Help with 5th edition - skills?

[dungan]

I joined a group doing 5th edition and I'm rolling a character this weekend but I don't understand skills in 5th edition. Under classes the book says to pick for example 4 skills. lets say I pick intimidation among the 4. It's based off of charisma. So lets say I have a cha of 13. What does this mean for my intimidation checks?

Thanks in advance for any replies..

[Uska]

I joined a group doing 5th edition and I'm rolling a character this weekend but I don't understand skills in 5th edition. Under classes the book says to pick for example 4 skills. lets say I pick intimidation among the 4. It's based off of charisma. So lets say I have a cha of 13. What does this mean for my intimidation checks?

Thanks in advance for any replies..

I only played 5th a bit and I didn't bring my book to my temp job in Maine but the skills you picked you get advantage with cant remember what that means but I think it means you get to use your stat multiplier with it and some other bonus

[Lyr_Levaine]

I joined a group doing 5th edition and I'm rolling a character this weekend but I don't understand skills in 5th edition. Under classes the book says to pick for example 4 skills. lets say I pick intimidation among the 4. It's based off of charisma. So lets say I have a cha of 13. What does this mean for my intimidation checks?

Thanks in advance for any replies..

You get a +1 to your skill check with intimidation. If your Cha was 14, you would get a +2. If at some time in the future, your cha changed from 13 to say, 14 the _ would also change to a plus 2
Intimidation, not really a useful skill, mechanics wise ... better to use bluff, and get those sneak attacks in right to the nasty monster's face, y'know?

[GeoffWatson]

I joined a group doing 5th edition and I'm rolling a character this weekend but I don't understand skills in 5th edition. Under classes the book says to pick for example 4 skills. lets say I pick intimidation among the 4. It's based off of charisma. So lets say I have a cha of 13. What does this mean for my intimidation checks?

Thanks in advance for any replies..

You add your proficiency bonus to your Intimidate checks.

If you were 1st level, you'd have +2 from proficiency and +1 from Charisma for +3 total.

Geoff.

[Faltout]

I joined a group doing 5th edition and I'm rolling a character this weekend but I don't understand skills in 5th edition. Under classes the book says to pick for example 4 skills. lets say I pick intimidation among the 4. It's based off of charisma. So lets say I have a cha of 13. What does this mean for my intimidation checks?

Thanks in advance for any replies..

What geoff said. 5th edition does not have skill training and even more extensive skill training and bonuses to skills etc. You can only be proficient with the skill and thus add your proficiency bonus (which is +2 at first level and then raises at certain levels - like the 1/2 of your character level that 4th ed had, only less) and of course you also add your Charisma modifier (which is +1 for CHA 13).

So, except the proficiency bonus that 5th edition has as a mechanic, it also has 2 other major changes:

The saves are no longer fort, reflex, will and instead are ability score saves. Also, each class has proficiency with some of the ability score saves adding their proficiency bonus to the rolls. (that +2 we talked about)

The second change (and a bad one in my opinion) is the advantage/disadvantage mechanism. When the monster you are attacking has some condition that hinders it and makes it easier to hit, instead of a bonus to your attack roll or a penalty to the monsters save roll, you get an advantage on your attack roll or the monster gets disadvantage on its save roll.
Having advantage on a roll means that you roll 2 dice and choose the highest one. Having a disadvantage on a roll means you roll 2 dice and choose the smallest one. If you have advantage and disadvantage, they cancel each other out. Multiple advantage sources do not stack. You get advantage or you don't. If you have 3 sources of advantage and 1 source of disadvantage, that's no advantage at all.
While the advantage may seem a fair mechanism (while previous editions kept adding bonuses and penalties), when you have things like "true strike" (spell providing advantage to attack), the monster is cornered providing an advantage to attack rolls but it is knocked down (providing a disadvantage on ranged attacks), you get no advantage at all even when you have spells and party members holding the monster in place for you to shoot it. That's not fair at all.

[dungan]

I think I have a better understanding now.

Thanks to everybody who responded!

[boricua_in_cali]

What geoff said. 5th edition does not have skill training and even more extensive skill training and bonuses to skills etc. You can only be proficient with the skill and thus add your proficiency bonus (which is +2 at first level and then raises at certain levels - like the 1/2 of your character level that 4th ed had, only less) and of course you also add your Charisma modifier (which is +1 for CHA 13).

So, except the proficiency bonus that 5th edition has as a mechanic, it also has 2 other major changes:

The saves are no longer fort, reflex, will and instead are ability score saves. Also, each class has proficiency with some of the ability score saves adding their proficiency bonus to the rolls. (that +2 we talked about)

The second change (and a bad one in my opinion) is the advantage/disadvantage mechanism. When the monster you are attacking has some condition that hinders it and makes it easier to hit, instead of a bonus to your attack roll or a penalty to the monsters save roll, you get an advantage on your attack roll or the monster gets disadvantage on its save roll.
Having advantage on a roll means that you roll 2 dice and choose the highest one. Having a disadvantage on a roll means you roll 2 dice and choose the smallest one. If you have advantage and disadvantage, they cancel each other out. Multiple advantage sources do not stack. You get advantage or you don't. If you have 3 sources of advantage and 1 source of disadvantage, that's no advantage at all.
While the advantage may seem a fair mechanism (while previous editions kept adding bonuses and penalties), when you have things like "true strike" (spell providing advantage to attack), the monster is cornered providing an advantage to attack rolls but it is knocked down (providing a disadvantage on ranged attacks), you get no advantage at all even when you have spells and party members holding the monster in place for you to shoot it. That's not fair at all.

What Geoff and faltout said. Add your proficiency bonus, plus your relevant ability modifier if you are proficient in the skill. Other wise, start with 0 and add only your ability modifier (or subtract if it's a negative modifier)

[Chai]

The second change (and a bad one in my opinion) is the advantage/disadvantage mechanism. When the monster you are attacking has some condition that hinders it and makes it easier to hit, instead of a bonus to your attack roll or a penalty to the monsters save roll, you get an advantage on your attack roll or the monster gets disadvantage on its save roll.
Having advantage on a roll means that you roll 2 dice and choose the highest one. Having a disadvantage on a roll means you roll 2 dice and choose the smallest one. If you have advantage and disadvantage, they cancel each other out. Multiple advantage sources do not stack. You get advantage or you don't. If you have 3 sources of advantage and 1 source of disadvantage, that's no advantage at all.
While the advantage may seem a fair mechanism (while previous editions kept adding bonuses and penalties), when you have things like "true strike" (spell providing advantage to attack), the monster is cornered providing an advantage to attack rolls but it is knocked down (providing a disadvantage on ranged attacks), you get no advantage at all even when you have spells and party members holding the monster in place for you to shoot it. That's not fair at all.

Might not be fair subjectively based on realism, but it is alot more fair than having to solve a 4th grade extra credit math problem just to determine what the net + or - is on a to-hit roll because of elevendy twelve different circumstance bonus applying to what should be one simple attack. One of the positives of this change is that players no longer have to wait 2/3rds of the way through a made for TV movie with commercials included just to get another turn to play, due to discussion and or argumentation which takes place between two or more self proclaimed math majors before the d20 is rolled, all to find out you missed anyhow. (but hey you would have hit if we went with what billy said) Do you have advantage, yes or no. Yes its oversimplified, but our test group got tons more combat rounds in which would have never happened if we were adding and subtracting bonuses for the majority of that time, each for one dice roll.