Maxperson
Morkus from Orkus
Or - and I know this is hard to believe - I simply disagree. I'm using Occam's Razor. Maybe Occam's dull butter knife. Either the rules directly contradict themselves and leave out your all important "cost" in 2 out of 3 mentions of how to handle checks or my interpretation of the rule is correct.
I've proven that there is no contradiction, so disagree all you like, but you can't be right about that. Occam's Razor and even his butter knife agree with me, not you. The simplest explanation is that the non-contradictory rule in the in the DMG works together with the other two.
You have a right to disagree. Just like I have the right to point out that your interpretation of the rules is not "The rules". Have a good one!
And with that you are literally claiming that the DMG rules are not rules. Take care!
No, it's not a general rule. It's a specific rule given context by the examples in the paragraph it is a part of.
Yep! And since the context of that paragraph is when you should roll vs. when you should automatically succeed, if you are rolling then there must be a meaningful consequence.