Top 10 Alternative Skill Checks in DnD 5e
Skill checks are a huge part of DnD 5e, but they can’t cover every scenario. The Dungeon Master’s Guide states this outright and encourages DMs to mix and match attributes and skills when needed:
Under certain circumstances, you can decide a character’s proficiency in a skill can be applied to a different ability check. For example, you might decide that a character forced to swim from an island to the mainland must succeed on a Constitution check (as opposed to a Strength check) because of the distance involved. The character is proficient in the Athletics skill, which covers swimming, so you allow the character’s proficiency bonus to apply to this ability check. In effect, you’re asking for a Constitution (Athletics) check, instead of a Strength (Athletics) check.
This is well-known by many players and DMs, but there’s a lot of disagreement on how to best rule alternative skills. There is also some confusion on tool checks and how to rule those.
This article is not a comprehensive guide, but gives an idea of some useful alternative skill checks players and DMs can use. Hopefully it will get you thinking about how to use these and similar alternative checks in your game.
The Mechanics of Alternative Skill Checks
For those using an online tool like D&D Beyond, skill checks are calculated for you and you may not know the formulae behind them. There are two basic parts to a skill check: your attributes and your proficiency bonus.
Skill checks are inherently tied to attributes. For instance, your base Athletics score is just your Strength modifier. If you’re proficient in Athletics, it adds your proficiency bonus. If you have expertise in Athletics, it adds your proficiency bonus twice. To calculate an alternative skill check or tool check, you look at the attribute you’re using and your level of proficiency.
Let’s say we have a level 5 Fighter with a Constitution score of 16. If you want to do a Constitution (Athletics) check like the example above, you’d start with your Constitution modifier—in this case, 3. Let’s say the character is proficient in Athletics. In that case, you’d add your proficiency bonus—for a level 5 character, that’s 3. This character’s bonus to a Constitution (Athletics) check would be +6. If the character has expertise in Athletics, they’d add their proficiency bonus again, for a total of +9.
Setting Up Custom Skills in D&D Beyond
D&D Beyond has a way of setting up custom skills and tool checks so you can use them as easily as other skills. Here’s how.
In the box with your list of skills, check the bottom of the list. There will be a little gear icon indicating settings. Click that. Expand the Custom Skills drop-down, and there will be a link for Add Custom Skill. Click that. You should see something pop up right above it that says something like Custom Skill 1. Click that, then click Edit in the box that pops up.
This provides a pretty simple interface for adding custom skills or tool checks. You select the attribute you’re using, then select your level of proficiency with the skill or tool, then give it a name. It will show up at the bottom of your list of skills.
Proficiency level is easy to determine with skills, but isn’t as intuitive with tools. If you’re not proficient with a tool, you would select Not Proficient, which would not add your proficiency bonus. This means that a character who is not proficient with, say, Thieves’ Tools could still try to use them, they just won’t be as good as someone proficient with them. Some characters, like Rogues and Artificers, might pick up expertise with a tool, in which case you’d select that for the tool check.
With that out of the way, here are some useful custom skills to add.
Threatening - Strength (Intimidation)
I’m adding this first because it’s the most well known. Barbarians in particular are intimidating figures, but if they make an Intimidation check with Charisma, they’re likely to be much less threatening than a Bard or Warlock. Calculating this with Strength gives Barbarians and other strong characters a way to use their intimidating stature to intimidate NPCs.
Disguise - Intelligence (Disguise Kit)
This one is also mentioned in a DnD book. Using a Disguise Kit is a common scenario in DnD, but there might be questions on how to rule it. Using Intelligence (Disguise Kit) sets the DC for NPCs seeing through the disguise. This would be contested with the passive Investigation of NPCs walking by, or an actual Investigation roll if anyone stops to check them out.
Dashing - Dexterity (Athletics)
Athletics is a pretty versatile skill. If you need to force something open or grapple a foe, Strength is an obvious fit. But sometimes Athletics is used to see how well someone can run away from something. In this case, allowing a character like a Monk to use Dexterity more accurately reflects how fast they’d be able to run.
Lockpicking - Dexterity (Thieves’ Tools)
There’s a lot of confusion about how Thieves’ Tools work. The DC of the lock is determined by the DM (the Dungeon Master’s Guide has some guidance on this), but calculating Dexterity (Thieves’ Tools) allows players with expertise in Thieves’ Tools to use that expertise, rather than just asking for a Sleight of Hand check.
Disarming - Intelligence (Thieves’ Tools)
Similar to Lockpicking, disarming traps is a common task in DnD. In this case, the task requires some Intelligence to understand the mechanics of the trap.
Forgery - Intelligence (Forgery Kit)
If a character wants to forge a document using a Forgery Kit, this check sets the DC that the NPC must meet in order to determine if it’s a fake. If the NPC glances at it, they would use their passive Investigation; if they stop to really look at it, they’d make an Investigation roll.
Blending In - Wisdom (Stealth)
Sometimes a character doesn’t need to hide; they just need to look inconspicuous in a crowd so they don’t draw attention to themselves. If a character needs to blend into a crowd to try to hide in plain sight, Wisdom (Stealth) makes more sense.
I often see this one listed by others online as Charisma (Stealth), but I disagree with that one. Charisma is about convincing others that you’re right. Think about characters in movies that disappear into a crowd. It’s usually not a smooth talker, but someone who is able to read the crowd and determine how to best fit in.
Questioning - Charisma (Investigation)
If you’re digging for clues in a friendly or nonchalant way, Charisma (Investigation) is a good way to calculate that. This check is especially useful to speed along the process of canvassing a crowd, such as asking everyone in a tavern if they’ve seen someone pass through.
Gaming - Wisdom (Gaming Set)
Gaming sets are a fun bit of flavor, but most people don’t use them in games. A Wisdom (Gaming Set) check allows two characters to quickly determine who wins a game with the respective gaming set. If a character wants to challenge an NPC to a game of dragon chess, they’d both make a Wisdom (Dragon Chess) check. If one character scores higher than the other, that player wins; in the event of a tie, it’s a stalemate.
Depending on the game and the characters involved, this could easily be ruled as an Intelligence check instead of Wisdom.
Drinking - Constitution (Performance)
The Barbarian challenges the local Half-Orc warrior to a drinking contest. How do you rule that? Constitution (Performance) works much like Wisdom (Gaming Set) to give you an easy way to determine a winner of a drinking contest.
About the Author
Brandon Gregory
Brandon Gregory is a web developer and writer in the Kansas City area. He's been playing TTRPGs since 2020 and is involved in the disability-related TTRPG podcast Tales from the Crips. He's into classic movies, mental health, and, of course, DnD. Also, he's in a band. One time, they rocked so hard it killed a man.