Leif
Adventurer
I'm in the correct forum. Look again, I said 4th LEVEL not 4th edition.
D&D 3.x A New Approach to the Search Skill, D&D 3.5
- Thread starter Leif
- Start date
Bladesong
Explorer
I'm in the correct forum. Look again, I said 4th LEVEL not 4th edition.
Got it...tired. But 4th LEVEL!!! why would they not make the rolls I mentioned?!
4th level rogue +7 skill points, +3 if Dex is 16. +2 if only 1 person aids him gives him a minimuim total of +12, so if he has nothing else to assist him he is capable of a skill check of 32. You shouldn't have to modify the DCs I gave you in the example at all! The DC 35 was the highest and if more than 1 person assists they can even make that roll (not easily, but that was kind of the point).
Leif
Adventurer
Ok, you've convinced me. A DC higher than 20 just sounds impossibly high to me. My fault, I know, I know.
Scotley
Hero
Ahh, my Old Buddy Scotley! What a ray of sunshine you always are!
You have expanded my horizons exponentially! I had never even considered the use of 'oddball' skills like that. Why, that means that a player who is creative enough can find an excuse to use ANY skill to solve virtually ANY problem! That's great!Thanks, Partner!
Heh heh, I guess you could see it that way. But as I said if the oddball skill is too far a stretch you have to make the DC very very high, or perhaps you could let that use only add a bonus to the next roll.
Two excellent poins, Neuronphaser! I especially like the idea of usiga search roll when the players just aren't getting it. Kind of a deus ex macina roll to save the party. (Or have I missed your point completely?) And it's also a good idea to use the skill when you're in "hurry up" mode, too.
Gosh, I'm just getting all kinds of useful information from the responders to this thread! I should have started opening threads like this a long time ago.
No, I think you got it. If the players interact with the terrain and say "keywords" that make me go, "Hmmm, that should find it!" then I let them find the loot. If we're in a hurry, or their character is in the right spot but the player just doesn't seem to be able to think of anything other than "I look closely at the wall," then I give them the roll to see if their character isn't a little more "in tune" with the surroundings.
Players can get bored, tired, frustrated, distracted, hungry...meanwhile, their characters are in a life-or-death struggle to find phat lewtz and get out of the dungeon. Therefore, I give their characters the benefit of the doubt and assume (barring circumstantial issues) that they are completely focused on the task at hand.
I also hate it in published adventures when you battle through all sorts of chambers, come to the big secret room of goodness, and fail a Search check by 1 or 2 points to find the Item-That-You-Need-To-Make-Fighting-The-BBEG-Fair. Those kind of items I just hand over to the PCs. Especially unique items in an adventure: after all, the designer went to the effort to create said item, and used up word count to put it in the book, so why not get some use out of it?
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