To quote Yatzhee; "You can't blame someone for breaking a window if the only door is in the roof!"

I find the 5e mechanics a bad mesh with the social and roleplaying sides of video games. It can often lock you out of content and options simply by RNG.

This is fine in tabletop where the DM can always incorporate failed rolls to further the story or make new paths forward on the fly when players do unexpected things. A video game, however, has limited options and the harsh treatment of the dice can feel very unfun when you're suffering bad rolls.

Managing accuracy and dice rolls can be fun as a core combat feature, because it emphasize positioning, buffs etc. Doing the same with social encounters is trickier, because each failed roll can cut off other rolls or outcomes entirely. A couple of bad rolls in a fight tend to result is using a bit more healing afterwards, but not outright losing if you play smart.

I think it could work if they added a few more options that are not dice rolls, but unlocked through classes, backgrounds and proficiencies. They should keep dice rolls, of course, but maybe limit them a bit more than now.


Don't you just hate it when people with dumb opinions have nice avatars?