Quote Originally Posted by Draz74 View Post
To adopt you guys' Hide vs. Spot example ... If there is an important plot-clue that requires passing a Spot check, then the current skill system is borked, because there is simply too much of a chance that the Spot-skilled character will get unlucky and miss the clue, or that Belkar will get lucky and Spot the clue. The RNG is too wide compared to the modifiers.

However, in combat (or other situations resolved by rolling many times), since each skill check's outcome only lasts 6 seconds, this isn't such a problem. I don't mind if the Goblin has a 20% chance of being able to Hide from the Dragon when it only lasts one Round before he has to try Hiding again. That keeps combat interesting, and can be chalked up to the general chaos and unpredictability of combat as far as in-game sense goes. So in these situations, I'm not sure the RNG width vs. the characters' modifiers is actually a problem.
So fundamentally, the problem is that WOTC is designing a system primarily for combat, and assumes for non-combat situations (like simple skill checks) that they can either shoehorn it into the combat system, or have the DM make something up since it doesn't really matter.

They're not living up yet to their design principle of focusing on three pillars of D&D (exploration, interaction, and combat); so far, they're just working on combat, combat, and more combat.