Ability Checks - Should they be errata'd?

[Runestar]

This makes the assumption that the wizard would never have to make a check because he would always be in the same location as the fighter... sometimes, characters have to split up Oh, the calamity!

My point is that the DC is going to scale depend on the party makeup anyways. If there is a fighter, obviously the DC is going to be higher. If the wizard is alone, then the DC will be lower (or irrelevant, if he has the time to use knock). What if there is a mixup and the fighter ends up at the door meant for the wizard? Are you going to stick with the auto-success DC?

The DM is going to set the DC at whatever is appropriate to challenge the party, nothing more or less.

 

[pemerton]

Skyscraper, great post!

 

[Nom]

Actually, this is something I like about an RPG I was reading the other day - I think it was Burning Wheel - where you "roll with it". You roll once for any task, and then you can't roll again for that particular task. So if you fail to open the door with brute strength, you need to find some other way.

The trouble with preventing re-sampling is that it does all sorts of strange things to the game statistics.

In combat, you re-sample every time you make an attack roll. If you miss one, there's always next round.

If you sample only once out of combat, then you're basically mandating that a single roll, whose chance of "success" should be in the ballpark of 25-75%, resolves the entire encounter. That puts a heck of a lot more variance into play.

Skill challenges are deliberately designed to allow skill checks the same flexibility and resampling as combat; you get multiple rolls and can choose what sort of roll to make.

Thus, the D&D 4E model is: Is this important / interesting in its own right? Make it a skill challenge. Otherwise, just let the PCs succeed, unless there's some external penalty for failure (damage, alerting guards, ...) that controls attractiveness of retries.

 

[Seule]

The PC rules model adventuring heroes in a larger-than-life setting where epic deeds are possible for the chosen few.
NPC rules model all other people.
Monster rules model all over animate creatures.

Between those three sets of rules, there's one that doesn't exist in our world, the PCs. There are no adventuring heroes in our universe, because we're not in an epic fantasy setting. Therefore we can't use the PC rules to model anything from the real world, we would use NPC and monster rules instead.

--Penn

 

[Hammerhead]

I think he would just create a Hawking-hole and move through the door.

 

[PeelSeel2]

A moderately hard door to open for a level 1 character is DC 10. 1st level dork, no str bonus, +0 due to level.

The same moderately hard door to open for a level 30 character is DC 24. 30th level dork, no str bonus, +15 due to level.

Challenges scale with level Chapter 3 p42, DMG.

The same door at any level presents the same challenge (basically).

 

[DracoSuave]

The same door has the same DC for a level 1 dork as a level 30 dork. The level 30 dork just doesn't have to deal with rusty iron hinges on rottenwooden doors, he's got to deal with adamantite doors with mithral hinges that are designed to hold out dragons and ogres and armies from assailing the bastions of the gods.

The DCs are different because the higher tier characters are simply dealing with larger and more imposing obstacles.

As they should.

 

[ExploderWizard]

The same door has the same DC for a level 1 dork as a level 30 dork. The level 30 dork just doesn't have to deal with rusty iron hinges on rottenwooden doors, he's got to deal with adamantite doors with mithral hinges that are designed to hold out dragons and ogres and armies from assailing the bastions of the gods.

The DCs are different because the higher tier characters are simply dealing with larger and more imposing obstacles.

As they should.

Quite right, in either case a trusty level 1 wizard makes physical obstacles a moot point anyway.

 

[Skyscraper]

ExploderWizard, i thought the question of wizards having at-will magic missiles had been dealt with in another thread.

The wizard can deal as much at-will damage to a door with his magic missile than a fighter can with his long sword. Get over it already

Sky

 

[Runestar]

Yeah, it is not as if doors have hardness anyways...