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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mustrum_Ridcully" data-source="post: 4505939" data-attributes="member: 710">For the specific example of arm wrestling: Can you live with a Str8 Halfing beating a Str20 Orc in arm-wrestling? Because that's what you get if you allow rolling at all. If you don't like this, don't roll. Just compare the ability scores, highest score wins, ties result in a roll (and in that case, why shouldn't experience help?). That's a problem already known from 3E. Likewise, if a 3E Bard uses Inspire Competence, for some reason a character can get stronger and break down a door he normally would have been absolutely unable to break down (regardless of the roll). Can you accept that? Or does it get a free pass because it's a supernatural effect?It is not described what that half level bonus actually represents in the game world. For a Wizard, it can represent training and experience (like for his Arcana or Intelligence checks) - or it represents subtle magic (or heck, maybe even unsubtle) magic he uses to aid a task. If he breaks down a door, he looks at it closely, identifies the weak spots and speaks a small incantation, that will weaken it for a moment, and then he just has to apply the little natural strength given to him to break it down.So, the Wizard gets the "free pass" from his supernatural (magic) abilities. A Fighter making an Int check? He has seen so much, and experienced so much, of course this experience will count for something. Sure, he might not be the brightest man around, but he has learned a few tricks that surprise a less-experienced person, and he might be able to out-plan a Stephen Hawking.Speaking of Stephen Hawking - this guy is a genius in our world. But he will not fight against Dragons or Ninjaes (unlike Einstein).[sblock=A Comic I really need to get!]<img src="http://web.mit.edu/velsonj/Public/NinjaEinstein2.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />[/sblock]So, he's an NPC that's not even a monster. He can have any modifier in the Science skill I want/need him to have. (Particularly since "Science" is not a skill in the core rules anyway)If he was a D&D character, he would probably be a wizard. In that case, see above.Take 20 is the shorthand for "I try until I roll high enough to succeed". Take 10 is actually far more artificial, because it can guarantee a success even in situations where you could not retry anything (and it also guarantees a failure even if you could succeed at a task when rolling).</blockquote>

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