D&D 4E 4E had better have fewer skills & feats

[RandomPrecision]

Well, I don't know. It seems that some people are just inevitably rooted in the belief that there should be fewer skills at the expense of logic and realism. If you really want a game where quadrupeds (good balance because of the extra legs) and gymnasts (good at tumbling) are proficient with the escape artist skill, and can thereby untie ropes remarkably well because of the extra legs or acrobatic profession (not to mention that centaurs would be naturally better at tumbling), there's not much I can say, except that if 4E is reduced to this, I'm going to stick with the older skill system. I don't feel that there are too many skills to choose from, that any skills are useless, or that it's difficult to determine the applicable skill in a given situation. The foldings from 3E to 3.5E were alright, but combining completely different skills just because they have the same ability modifier and occasionally a synergy bonus isn't something that needs to be done with the game.

 

[Voadam]

Skill generation and checking are a pain.

Single classed maxed out class skills with no synergies or feats is easy to calculate and generate quickly. Adding in skill focus is simple as well as alertness. However, multiclassing, spreading the skill points, int changing part way through progressions, taking cross-class skills, factoring in synergies, wierd skill affecting feats, situation bonuses, monster abilities like climb speed, etc. makes checking a PC's skill totals a pain, makes double checking an NPC's skill totals a pain (particularly if you are editing a product for publication) and is unneccessarily nitpicky in the math.

Doing out a 15th level druid's skill points is no big deal, creating a 15th level ranger/wizard/eldritch knight or a druid/master of many forms/warshaper is annoying, checking them to see that they are done correctly is a pain.

Most NPCs I create are either a single class or aim for a single prestige class, but the more multiclassing (monster racial levels, a 10 level prc, a 5 level prc, a few levels of core clases) the more complicated and unwieldy it can quickly get.