D&D 5E How to skill check (and why 5e got stealth wrong)

[Charlaquin]

Most of the time when players in my games are encountering locked doors, they’re doing so in a dangerous place full of hostile creatures. In such places, I roll for random encounters once per hour, and any time the PCs make a lot of noise or otherwise attract the attention of those hostile creatures. Attempting to pick a lock will take time, whether you succeed or fail. Of course, if you fail you can always try again, but that will again take time. A faster approach to opening a locked door would be to try to break the lock (or break the door down); that takes almost no time at all, but it is very noisy. Succeed or fail, that noise is going to trigger a random encounter roll. You can always try again if you fail, but that’s going to trigger another roll.

Now, if you’re in the tavern trying to pick or break the lock on a chest you hauled out of the dungeon, yeah, you’re just going to succeed without a check. Narrate opening it however you like, there’s no challenge there, no point rolling. And that’s what the “consequence of failure” thing means to me.

 

[FrogReaver]

Most of the time when players in my games are encountering locked doors, they’re doing so in a dangerous place full of hostile creatures. In such places, I roll for random encounters once per hour, and any time the PCs make a lot of noise or otherwise attract the attention of those hostile creatures. Attempting to pick a lock will take time, whether you succeed or fail. Of course, if you fail you can always try again, but that will again take time. A faster approach to opening a locked door would be to try to break the lock (or break the door down); that takes almost no time at all, but it is very noisy. Succeed or fail, that noise is going to trigger a random encounter roll. You can always try again if you fail, but that’s going to trigger another roll.

Hmmm... I've never much liked random encounters.

 

[Beleriphon]

I did have a thought @FrogReaver. In the sneak scenario. You have your outline, your character gets spotted. You decide the orc in a guard tower has noticed them, but none of the others. The character can in theory get there and kill the orc before the alarm gets raised (I'm making some very broad assumptions here). Can we roll again? What would you do as the next step?

 

[Charlaquin]

Hmmm... I've never much liked random encounters.

I think they’re great. It’s important to note that when I say “random encounter,” I mean an encounter that is triggered randomly. The encounter itself may well be planned in advance. Its not necessarily what happens that’s random, but when it happens. And I find that to be a very powerful pacing tool.

For example, I’m running Tales from the Yawning Portal. When we get to White Plume Mountain, I plan to have multiple groups of adventurers besides the PCs who are also following up on the clues about the three artifacts, whom they will encounter at multiple points throughout the dungeon. Those encounters will be planned out, and will probably happen in a specific order, but I will use that random encounter mechanic to determine when the next encounter down the list happens.

 

[ad_hoc]

I wouldn't typically, unless going through that door was important to the story. Then no check needed. Clearly failing the check means you try another approach to opening that door or find a different door. Or don't check out this location.

Or just try again until you get it.

 

[FrogReaver]

I did have a thought @FrogReaver. In the sneak scenario. You have your outline, your character gets spotted. You decide the orc in a guard tower has noticed them, but none of the others. The character can in theory get there and kill the orc before the alarm gets raised (I'm making some very broad assumptions here). Can we roll again? What would you do as the next step?

So we are at the moment when the rogue is sneaking up and an orc in a tower spots him!

The first question I as the DM has is does the rogue know he was spotted. For the sake of your example, let's say that he knows it (auto success or successful perception or possibly insight check, whichever resolution got us here it doesn't matter).

So as the DM I've already decided that this orc is going to be discreet about everything and not raise an alarm but play dumb and watch and inform a superior when the rogue gets close enough to be captured (the player doesn't know this) but he knows he was spotted.

Now I give the player a choice. "The Orc acts as if he has spotted you no alarm has been raised, what do you do."

The next step is on the player. Presumably he will fall back to safety - but orc patrols would then go out looking for him, which sets up a potential encounter for the party.

A particularly brave player might continue to approach. If that happened, I would let the player get almost too his goal. I would then have some orcs start to come out after him. He would have one final choice which would be framed in a way that he could accomplish his goal but would face a greater risk of capture or death.

 

[aco175]

Dealing with checks against NPCs, how many checks are against their scores, or against the standard default where 15 is average and 20 is difficult? I tend to have some of each when I ask for a check.

I also tend to add to the DC when things get harder instead of making the check with disadvantage. In the orc discussion upthread, some things like a waterfall next to camp or at night after a celebration may make the DC easier, but a large clearing in front of the camp makes the DC harder. I usually make it 2-3 points for each situation.

 

[FrogReaver]

Dealing with checks against NPCs, how many checks are against their scores, or against the standard default where 15 is average and 20 is difficult? I tend to have some of each when I ask for a check.

I also tend to add to the DC when things get harder instead of making the check with disadvantage. In the orc discussion upthread, some things like a waterfall next to camp or at night after a celebration may make the DC easier, but a large clearing in front of the camp makes the DC harder. I usually make it 2-3 points for each situation.

Right, what I'm saying is that sneaking up to the encampment shouldn't care about orcs individual scores. It's a scenario that has it's own independent DC, although orcs being particularly perceptive or unperceptive could play into lowering or raising the DC. But the scenario is more concerned with the encampment and the focus of the residents as a group than the individual residents of the encampment.

 

[5ekyu]

Hmmm... I've never much liked random encounters.

I have never liked meaningless encounters, myself, but whether its planned and placed by a designated number on a map or determined by some random mechanism (especially if keyed to evolving situations) I find meaningful encounters to be very useful and enjoyable.

 

[FrogReaver]

I have never liked meaningless encounters, myself, but whether its planned and placed by a designated number on a map or determined by some random mechanism (especially if keyed to evolving situations) I find meaningful encounters to be very useful and enjoyable.

I liked the method he described using encounters, not random encounters, but randomly timed encounters. I could get behind that.