Question Regarding Homebrew Race Trait Development

I don't know if I've got a potential bug or if I'm doing something wrong, so some input would be awesome.

I created a custom race which has a racial trait similar to the Dwarves' Stonecunning in 5E. I created a new campaign in order to create it as a module since I figured someone in the future might want to use it, too.

I copied and pasted the description of the Dwarves' Stonecunning and flipped out the History skill bonus for a Nature bonus. Yet whenever I make a character and add the custom race, it adds proficiency for the Nature skill when it's only supposed to apply to certain situations like Stonecunning. This doesn't happen when you make a Dwarf.

Is there something behind-the-scenes which prevents Stonecunning from adding the proficiency bonus to all History checks? Or is there a setting I'm missing?

Adding in the Dwarf race to a character from the PHB doesn't add any skill at all to the character, so I'm not sure what you've done which adds in any such skill. Either that or I am misunderstanding exactly what your issue is. A screenshot might help in this respect.

I've made several screenshots which I've attached to this reply. I'll go through them one by one.

StonecunningAndWaterLoreText shows the two skills side-by-side. Stonecunning is from the Dwarf race while Water Lore is from my custom race.

DwarfCreateText and DwarfNoSkillChecked is from creating a test character as a Hill Dwarf. The latter image highlights the History skill which gets a bonus when examining stonework but not any other time, showing that the History skill isn't marked as proficient.

CustomCreateText and CustomSkillChecked is from creating a character using my custom race. The highlighted lines show that the Nature skill is being marked as a proficiency when the Nature skill bonus should only apply to checks regarding certain bodies of water.

Does this help?

Well that is odd. If I take the Dwarf race from the PHB, make a copy and simply change the word History in the Stonecunning trait to Nature then when I drag the race into a character I don't get any result. However if I change the name of the trait from Stonecunning to Water Lore then I do get the skill proficiency. So it would seem that it is the change of name which is causing the issue. Additionally if I create a completely new Race rather than just editing an existing one I also get proficiency in the skill. The wording used in the PHB version I think should get picked up by the parser so the Stonecunnig trait should add proficiency in History. Strange one; I need to do more testing.

The Stonecunning trait will not add anything to your sheet automatically. Due to the fact that the History bonus you get is limited to History checks "related to the origin of stonework", it is not a permanent bonus that is applied to every History check.

Regards,
JPG

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Originally Posted by Zacchaeus

Well that is odd. If I take the Dwarf race from the PHB, make a copy and simply change the word History in the Stonecunning trait to Nature then when I drag the race into a character I don't get any result. However if I change the name of the trait from Stonecunning to Water Lore then I do get the skill proficiency. So it would seem that it is the change of name which is causing the issue. Additionally if I create a completely new Race rather than just editing an existing one I also get proficiency in the skill. The wording used in the PHB version I think should get picked up by the parser so the Stonecunnig trait should add proficiency in History. Strange one; I need to do more testing.

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Yay I found a bug? LOL. Though what I understand of the ruleset (and what Moon Wizard pointed out), it's a limited proficiency bonus, not a permanent one, given it only applies in certain situations.

No, it isn't a bug (I've found out a bit more). The wording in Stonecunning would normally give proficiency in the History skill. However since you don't get proficiency in the skill globally but only when you are making a particular kind of check Moon Wizard had to suppress the normal parsing so that the character would not get the proficiency. So, by changing the name or the skill but using the same wording gives you proficiency in whatever skill that ability says it gives you becasue it no longer falls withing the exception programmed into the ruleset. So in order for your new trait to work there would have to be a similar exception in the ruleset to cover it. Your only solution is to radically alter the wording so that the skill isn't automatically given when the race is dragged into the character sheet.

Ah. Roger dodger. I'll fuss with the wording until I can figure it out.

Thank you so much!

Quick Update: In case anybody else runs into this problem, I changed "you are considered proficient in the Nature skill" to "you are considered proficient in that skill". Given the Nature skill was already listed at the beginning of the trait, reiterating it was basically redundant. By not listing a specific skill name, it didn't add the proficiency automatically.