D&D 5E 50/50 chance is 'easy'?

[Duddmannen]

I would think of this more in terms of what the hero himself (or herself) would call "easy".

"Hey Thog, could you climb up on that roof over there?"
"Sure! That's easy!"

"Figure out how to defuse an orb of conflagration? Sure, that is easy for anyone as well-educated as me!"

"Convince these thugs to follow us into battle? For someone with my looks, that is easy!"

 

[Pauln6]

You don't have to roll for everything in the game. Even trivial tasks are tasks that are straightforward but that carry a chance of failure. Lifting your coffee cup to drink is trivial but would not require a roll. Drinking without spilling your coffee while on a boat on storm-tossed waters would be trivial but with a chance of failure.

Don't take the dice rolls or chance of failure as representing every task, easy or not.

 

[jadrax]

I'm not a trained athlete and I reckon my strength is just above average - maybe 11. If someone described a physical task as 'easy' I would expect that I had a greater than 50% chance of success. But in 5th edition the DC for an easy task is 10, which means, with no bonuses for proficiency or strength, it's a coin-flip.

Yeah, frankly, your right. The categories are badly named.

There are historic reasons for this, but that's not actually a great excuse.

Use this instead:

Task Difficulty = DC
Easy = 5
Average = 10
Quite hard = 15
Hard = 20
Very hard = 25
Nearly impossible = 30

 

[radja]

a DC of 10 means anyone, even untrained and with bad stats, can succeed on the task with a bit of work. Yeah, I think it's correct to call that easy.

 

[Morrus]

Easy for an adventuring hero, who will likely have bonuses to the roll. Maybe not to you or me.

 

[TerraDave]

It is awesome that you can use 10, 15, or 20 for almost all DCs.

Wait, what was this thread about?

 

[heptat]

Wait, what was this thread about?

Exactly.

 

[Blackbrrd]

When I read through the ability checks, my biggest issue with the table is that there are no examples of what's very easy, easy, medium, etc. It's just a table that has no support. It's basically useless to a new DM. And pretty bad for me, as an experienced DM as well, since haven't played 5e before.

 

[jrowland]

Easy for an adventuring hero, who will likely have bonuses to the roll. Maybe not to you or me.

True enough, but DCs in D&D are not subjective in the same sense of the word "easy".

That is, "Easy" DC is not the same thing as an "Easy" task for Adventuring Hero, You or Me, Joe, Alf, et al.

In other words, the DC's are static (5,10,15,20) but our subjective perception of resolving the task isn't (our real life ability, Fighters Stat and Training vs Wizards Stat and Training). Assigning terms may be a mistake, but once the choice was made to do so, they used a subjective "everyadventureman" to do so.

DC 5 is "Trivial" for the everyadventureman.
DC 10 is "Easy" for the everyadventureman.
DC 15 is "Moderate" for the everyadventureman.
etc

Your (and your characters perception) may vary.

 

[Tormyr]

When I read through the ability checks, my biggest issue with the table is that there are no examples of what's very easy, easy, medium, etc. It's just a table that has no support. It's basically useless to a new DM. And pretty bad for me, as an experienced DM as well, since haven't played 5e before.

The example DCs are provided next to the obstacle in an adventure, equipment, trap description, skill check or saving throw description. Look through the equipment page and see the DC to pick a lock or burst manacles or rope. Check an adventure to see how hard it is to climb a specific wall. A slimy, smooth, moss covered wall will be very hard or nearly impossible, but a rocky wall that is made out of handholds will be easy.

Looking at those, you will get a feel pretty quickly as to what a DC should be in an ad hoc situation.