Dungeons & Delvers 2nd Edition: Skill List & Mechanics

Here's the current list of skills for the 2nd Edition of Dungeons & Delvers:

Adventuring Skills

Acrobatics
Animal Handling
Appraise
Climbing
Cooking
Disable Device
Dungeoneering
Escape Artist
Endurance
Hunting
Lockpicking
Mapping
Medicine
Riding
Search
Stealth
Survival
Swimming
Tracking
Wrestling

Social Skills

Deception
Disguise
Insight
Perform
Persuasion
Streetwise

Lore Skills

Arcane Lore
Decipher Script
Folklore
History
Languages
Nature Lore
Planar Lore
Religious Lore
Research
Undead Lore

Craft Skills

Alchemy
Armorer
Carpentry
Masonry
Gemcutting
Weaponsmithing

It seems like a lot compared to 1st Edition, but keep in mind:

Many skills can be used Untrained (as in, without a Proficiency bonus). So long as you aren't threatened or pressed for time you can also take 10 on most, which is typically enough to perform at least basic functions.

This isn't 3rd Edtion D&D. You won't need to roll, say, a 25+ to open a "typical" lock (which is more around the DC 12-19 range). Instead, some skills are performed faster if you exceed the DC, or provide other benefits (such as improved item quality when crafting).

Also, NPCs and monsters don't abide by any particular formula, so it's possible for a 1-3 Hit Die NPC to have a really high Proficiency bonus (such as a weaponsmith that's been at it for years). This also means that creatures with many Hit Dice won't necessarily have insanely high modifiers, either.

Every class has two or more Class Skills, which automatically improve every time you level up. In some cases, these are all defined, but most often a class lets you set one or more skills from a handful of options.

Every character also has Secondary Skills. These can be defined by your Background, but your class also lets you pick two or more. These must be improved using Skill Points.

For example, a wizard has Arcane Lore and Research as Class Skills and gets to pick one more skill from the Lore category. He then selects a couple of Secondary Skills on the side.

Everyone gets at least 2 Skill Points on a level up (some like bards and rogues gain Bonus Skills here and there). It takes one Skill Point to improve a Secondary Skill by +1, or two Skill Points for everything else.

This is more flexible than 1st Edition, where you got one skill point at each level, and nothing automatically improved (but then there weren't as many skills and the Proficiency bonus capped at +5).

We settled on this after considering a variety of other methods, which included requiring weeks or even months of training time to improve a skill (which we'll include as an optional rule).

We also decided that, to make Skill Perks worth your while, you'd need at least two Skill Points each level to play with, otherwise you'd have to choose from a general bonus that applies to everything, or another, more situational effect.

For example, in 1st Edition one of the Religion Skill Perks is Angel Lore: you get a +1 bonus on checks to recall information about celestials. Now, when the skill caps at +5, being able to burn a Skill Point to squeeze out another +1 on top of everything else is a big deal.

Not so much anymore, because you can keep piling on the points: we'll need to beef up those sorts of effects (perhaps Assistance for specific uses), but I think most players would rather just keep upping the skill. With two skill points, you have a bit more flexibility, and it makes it way easier to deal with skills that aren't part of a character's class or presumed work history.

Depending on feedback, we might remove some skills from the list. Especially those that people think simply aren't worth the time. Might end up adding more, too.