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<blockquote data-quote="EzekielRaiden" data-source="post: 8648780" data-attributes="member: 6790260">As far as I can tell, I have. One processes the ability check. That check indicates that the task either succeeded or failed. That is its function. As the text says, it is quite black-and-white.Once the ability check is rolled, the DM may then take the result, whether qualitatively, quantitatively, or both, and intrude to complicate matters beyond those black-and-white boundaries. This necessarily follows after the ability check has done its job.Yes. They are, at absolute most, being extremely charitable to your interpretation, a description of &quot;best practices.&quot; Even that requires interpolating &quot;you're supposed to do this, but we can't force you to do it&quot; into the text when it isn't there. A reading purely on the text alone, with no insertion of implied &quot;you're supposed to do this&quot; notions, would simply see this as a description of a thing some DMs might do while running games, not even reaching the level of guidance. More like your phone providing word suggestions as you type; you might find them useful, but you might just as easily completely ignore them and never really notice. I don't consider that anywhere near &quot;rules.&quot;But I also personally find 5e to be much too closer to mother-may-I for my tastes, so perhaps my criticisms should be taken with a grain of salt.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="EzekielRaiden, post: 8648780, member: 6790260"] As far as I can tell, I have. One processes the ability check. That check indicates that the task either succeeded or failed. That is its function. As the text says, it is quite black-and-white. Once the ability check is rolled, the DM may then take the result, whether qualitatively, quantitatively, or both, and intrude to complicate matters beyond those black-and-white boundaries. This necessarily follows after the ability check has done its job. Yes. They are, [I]at absolute most[/I], being [I]extremely[/I] charitable to your interpretation, a description of "best practices." Even that requires interpolating "you're [I]supposed[/I] to do this, but we can't [I]force[/I] you to do it" into the text when it isn't there. A reading purely on the text alone, with no insertion of implied "you're [I]supposed[/I] to do this" notions, would simply see this as a description of a thing some DMs might do while running games, not even reaching the level of [I]guidance[/I]. More like your phone providing word suggestions as you type; you might find them useful, but you might just as easily completely ignore them and never really notice. I don't consider that anywhere near "rules." But I also personally find 5e to be much too closer to mother-may-I for my tastes, so perhaps my criticisms should be taken with a grain of salt. [/QUOTE]

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