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

[clearstream]

It really helps to quote people when you ask them something. I'll assume you're asking me as I just posted and said 25% and hard in my response.

You have it backwards. Something being a hard/difficult task means the character has a 25% chance to do it. What's hard/difficult depends on the character. What's hard for the GOAT is impossible for the average schmoe. What's hard for the average schmoe is laughably easy for the GOAT. It's not a fixed scale of "this is a hard task" but "this is an easy task." It's relative.

If you want to turn it into a fixed scale, determine what would be a 25% for each of those characters. Keeping things flexible and relative is a much simpler way to run things and there's a lot less math and spreadsheets involved.

In principle, 5th edition DCs are objective, not subjective. Meaning that what you may call difficult to one character should rightly be easy to another.

That said, there is nothing inherently difficult about rolling dice, we're only discussing which next world we are likely to be in. To me, a difficult task therefore is one with severe possible consequences.

Accepting the chance of those severe consequences elevates the character. Making them heroic. One does not need the consequences to be overwhelmingly likely: the calculation is % * $ where dollar stands for cost or consequence.

 

[Hussar]

The main problem is, if you have a 75% chance of failure, that's not hard, that's nearly impossible. If you fail something 3 in 4 times, that's an extremely difficult task for you. That's not "hard".

A hard task, using dice, should be about 1 in 4 chance of failure.

 

[Staffan]

I like having characters that are competent at what they're doing, and I feel that someone doing a task that matches their skill level (and "good"/"difficult" sounds like it would) should have a chance of success that's 2/3 or above. I'd settle for a lower "raw" chance if the system offers me some kind of effort mechanic I can use to boost it at a cost (e.g. The Troubleshooters which lets you reverse a d100 roll for 2 "story points", or 1 story point if you have a special ability related to the skill), but certainly no lower than 50%.

 

[delericho]

I voted 70%, but it's actually 68%.

 

[Minigiant]

MacGyver

MACGRUBER!

Ten seconds MacGruber!

MacGruber actually matches my desire. MacGruber MacGyver can disarm the bomb or pick the lock 100% if not distracted. But in the heat of the moment and with constant distractions, his success rate drops. I'd prefer that drop to be to 65%. 2/3 chance.

 

[clearstream]

MacGruber actually matches my desire. MacGruber MacGyver can disarm the bomb or pick the lock 100% if not distracted. But in the heat of the moment and with constant distractions, his success rate drops. I'd prefer that drop to be to 65%. 2/3 chance.

Using the DMG242 rules, that might be resolved as 60% total success, and 75% success with hindrance. What consequences would you have in mind, and how would you count that into "difficulty"?

 

[Gammadoodler]

MACGRUBER!

Ten seconds MacGruber!

MacGruber actually matches my desire. MacGruber MacGyver can disarm the bomb or pick the lock 100% if not distracted. But in the heat of the moment and with constant distractions, his success rate drops. I'd prefer that drop to be to 65%. 2/3 chance.

You want PCs to have similar competence to an SNL character?

 

[Minigiant]

You want PCs to have similar competence to an SNL character?

They act like SNL characters.

 

[Blue]

The psychology of this has been studied for games. ~65% success rate is the sweet spot for enjoyment. Not a nigh "sure thing" that sometime fails leaving a bad taste, but also not consistent and regular failures.

 

[Gammadoodler]

They act like SNL characters.

You have a point.