Dimwhit said:This is as good a place as any to ask this question. Can you take 10 on a spot or listen check? My group insists that you can't take 10 on a "reactive" roll, only when you're actively doing something (like searching, opening locks, etc.).
Psion said:It's Take 10 that I really think needs further guidance on when it can be applied that the "if you aren't in a stressful situation" rule of thumb. It is insufficient and IMO too generous in many cases.
Dimwhit said:This is as good a place as any to ask this question. Can you take 10 on a spot or listen check? My group insists that you can't take 10 on a "reactive" roll, only when you're actively doing something (like searching, opening locks, etc.).
Rune said:Take 10 requires spending extra time. Generally, you can't do that if you're reacting to something.
Checks without Rolls
A skill check represents an attempt to accomplish some goal, usually while under some sort of time pressure or distraction. Sometimes, though, a character can use a skill under more favorable conditions and eliminate the luck factor.
Taking 10: When your character is not being threatened or distracted, you may choose to take 10. Instead of rolling 1d20 for the skill check, calculate your result as if you had rolled a 10. For many routine tasks, taking 10 makes them automatically successful. Distractions or threats (such as combat) make it impossible for a character to take 10. In most cases, taking 10 is purely a safety measure —you know (or expect) that an average roll will succeed but fear that a poor roll might fail, so you elect to settle for the average roll (a 10). Taking 10 is especially useful in situations where a particularly high roll wouldn’t help.
Taking 20:When you have plenty of time (generally 2 minutes for a skill that can normally be checked in 1 round, one full-round action, or one standard action), you are faced with no threats or distractions, and the skill being attempted carries no penalties for failure, you can take 20. In other words, eventually you will get a 20 on 1d20 if you roll enough times. Instead of rolling 1d20 for the skill check, just calculate your result as if you had rolled a 20.
Taking 20 means you are trying until you get it right, and it assumes that you fail many times before succeeding. Taking 20 takes twenty times as long as making a single check would take.
Since taking 20 assumes that the character will fail many times before succeeding, if you did attempt to take 20 on a skill that carries penalties for failure, your character would automatically incur those penalties before he or she could complete the task. Common “take 20” skills include Escape Artist, Open Lock, and Search.
Ability Checks and Caster Level Checks: The normal take 10 and take 20 rules apply for ability checks. Neither rule applies to caster level checks.
Pielorinho said:I disagree with the only example you've given. When you say it's "insufficient," do you mean that it's too vague? Because I've never had any disagreement, either as a player or a DM, on whether a situation allowed for taking 10.
As for too generous, what examples do you have beyond spellcraft checks? I don't think it's too generous at all, but maybe you're thinking of a case that I'm not thinking of.
Pielorinho said:
No it doesn't: taking 20 requires extra time, but taking 10 requires the same amount of time as the normal task. It represents doing a routine, everyday, by-the-book version of the task. You can easily take 10 on spot and listen checks, and in fact I generally have guards in my game do so.
Dimwhit said:Can you take 10 on a spot or listen check? My group insists that you can't take 10 on a "reactive" roll,
Psion said:
The most immediate thing that occurs to me is knowledge related checks. It seems to me that these types of checks would always fall into the "non stressful" situation, so take 10 would generally always be applicable. But as a GM, sometimes I figure that unless a peice of knowledge is basic to a topic, that a character knowing a specific peice of trivia would always be random, not subject to take 10. It doesn't make sense to me to boil these types of rolls down to a gamble by the player on what the DC of the test might be.