Skill Wheelhouse (5e Variant Rule)
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Skill Wheelhouse[edit]
I’d be a damn fool to try and quantify each and every skill a character could conceivably have, much less create a discrete list of skills that can cover all possible actions a player may attempt in the course of roleplaying. No... seriously. the library of congress would be a small literary work comparatively. Instead we’re going to take a note from the dusty tome belonging to professor dungeon master and just take a look at what the character should know based off of their background and class.
For example a character who has the sailor background was a sailor before they went on to a life of adventure. so they should know a thing or two about ships, sailing, and the minutia required to live a life as a sailor in addition to what skills they should have from their class which is effectively their current occupation. These skills are considered to be "in the character's wheelhouse" and as such gain the character's proficiency bonus when rolled.
Skills not specifically in a character's wheelhouse, but not so far removed that they would never consider learning them do not get a bonus. So for example from our sailor example above, that character would get no proficiency dice to roll on trying to make a living as a merchant or tailor.
Skills that are far removed from the character's wheelhouse actually get a penalty equal to their proficiency dice because their skill set actively took them away from that direction. So our sailor friend would suffer a penalty equal to their proficiency bonus if he were to try his hand at brick masonry or stonecutting. provided of course the culture he hails from doesn’t practice these things regularly enough for them to become common knowledge.
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