Optimized Skill Guide for DnD 5E

Author: Icebrick1

Introduction

Ability checks are the main mechanic of the game outside of combat. Your skill proficiencies are one of the main ways you can affect your odds of success on ability checks, so selecting skills in which to gain proficiency and ones in which to gain expertise can be an important character building decision. This guide gives a rough indication of how useful skills will be in the average adventure and outlines mechanics of which you might not be aware when using skills. For information on ability checks in general, check our Ability Check Guide as well.

For convenience and ease of reading, we have given the skills star color ratings. All ratings on this blog are somewhat flexible depending on the game; they aren’t universal but are based on how effective they will be in most games. The ability check system of 5e is however mostly DM fiat, meaning that different games might treat skills entirely differently even when they aren’t employing any homebrew or making unusual rulings. For this reason, you should treat the ratings on this article as even more flexible. This guide should serve as a useful baseline, but it would be a good idea to ask your DM questions about how certain skills can be used and adjust your character accordingly.

Rankings

Blue (★★★★★)

These skills have useful mechanics tied to them and will be helpful in almost every adventure.

Perception (★★★★★)

Perception covers your characters abilities to detect things, whether that be by sight, smell, or sound. This is one of the most broadly useful skills in the game, it protects your character from being surprised, allows them to detect traps and secret doors and otherwise notice things they would’ve otherwise missed. Unlike many other skills where only one party member needs to be good at the skill, everyone benefits from Perception proficiency.

Stealth (★★★★★)

Stealth represents a character’s ability to stay quiet and remain hidden. Stealth, along with Perception, has extensive mechanics related to it due the Hide action and surprise system. See our article on Stealth and surprise for more detailed information. Suffice to say, surprise is extremely powerful and all characters can benefit from it, making Stealth one of the best skills. One of Stealth’s major downsides though is that it is often limited in effectiveness if you’re the only person in the party who is good at it, but this can be alleviated by using pass without trace.

Arcana (★★★★★)

Arcana represents all your arcane knowledge, and is used for checks relating to magic, the planes of existence and their inhabitants. Arcana is also used to disarm magic traps, and for copying spell scrolls into a Wizard’s spellbook. Without any optional rules Arcana would be a very useful skill, though not exceptionally so; around equal to Investigation. However, Arcana is used in a number of optional or variant rules.

Firstly, Arcana is used in the optional Xanathar’s Guide to Everything spell identification rule, though since using it takes your reaction you would need another creature to cast counterspell. Arcana is also used for the Scribing Scrolls and crafting magic items downtime activities from Xanathar’s Guide to Everything, both of which are extremely powerful if allowed. If scribing scrolls is permitted, then almost every spellcaster should have Arcana due to the power of scrolls, as described in our article on scrolls.

Green (★★★★☆)

These skills have somewhat limited mechanics tied to them, and will be useful in a variety of adventures, but not all of them.

Athletics (★★★★☆)

Perform feats of physical power and athletic ability. Climb, swim, jump, break down doors and lift things. Athletics is used to initiate grapples, escape grapples, and can be used with the Pit Fighting downtime activity which can make decent money. Since it has a variety of uses and a designed mechanic in the form of grappling, Athletics is a useful skill. However, if a character doesn’t have the Strength score to go along with it and doesn’t plan to grapple, Acrobatics might be preferable.

Acrobatics (★★★★☆)

Used for keeping your balance, performing acrobatic stunts and slipping out of knots. For set mechanics, Acrobatics allows you to avoid getting grappled or shoved, and avoid falling prone when you land on difficult terrain (Player’s Handbook, p. 182). It is unclear if a check is necessary if you aren’t jumping however; the text is in a section about performing a long jump, but it does not specifically state it only applies to long jumping. Interpreting it as only being for long jumps does lead to some weird effects like getting pushed off a short wall onto difficult terrain would require no check to not fall prone, but intentionally jumping off the wall would. Either way, this can be used to effectively ignore difficult terrain on the ground, by repeatedly jumping over it and passing the Acrobatics check to not fall prone. Acrobatics checks are also used occasionally in official adventures to prevent yourself from falling prone on slippery floors, and are common during chases. Finally, Acrobatics can be used for the Pit Fighting and Work downtime activities, the former of which can be very profitable. Overall, Acrobatics is a decently powerful skill with a number of uses, and unlike Athletics, most characters invest at least a little in Dexterity unless they’re wearing heavy armor.

Investigation (★★★★☆)

Investigation is used for making deductions based on clues. It is similar to Perception in many ways, as it is also often used to detect traps or secret doors. Investigation has less mechanics compared to Perception, but many spells can be spotted with an Intelligence (Investigation) check. For example, the glyph created by glyph of warding and symbol is spotted using Intelligence (Investigation).

