Close, but no cigar....

[eris404]

Generally, I treat skill checks as a true/false sort of thing - either you make it or you don't (there's some exceptions to this in RAW, of course). I was just wondering though, if anyone does something a little different when the character almost makes his check; example: character needs to make a DC15 listen check to hear the sleeping orc snoring in the next room but gets a total check of 14. Do you have rules for this or do you make something up as it comes up? Does it also depend on the type of skill?

 

[Ferret]

I would try and be more descriptive then a true/false sort of thing but sometimes you can't. The example is the sort where I would jusrt have to say whether or not you can hear it, someone more inventive might scome up with something else.

I don't mind making up rules as I go along for the grey areas though.

 

[Silmarillius]

Well, for skills like Gather Information, how much info you gather depends on your check. I mean it doesn't make sense that you get a 19 and learn nothing where you needed a 20 to find the Evil Wizards' secret location. So I mean if they're that close on a skill check (which one depending), I would say give them a little leverage, as supposed to YOU FAIL!

Silmarillius

 

[Goolpsy]

that +1 on the gather information.. could be the person in the corner of the bar u "overlooked" (only geeting 19) hence not getting the desired information.. and actually NO information at all

 

[Goolpsy]

Go for the world record... ...but but but.. i was 1 sec short...
Too bad.. you didn't get it... try again...

or indentify a weird potion: i know it .. its... its... ehm.. i have right on my tongue.. it just wont com out...
So what is it?
ehm.. ehm..
Too bad...

 

[the Jester]

'Partial successes', imc, are most likely with charisma or intelligence based checks. You can't 'almost' climb a wall except by failing to climb it, but if you 'almost' succeed on a Knowledge (arcana), you might get something related to the info you're seeking.

Definitely dm fiat here.

 

[Quickleaf]

I definitely am a big fan of degrees of success. Depending on how much a character succeeds or fails, the results are that much more spectacular or devastating.

There are two approaches: (1) Winging it, and (2) Advanced preparation. Let's take your example (listening into a room for the snoring orc)...

In case (1), the GM would say "You don't hear anything except your rumbling belly."

In case (2), the GM would consult their chart...

Fails by 11+....Major misinformation: The whistling bird in the next room appears to be speaking in a form of Elvish whiste-speak. Is it saying "rescue me"?
Fails by 6-10...Minor misinformation: You can hear a whistling breeze.
Fails by 1-5.....Hint/No result:There is a background buzz, but you can't make it out.

Succeeds by 1-5.....Basic Info:You can hear someone snoring in the next room.
Succeeds by 6-10...Specific Info:Judging by the sound of it, there's a snoring orc.
Succeeds by 11+....Amazing Info: The snoring orc is far more deeply asleep than any orc warrior you've ever heard. Either it's a non-combatant or under a magical sleep spell.

 

[eris404]

Quickleaf - love that system. Come to think of it, I think the "Dozen Rumors" line had something similar with extraordinary failure or success on Gather Information checks.

The more I think about this, the more it makes sense and the more I like the idea. When characters start having a decent amount of ranks in a skill, they should be able to do something with real panache. On the other hand, if a character fails miserably, he should also fail well...miserably. I might use a scaled down system based on units of 10, so that if a character misses or succeeds by 10, by 20, etc. the results get progessively worse or better appropriately.

Of course, this is sort of going off on a tangent, since I had orginally asked about failing by 1. Let's take another example - say you have a rooftop chase where you've determined that the characters need to make a DC15 jump check to make it between rooftops. The buildings have steeply peaked, shingled roofs and from the bottom edge of a roof to the ground is about 30 feet. One character rolls a total jump check of 14. How would you handle this? Also, would it make a difference to you if the characters were 3rd level instead of say, 7th level?

 

[Quickleaf]

About your jumping from rooftop to rooftop question...see this part of the SRD for the Jump skill. Interestingly, the Jump skill uses this notion of "degrees of failure".

Long Jump: A long jump is a horizontal jump, made across a gap like a chasm or stream. At the midpoint of the jump, you attain a vertical height equal to one-quarter of the horizontal distance. The DC for the jump is equal to the distance jumped (in feet).
If your check succeeds, you land on your feet at the far end. If you fail the check by less than 5, you don’t clear the distance, but you can make a DC 15 Reflex save to grab the far edge of the gap. You end your movement grasping the far edge. If that leaves you dangling over a chasm or gap, getting up requires a move action and a DC 15 Climb check.

That's an interesting point about a difference in the levels...Hmm...
Let's take a 5th level character (Jump +10) and a 15th level character (Jump +21). Both are trying to make a 25 foot long jump. The 5th level character must roll 15 or higher (30% chance), while the 15th level character must roll 4 or higher (85% chance). In this situation it is impossible for the high-level character to fail by more than 5, so the high-level character automatically gets to try to grab the ledge.

I guess tightening the range (e.g. fail/succeed by 3 instead of by 5) is one way of maintaining suspense for high-level characters rolling against easy DCs, but I would think this is penalizing them for becoming high-level.

Overall, I don't recommend broadening the range more than 5, which represents 25% or 1/4 increments. In the above example, if the range was succeed/fail by 10/20/30, then the 5th level character couldn't get a really terrible result, and there'd certainly be no way for the high-level character to get any kind of disastrous failure.

 

[eris404]

Quickleaf - weird, I hadn't read that part of the rules and that's how we've been playing it anyway. I guess someone in my group had actually read them. How embarrassing.

"Closing the gap" is an interesting idea. It reminds me of something that we used in 2E, that past a certain level the automatic failure for saves and attack rolls increased from a natural 1 to a natural 1 or 2 (or even 1-3) on a d20 roll. Is that logical? I mean, does it seem weird that a higher level character with greater skill suddenly have a greater automatic failure range?