Dexterity

[Alistair]

Hey y'all. <3 Was advised by Squirrel to ask this in the CtW forum before submitting anything, since I'm a bit unsure.

I was thinking of suggesting and writing up a new skill, not currently on any lists, called "Dexterity". There is a large grey area for dexterity right now, unlike with strength, as it seems to be awkwardly divided between Climbing, Acrobatics, Running and Detection, and maybe weapons skills. Even so, these five skills reasonably leave out a lot of key factors such as reflexes, fine usage of one's hands for more than just weapon wielding, and alacrity. Like strength, it would serve as a supplemental ability for all such dexterity-based skills (as strength does for strength-deriving skills), providing a good foundation.

However, I was wondering if A: anyone thinks this skill would be purposeful to implement, and B: if anyone would have suggestions on things that might fit into this skill.

If you think the skill is unnecessary, please also let your voice be heard! I'd like to gauge people's opinions before writing anything up, so if the general consensus is "nah, no point", then that's totally valid. Thanks in advance for your opinions and insight!

EDIT: Pegasus suggested that maybe a revamp of acrobatics would be better. I think this is a great idea! If anyone has suggestions for that, actually, and what we could fit in there, that would be wonderful.

[Pig Boy]

Dexterity literally means skill with the hands. Right?

We can probably attribute it to existing skills. It seems if we were to implement dexterity as something separate, it would be an umbrella skill, one that everyone will want to take in order to maximize their potential in anything they do. Not a fun thing.

[Alistair]

Weeeell, it would've been more complicated than just hands; but yes, it would've been a foundational/supplemental skill, like Strength. It's okay, though - I'm looking for suggestions on a revamp for Acrobatics instead, I think, as per Peg's suggestion in chat. Right now it mentions agility and flexibility, and I think it would be cool of people could help expand on that. It's such an important skill to revamp so I'd like some input from the community, is all.

[Rei'sari]

I do like the idea of it as its own skill much like strength is. My reasoning behind this is that you might know how to make wooden beads (or any other craft) very well. But if your hands are clumsy, and you fumble things a lot, knowing how to make them isn't going to help much. With weapons, high level dexterity might let you throw multiple throwing daggers/stars/etc. with more ease than high level in the right weapon skill alone would allow. That in turn might mean you could throw more at once. And so on. I feel that while skill in the craft/weapon skill/etc. is the main thing, having good dexterity adds enough of an advantage to warrant it being a skill of its own just as strength is.

[Yrmellyn Cole]

I don't think of dexterity as a skill.

In many skills the dexterity increases by praticing the skill, but I think it's a part of those other skills.

In general I think it's good to avoid what's sometimes called "support skills" as that just means one more dimension the players must level up.

For example, today you can play a musical instrument and the dexterity increases by default when you progress in the musical skill, you don't have to work at dexterity as well.

You can write, sew, pick locks, do complicated crafting and so on and the dexterity is, and should be, implicit.