Animal Handling and make Nature a wisdom skill instead. I'm also thinking about cutting Performance because it's super redundant with musical proficiencies. Story-telling can just be a Charisma check or Persuade check. Acting could be a Deception check or Persuade check.   Edit: Hmph, I don't particularly like the design of the social skills in general. Persuade is too broad.
#12 mrpopstar Apr 29, 2015 14:46:12	abs1nth wrote: