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*Pathfinder & Starfinder
Aiding anther for a skill check?
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<blockquote data-quote="Syrsuro" data-source="post: 4486651" data-attributes="member: 58162"><p>Moving on..</p><p> </p><p></p><p> </p><p>Yes, and ...yes.</p><p> </p><p>But not all challenges are necessarily of the same level as the PCs.</p><p> </p><p>I assume you are implying that sometimes the DC of a skill might be lower than the Skill DC given on the table for the character's level. If this is your point, yes - you are correct.</p><p> </p><p>But I interpret that to mean that the challenge is particularily easy. So lets say my players are 10th level and they have to perform some skill for which aid another is possible. (The following assumes a single skill check rather than a full challenge - full challenges are discussed nearer the end).</p><p> </p><p>Lets further say that I have decided that this task should be easy for anyone trained in the skill and doable for most characters so I have assigned a DC of 15 (with their automatic +10 trained, +5 untrained plus ability modifiers they will all succeed at least 50% of the time).</p><p> </p><p>But the table gives a DC of 17 for an easy DC at level 10 and one might argue that my aid another DC is now higher than the task DC. But I don't look at it that way. I look at the table and I see that a DC of 17 is a moderate level 4th to 6th encounter (or an easy DC for a 7th to 9th level encounter). So by choosing a DC of 17 for the skill check, I have essentially defined the level of the task as 4th to 6th (or perhaps 7th to 9th), which makes the easy DC - and thus the aid another DC - for that task 13 (or 15). </p><p> </p><p>And within the scope of a skill challenge (where I generally treat all skill checks as being of the same level) no I don't anticipate ever giving a skill check DC a DC that is lower than the Easy DC for the appropriate level. I may give it the easy DC (in which case the aid another DC will be the same, but not higher). Or I may apply a bonus to the skill check to make it <em>effectively </em>easier than the Easy DC - in which case the same bonus will also apply to the aid another roll lower, lowering the <em>effective</em> difficulty of the aid another and maintaining the scaling. <em>Ironically, the RAW, including errata, DOES create a situation where the aid another DC of 10 is higher than the easy DC. This occurs for easy skill checks at all levels up till 9th level by the errata. So the problem you describe - where the aid another DC can be higher than the task itself - <strong>is </strong>a characteristic of the RAW, even if it's not a characteristic of my approach. </em>(Just to be clear, I consider the errata changes to the table on page 42 to be poorly considered and believe that they overcompensated when simply removing the footnote would have been sufficient. Therefore I use the pre-errata values, without the footnote, not the post-errata values. If I were to use the post errata values I might also use the post-errata Easy DC for the Aid Another DC.).</p><p> </p><p>In other words the Aid another DC would never be higher than the check DC (under my approach), although it can be the same - if the task itself is defined as easy for the group.</p><p> </p><p>Carl</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Syrsuro, post: 4486651, member: 58162"] Moving on.. Yes, and ...yes. But not all challenges are necessarily of the same level as the PCs. I assume you are implying that sometimes the DC of a skill might be lower than the Skill DC given on the table for the character's level. If this is your point, yes - you are correct. But I interpret that to mean that the challenge is particularily easy. So lets say my players are 10th level and they have to perform some skill for which aid another is possible. (The following assumes a single skill check rather than a full challenge - full challenges are discussed nearer the end). Lets further say that I have decided that this task should be easy for anyone trained in the skill and doable for most characters so I have assigned a DC of 15 (with their automatic +10 trained, +5 untrained plus ability modifiers they will all succeed at least 50% of the time). But the table gives a DC of 17 for an easy DC at level 10 and one might argue that my aid another DC is now higher than the task DC. But I don't look at it that way. I look at the table and I see that a DC of 17 is a moderate level 4th to 6th encounter (or an easy DC for a 7th to 9th level encounter). So by choosing a DC of 17 for the skill check, I have essentially defined the level of the task as 4th to 6th (or perhaps 7th to 9th), which makes the easy DC - and thus the aid another DC - for that task 13 (or 15). And within the scope of a skill challenge (where I generally treat all skill checks as being of the same level) no I don't anticipate ever giving a skill check DC a DC that is lower than the Easy DC for the appropriate level. I may give it the easy DC (in which case the aid another DC will be the same, but not higher). Or I may apply a bonus to the skill check to make it [I]effectively [/I]easier than the Easy DC - in which case the same bonus will also apply to the aid another roll lower, lowering the [I]effective[/I] difficulty of the aid another and maintaining the scaling. [I]Ironically, the RAW, including errata, DOES create a situation where the aid another DC of 10 is higher than the easy DC. This occurs for easy skill checks at all levels up till 9th level by the errata. So the problem you describe - where the aid another DC can be higher than the task itself - [B]is [/B]a characteristic of the RAW, even if it's not a characteristic of my approach. [/I](Just to be clear, I consider the errata changes to the table on page 42 to be poorly considered and believe that they overcompensated when simply removing the footnote would have been sufficient. Therefore I use the pre-errata values, without the footnote, not the post-errata values. If I were to use the post errata values I might also use the post-errata Easy DC for the Aid Another DC.). In other words the Aid another DC would never be higher than the check DC (under my approach), although it can be the same - if the task itself is defined as easy for the group. Carl [/QUOTE]
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