Last entry, I pared down a few more Nonweapon Proficiencies into Animal Handling, Performance, Direction Sense, and Healing. I only got halfway through the list of feat-like NWPs, so let’s finish those off first.
My numbering has gone sideways due to this split. Part of this is Part 2 of Part 3, and starts at 3.6. Forgive me.
3.6. Jumping
This allows exceptional leaps based on positioning and distance formulas. It’s only excluded from the ‘NWP that’s just a feat’ party because it has an associated Ability Score, but it’s certainly an honorable mention, as the ability is appended for seemingly no reason. It’s certainly not referenced anywhere in the skill's description.
Interestingly, mechanics for jumping are only found in this skill; the rest of the PHB and DMG makes no reference to a character’s ability to jump, aside from the jump spell.
Also, it’s only for Rogues? Why?
Okay, this thing is going in the dustbin, but it does highlight a need for rules on how far one should be able to jump. As with both 2e’s NWP and 5e’s base rules, this should be based on Strength. We can adapt 5e’s simple formula to say that characters can long jump equal to their Strength score in feet and can high jump equal to half their score in feet.
3.7. Mountaineering
This is a bonus to the base climbing probabilities for all characters, assuming the character uses rope and pitons. It’s the other blatant feat on the list, with its partner Blind-fighting, having no associated Ability Score or reason for rolling against the NWP.
It’d just be easier to offer the option to invest into a general climbing skill accessible to all characters, an idea floated in the first entry in this series when I began poking at Thieving skills.
I still haven’t detailed how that investment would work, though I’m thinking +2 to the skill for each slot invested makes sense, and would pair with Mountaineering’s paltry 10% increase in climbing ability.
3.8. Reading Lips
Another NWP with nothing to offer unless you roll for it.
This does what it says on the tin: you can read lips if you speak the language, have chosen that language when choosing the skill, are within 30 feet of the target, can see them speaking, and pass the check. This still only gives you 70% of the conversation.
It’s another candidate for the scrap heap. If I was motivated to keep it, I’d say let the character always be able to catch 50% of what is said, but grant 100% understanding on a successful check.
3.9. Running
This doubles your movement speed for a day, with a required 8-hour post-sprint rest and a check to determine if you can do it again the next day. On days spent running, you get a –1 to attack rolls.
Running seems like something that should be accessible to everyone. Like with Jumping, this doesn’t feel so much like a skill as it does a special dispensation regarding movement rules, for the price of a skill slot. As with that skill, this one should be the domain of an ability check.
2e does have running rules outside of this NWP, though they’re considered optional and are presented as an alternative to the very simple chase rules. Here, double movement speed is considered to be jogging, which can be done a number of rounds equal to the character’s Constitution score, followed by a Con check to keep running for each round after. Running is three times the movement speed, is based on a Strength check, and can be upped as far as five times the movement speed with a hefty penalty to the check. This alternative system is clunky, has some holes, and allows fully armored characters to reach Usain Bolt speeds.
Let’s set the boundaries for running. In combat, running is already simulated by just using your full round to move instead of moving 1/2 your speed then attacking. In the dungeon, there’s already the option to move tens of yards rather than tens of feet, a three-times increase, so that’s ‘running’ covered there. During overland travel, we’ve already got the Forced March (though that does warrant some looking into) which provides a 25% increase in speed; that’s more than enough for situations where we’re counting hours and miles instead of rounds and yards. So really, the only circumstance in which running matters is a chase, which is what the optional rules were trying to do in the first place.
Therefore, my solution would be to scrap the concept of ‘running’ as a named mechanic altogether. It’s muddying the waters. If the character is running, we can easily use the rules for the previously noted situations; it’s all baked in. For chases I can roughly keep 2e’s basic chase rules, with a twist: instead of having both parties roll Initiative, have them roll Con checks; the difference between the two dice equals the distance between the characters, measured in yards or feet.
3.10. Swimming
This literally just allows you to use the swimming rules; those without it just bob around in the water. I think I dislike this NWP above all others. It gates an ability that most people would consider basic and offers nothing to test against.
I considered making this a universal skill, as was done with Climbing and Listening, but I don’t think that’s necessary. The swimming rules are already right there – though they could use some simplification. I’d find it much more interesting to provide a decision for the player during character creation, by allowing them to drop swimming ability in exchange for a skill slot, as I’ve suggested with Reading/Writing.
3.11. Weather Sense
This has the goofy charm of Direction Sense, but without the easy solution to its roll-or-nothing nature. If it’s altered so that you passively know the weather, then what would you roll for? As much as I’d like to hold onto it, this seems like a Knowledge: Nature check can replace it just fine.
4. Riding
|
NWP |
Slots |
Ability |
Modifier |
Category |
|
Charioteering |
1 |
Dexterity |
+2 |
Warrior |
|
Riding, Airborne |
2 |
Wisdom |
-2 |
General |
|
Riding, Land-based |
1 |
Wisdom |
3 |
General |
These are all feats, or in the case of the last two, bundles of feats.
These probably should have gone with the Animals grouping. All these NWPs involve steering or guiding something, but those somethings are going to be animals. Spoiler for this part: the whole mess should be covered by Animal Handling.
4.1. Charioteering
This gives you a one-third speed boost over terrain when driving a chariot.
I want to know how this got here. Why a chariot? That vehicle is so time-coded that it requires a special setting to accommodate it, to which 2e’s implied Medieval-ish setting does not meet.
Also, what do you do with the player that picks this turd? Either that skill is never getting used, or the player will attempt to use their square peg in a variety of round holes, or you’re going to have to add the strange town that has chariot races now.
This is a weird one. Toss.
4.2. Riding, Airborne and Riding, Land-based
The fourth longest entry and the longest entry in 2e’s NWP descriptions, respectively. These are bloated with various feats, which allow abilities such as quick mounting, greater speed, hands-free steering, and jumping between mounts. Many of these abilities do require proficiency checks for the trickier stuff.
These two skills have commonalities, as noted, but are also different for seemingly no reason. For example: Riding, Land-based lets you jump into the saddle, but taking off requires a check, while Riding, Airborne lets you jump into the saddle and then take flight with no check at all.
These are way too fiddly. The feats aren’t necessarily complicated, but there are a bushel of them, and it’s doing too much heavy lifting for the concept of ‘good with horse/griffin’.
Animal Handling can cover this. Admittedly, this takes the skill from just being good with taming the occasional wild animal, and transforms it into a catch-all skill for training animals, knowing about them, and riding them. It’s actually starting to look a bit more like Knowledge or Performance, where the player might need to choose a specialty within Animal Handling rather than picking the skill outright. It’s a consideration.
5. Intermission
Where does this leave us? I’ve axed all of the second half of the feat-like NWPs, though Reading Lips might make it through the gauntlet. I’ve also boiled down the riding-based NWP into the pre-existing Animal Handling, with an acknowledgement that expanding the skill so deeply may call for allowing specialization. It seems that I’ve basically deleted the nine NWPs listed here.
However, this review has led to identifying a couple of needed rules. Jumping, Running, and Swimming all require mechanics that use the Ability Score as the primary vehicle. Mountaineering suggests a way to handle skill improvement: a cumulative +2 score bonus when investing multiple slots into a single skill.
Next time, for the (hopefully) penultimate entry in this series, I’ll look at the Rogue-like and Survival skills.
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