Insight (★★★★☆)

Insight helps you figure out the motives of creatures and detect lies. It is commonly used in contests against Deception, though technically this isn’t a set mechanic in the rules. It is often very useful to avoid getting betrayed later on, though there are some other measures that can be taken such as using zone of truth or detect thoughts.

Yellow (★★★☆☆)

These skills have very limited mechanics tied to them, if any, and will only occasionally be useful.

Persuasion (★★★☆☆)

Persuasion is used to convince creatures of something without lying or threatening them. Persuasion is used in the Dungeon Master Guide’s Social Interaction rules (p. 244), but these rules are rarely used in practice. This might be because according to the chart a mere DC 10 Charisma check is all that is required to make a hostile creature stop actively opposing you. Still, Persuasion is a very commonly used skill in most adventures and is often useful.

Deception (★★★☆☆)

Deception is in many ways similar to Persuasion. Most of what is written for Persuasion applies to Deception as well, but it is rated just slightly lower because there are often harsher consequences for failing a Deception check compared to a Persuasion check.

Intimidation (★★★☆☆)

The last Charisma social skill, intimidation, is still useful but is rated the lowest because it is generally more limited than Persuasion and Deception. Intimidation might be effective against kobolds, but Persuasion and Deception would probably work too. Meanwhile, it’s probably a bad idea to try intimidating the king of an entire nation but Persuasion and Deception would likely be effective. That’s not to say Intimidation is always worse than Persuasion and Deception, the difference is slight and will vary from game to game.

Nature (★★★☆☆)

Nature is used to identify plants, animals and other natural phenomena. By itself, this skill is only somewhat useful, but it might tell you the weaknesses of certain monsters or how to deal with dangerous molds. It has one notable mechanic tied to it: harvesting poison is a DC 20 Intelligence (Nature) check. (Dungeon Master’s Guide, p. 258) Poisons can be a useful tool, making Nature valuable if you can find creatures to harvest potent poison from. This can even include creatures you summoned with spells, potentially.

Orange (★★☆☆☆)

These skills have very limited or no mechanics tied to them, and will rarely be very useful.

Survival (★★☆☆☆)

Survival is used to track creatures, avoid wilderness hazards and navigate the world. Wisdom (Survival) checks are required in many of the activities that can be taken while traveling (Player’s Handbook, p. 183) but this is often skipped past by DMs as it’s hard for 5e characters to starve to death and time is usually not on such an intense crunch that a few lost days is catastrophic.

History (★★☆☆☆)

Recall lore about the past. This covers a fairly broad range of topics, which can make this useful in some campaigns, but generally adventures are more concerned with the present rather than the past. Oftentimes the result of a history check will be some mildly interesting lore with no practical use. There are also no mechanics which use History checks.

Red (★☆☆☆☆)

These skills have essentially no mechanics tied to them, and will very rarely be very useful in an adventure.

Sleight of Hand (★☆☆☆☆)

Measures a character’s deftness with their hands. Pick pockets, plant things in pockets, and perform card tricks. Note there are no formal rules for Sleight of Hand, in contrast to Hiding and Stealth. Comparing the target of a pickpocket’s passive Perception and the Sleight of Hand roll might be logical, but it isn’t necessarily RAW.

Animal Handling (★☆☆☆☆)

Calm animals, work with pets, deduce what an animal is going to do. Animal Handling might have some uses if your DM is very generous and allows you to tame animals to create permanent allies, but in general this is of limited usefulness, as usually beasts aren’t huge threats past low levels and the DM won’t allow you to raise an army of animal minions.

Religion (★☆☆☆☆)

Religion is used for knowledge about religions, gods and cults. Religion has no specific mechanics related to it. It might be useful in a mystery to identify an obscure symbol from a cult that will lead you to the next step, or it might tell you that a cult worships elementals rather than fiends, allowing you to prepare better. However, similar to History, Religion will often just tell you non-essential lore.

Medicine (★☆☆☆☆)

Medicine is used to help treat the dying and identify illness. This does have a set mechanic, a DC 10 Wisdom (Medicine) check can stabilize a dying creature, but this can be completely avoided with a Healer’s Kit, a relatively inexpensive item. Aside from that, Medicine is a rather niche skill. Many things that seem like they might be Medicine are actually other skills. For example, according to the Player’s Handbook, identifying a wound (which seems like it might be a Medicine check) is actually Investigation (p. 177).

Performance (★☆☆☆☆)

Entertain others using song, dance, or some other kind of performance. Your ability to sing and dance is very rarely tested during an adventure, and while it does allow you to earn a small amount of coin during downtime, this rarely matters.