D&D (2024) Should reliable talent be a feature that all characters get with proficiency/expertise?

[Horwath]

Rogues reliable talent gives ability to treat any skill/tool roll that you are proficient from 1-9 as a 10. So you cannot fail easy/medium tasks or even hard ones.

But, one reason why everyone is focusing on getting skill bonuses as high as possible is to negate the chance to fail at easy tasks.

What if when you gain proficiency in a skill/tool you treat all rolls of 1-4 as 5.
when you have expertise, you treat all rolls 1-7 as 8.
rogue with reliable talent will treat all rolls with proficiency 1-9 as 10, and
all rolls with expertise of 1-11 as 12.

with this change expertise can be lowered a little to 1 and 1/2 prof bonus(round up)
that is:
+3 at 1st level
+5 at 5th level
+6 at 9th level
+8 at 13th level
+9 at 17th level

 

[Shiroiken]

Absolutely not. If something is supposed to be that trivial, then you shouldn't be rolling in the first place. If you can fail the roll with a low roll, then it's not trivial. Reliable Talent is an amazing ability that's on par with 3 attacks per round; giving it away for free (even a weaker version of it) is a terrible idea.

 

[Peter BOSCO'S]

Yes, but it should be one of those new Epic Feat for everyone else.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Absolutely not.

It’s an iconic Rogue ability in 5e that is often basically the capstone ability of the class, since so many games end before 12th level. Absolutely only the rogue should have this, just like only the fighter should get additional extra attacks and only the Wizard should get signature spells.

 

[DeviousQuail]

For a game using bounded accuracy there should be more abilities/features/etc. that raise the floor of a roll without altering the ceiling. Things like Reliable Talent, Portent, and Elemental Adept do this already so its not like the system can't handle it as a mechanic. Reroll abilities like Elven Accuracy, Lucky, Great Weapon Fighting, Halfling Luck, and Savage Attacker also have the chance to increase the floor though it's not guaranteed. The granddaddy of them all is Advantage. It may not necessarily raise the floor but it increases the average without changing the maximum and anyone playing 5e knows how to use it. Unfortunately, due to the canceling/redundant nature of advantage you can only hang so much off of it.

While I wouldn't want to change the basic proficiency system I would like to see feats and items that can give you 'treat rolls of X-Y as Y+1' for some checks. Items like Belt of the Olympian (treat Athletics checks of 1-5 as 6), The Seeker's Incense (1/day you can breathe in this incense, treat Perception checks of 1-7 as 8 for the next hour), the Quick Reflexes (when you roll initiative you can use your reaction to make your d20 roll a 10 instead of rolling), or the Headsman's Axe (when you roll damage treat all rolls below your proficiency bonus as your proficiency bonus).

 

[NaturalZero]

Something my current DM does a lot that I'm going to use next time I DM is making a lot of content auto-succeed or unlock simply based on proficiency. Trained in Arcane? You automatically get the lore. Trained in Survival? You automatically recognize that there are tracks at the scene. Trained in History? The name automatically rings a bell.

What he often does is ask what skill each person wants to use and then give us information based on what each person picks. Sometimes he just tells us the info and lets us know it's because someone is trained. I feel that in a lot of games, there's a huge or emphasis on rolling for everything when simply being proficient should be enough.

 

[rules.mechanic]

I prefer dice pools to minimum rolls, so am currently testing out expertise as advantage instead of a further fixed bonus. We do allow advantage to stack though...

 

[Charlaquin]

I prefer dice pools to minimum rolls, so am currently testing out expertise as advantage instead of a further fixed bonus. We do allow advantage to stack though...

Have you tried proficiency dice? Instead of adding a flat bonus, proficiency adds a die; starts at d4, increases in size at each level that PB usually goes up. Expertise lets you add a second die of the same type.

 

[Pauln6]

Rogues reliable talent gives ability to treat any skill/tool roll that you are proficient from 1-9 as a 10. So you cannot fail easy/medium tasks or even hard ones.

But, one reason why everyone is focusing on getting skill bonuses as high as possible is to negate the chance to fail at easy tasks.

What if when you gain proficiency in a skill/tool you treat all rolls of 1-4 as 5.
when you have expertise, you treat all rolls 1-7 as 8.
rogue with reliable talent will treat all rolls with proficiency 1-9 as 10, and
all rolls with expertise of 1-11 as 12.

with this change expertise can be lowered a little to 1 and 1/2 prof bonus(round up)
that is:
+3 at 1st level
+5 at 5th level
+6 at 9th level
+8 at 13th level
+9 at 17th level

I do think that expertise does let the ceiling elevate to silly levels and that this can lead to a feeling that if you don't have expertise, you might as well not bother rolling. I don't know if having a minimum roll of 5 plus half your proficiency bonus is the answer but I would be interested to see the number crunching.

I suppose normal expertise caps (assuming 20) at 19-37. This version caps at 19-34.

At lower levels though (assuming 16) it would be 9-27 vs 11-26. That doesn't seem like a massive difference but personally I think that bringing down that ceiling and giving more consistency at lower levels is appealing. Of course the numbers are lower if the skill is not in your primary stat.

I realise that some are saying you should not make players roll for low DCs but I'm not a DM that subscribes to rolls being pass or fail. I use degrees of success using a DC scale for each roll. Not always easy to do on the hoof but at least those without expertise don't feel completely useless.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Something my current DM does a lot that I'm going to use next time I DM is making a lot of content auto-succeed or unlock simply based on proficiency. Trained in Arcane? You automatically get the lore. Trained in Survival? You automatically recognize that there are tracks at the scene. Trained in History? The name automatically rings a bell.

What he often does is ask what skill each person wants to use and then give us information based on what each person picks. Sometimes he just tells us the info and lets us know it's because someone is trained. I feel that in a lot of games, there's a huge or emphasis on rolling for everything when simply being proficient should be enough.

That is kinda a variant rule in the DMG.

I think making 5 + prof bonus + ability modifier the flaw for every check would not be bad.

I also like the auto succeed rule of stat-5. That is very helpful foe characters with a 10, a 15 or a 20 in a certain stat. It does disregard the proficiency, but I like the fact that it makes stats count.

So someonw with a dump stat of 8 doesn't autosucceed on DC 5 challenges, they might wven fail if they are proficient, but someone with a natural aptitude, stat = 10 or more won't fail on teivial thing, even without proficiency.

So take a knowledge skill: someone with in 8 might be trained but still sometimes forgets what thwy learned. Someone with int 10 has picked up trivial thing and does not forget trivial things, because they mixed something up...

That seems plausible looking at real life.

Of course, when it comes to special knowledge, the one with proficiency will have a better chance to succeed, as is expected.

That also seems quite plausible.