Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
Skill Challenges and Action Points
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 7045811" data-attributes="member: 42582"><p>Manbearcat is correct, and yes, I think this is a house rule. (Maybe it's canvassed somewhere? It doesn't come up all that often, but is there in reserve in the event of a pacing emergency!)</p><p></p><p>We allow a nat 20 either count as two successes, or as a Hard success even if the result falls short of that. I think [MENTION=15800]Hellcow[/MENTION], back in the same post/blog I mentioned earlier, suggested this.</p><p></p><p>I see it, again, as analogous to the role of a nat 20 in combat, which (roughly) doubles damage dealt.</p><p></p><p>A player who is only 1 or 2 short will take the +2 to guarantee success; otherwise they take the reroll.</p><p></p><p>I think this worry assumes that players won't be using APs during skill challenges. But at least in my game, that's not the case.</p><p></p><p>One thing that is relevant to this, I think, is making sure that <em>each success or failure</em> in the challenge changes something in the fiction (DMG2 stresses this, and before it came out [MENTION=386]LostSoul[/MENTION] on these boards used to make the point very clearly and forcefully). So if, say, the player of the fighter fails a social check in the challenge (not terribly unlikely for a typical fighter build), the reason for spending an AP to try and turn it into a success is not just the overall context of succeeding at the challenge, but that particular context of the player not wanting his/her PC to be ignored or not get his/her way or look like a fool or whatever other consequence, in the fiction, is going to follow from the failure.</p><p></p><p>This is more-or-less what happened in the Yan-C-Bin and Marut SCs I mentioned upthread, which is why 3 (I think - maybe even 4) of the players came into the tarrasque combat without APs.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 7045811, member: 42582"] Manbearcat is correct, and yes, I think this is a house rule. (Maybe it's canvassed somewhere? It doesn't come up all that often, but is there in reserve in the event of a pacing emergency!) We allow a nat 20 either count as two successes, or as a Hard success even if the result falls short of that. I think [MENTION=15800]Hellcow[/MENTION], back in the same post/blog I mentioned earlier, suggested this. I see it, again, as analogous to the role of a nat 20 in combat, which (roughly) doubles damage dealt. A player who is only 1 or 2 short will take the +2 to guarantee success; otherwise they take the reroll. I think this worry assumes that players won't be using APs during skill challenges. But at least in my game, that's not the case. One thing that is relevant to this, I think, is making sure that [I]each success or failure[/I] in the challenge changes something in the fiction (DMG2 stresses this, and before it came out [MENTION=386]LostSoul[/MENTION] on these boards used to make the point very clearly and forcefully). So if, say, the player of the fighter fails a social check in the challenge (not terribly unlikely for a typical fighter build), the reason for spending an AP to try and turn it into a success is not just the overall context of succeeding at the challenge, but that particular context of the player not wanting his/her PC to be ignored or not get his/her way or look like a fool or whatever other consequence, in the fiction, is going to follow from the failure. This is more-or-less what happened in the Yan-C-Bin and Marut SCs I mentioned upthread, which is why 3 (I think - maybe even 4) of the players came into the tarrasque combat without APs. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
Skill Challenges and Action Points
Top