D&D 5E What is your "Sweet Spot" of Success? (poll)

[DND_Reborn]

Here's the scenario:

• Your PC is "good" at a task (whatever "good" means to you), not great, but definitely above average.
• You are trying a "difficult" task (whatever "difficult" means to you).

What chance of success is perfect for you, the "sweet spot" if you will; where the enjoyment of success meets the risk of failure?

So, if you choose 50%, you are saying you want your PC to succeed at the task half the time and fail half the time, making success rewarding and failure a bit painful.

You have two votes for your response, in case you want a slightly wider range.

 

[Maxperson]

Good, but not great to me is +6 or +7 to a skill check. Since the DC of a difficult check is 20, that would put the sweet spot for success at 35-40%

 

[Stormonu]

Well, my reasoning goes something like this:

I think an "average" person should succeed on an "average" task about 55-65% of the time. A "good" person should succeed on an "average" task about 75% of the time and a "master" at a task about 90% of the time.

Scale the difficulty up to the next level (aka, "difficult"), and drop everyone's percentages about 50%.

 

[payn]

65% of the time it works every time.

 

[aco175]

I was thinking that being good as an average task is about 75%, so a DC20 task would be about 50%, maybe 40% with some other variables.

 

[Minigiant]

In most editions, difficulty of tasks are described based on the experience of the unskilled and untalented.

To the unskilled untalented (a +0), something is difficult if it is achievable but unlikely to succeed. That is a DC 15. 30% chance.

To the good (a +6 or 7), you hit a 15 on a 8 or 9. 55-60% chance.

 

[Pedantic]

This feels a bit like "how red is that wall?" to me, because "good" and "difficult" are really subjective even in actual rules text, much less in totally abstract land.

Do you have a particular task example in mind? Maybe a specific challenge for a specific skill?

Without context, my general take is that a character doing something they are good at should be at least as effective as the combat hit rate baseline, around 65%. A specialized character should have a 10% or less chance of failure at a difficult task they've built toward accomplishing, depending on the level appropriateness of the task.

 

[Shiroiken]

These are very vague terms, so everyone's going to have their own views. To me, a difficult task is something an unskilled person isn't going to succeed at often, say about 10% of the time. I figure a difficult task could be done successfully about a third of the time by someone descent at it. Even someone who's an expert should still fail about a third the time.

 

[J.Quondam]

"Never tell me the odds!"

 

[CleverNickName]

To me, "difficult" doesn't translate to "even odds."

I think it should feel closer to a 1-in-5 chance.