Quote Originally Posted by Craft (Cheese) View Post
I totally agree: Ability checks are worse than useless for creating the type of game I described. However, I don't think class features or feats are suitable to accomplish this either, at least in the form D&D is currently using them. And it still doesn't answer whether this goal is desirable at all.
It's a desirable goal, but not for DnD. DnD isn't about narrative, it's about wizards and orcs and magic swords. You don't win because you're the main character and that's how you want the story to end, you win because you have a high strength (or whatever) score, used the right tactics, and rolled well. That's not to say that narrative plays no role in DnD, it just plays no role in the mechanics.

It would work well as a module though, I think. Perhaps something like a "Fate" system, where each character has a certain number of fate points that they can spend to do special stuff like auto-roll a 20, re-charge a spell slot, re-gain HP, take an extra turn, etc. You would start with, say, 3 fate points, and then the DM hands out more whenever you do a cool thing for the narrative, or accomplish something big.