Automatic success/failure

[Rystil Arden]

If the epileptic peasant-child has a stick that can by pass the Gold Dragon's DR, the child probably is probably deceptively powerful anyway.

Fine, give the peasant a non-proficient +1 sword he found off the dead Fighter

 

[Jarrod]

More complex, but what if you "telescoped" by +19 and -21? Also, stopping if the order ever reversed.

So, person rolls a 19... end result: 19.
Person rolls a 20, then a 1: end result is 20.
Person rolls a 1, then a 20: end result is 0.

Basically, shift the die rolling to starting at 0.

The chances of rolls from 2-19 are 5% each, from 20-39 are (5% * 5%)....

This needs work for the "rolling a 1", but hey.

 

[Jdvn1]

Fine, give the peasant a non-proficient +1 sword he found off the dead Fighter

Well, if the Fighter is dead, he doesn't have the same chance to hit as the child anymore.

 

[elrobey]

important caveat:

on a ranged attack, a natural 20 is an autohit only out to a certain number of range increments. IIRC, it's 5 for a thrown weapon and 10 for a projectile.

 

[Jdvn1]

More complex, but what if you "telescoped" by +19 and -21? Also, stopping if the order ever reversed.

So, person rolls a 19... end result: 19.
Person rolls a 20, then a 1: end result is 20.
Person rolls a 1, then a 20: end result is 0.

Basically, shift the die rolling to starting at 0.

The chances of rolls from 2-19 are 5% each, from 20-39 are (5% * 5%)....

This needs work for the "rolling a 1", but hey.

Interesting idea but that makes the math a little tricker. Adding two twenties is easir than adding two 19s.

 

[diaglo]

important caveat:

on a ranged attack, a natural 20 is an autohit only out to a certain number of range increments. IIRC, it's 5 for a thrown weapon and 10 for a projectile.

which are the range increments for those weapons.

there isn't a range 6 for thrown weapons nor range 11 for projectile.

 

[Prism]

and in the 2000ed DMG (i'm not too sure about the revised DMG) there is an optional rule.

-10 for skill check on a natural 1
+10 for skill check on a natural 20.

We've been playing that for a while now (on skill checks) and i'm not keen at all on it. Its great for attack rolls and save which by their nature can't be re-rolled but doesn't work for me for skill checks. I really like the take 20 option on a skill to keep things moving but the possiblity of rolling effectively a 30 means that players often roll the dice to try and hit 20. It also means that the rolls are generally too easy for anything that allows a reroll e.g a 1st level rogue can effectively open a DC 40 lock given a minute or two which is supposed to be a pretty hard lock. All this can slow the game considerably

 

[diaglo]

e.g a 1st level rogue can effectively open a DC 40 lock given a minute or two which is supposed to be a pretty hard lock. All this can slow the game considerably

4 skill ranks (maxed at level 1) + stat bonus + ??? (maybe +2 for mw tools) + 3 (skill focus feat) + 30 for the roll

mang, youse guys are using some very high stat gens for your PCs or you are giving out some nice cash to start.

wow.

yeah, i do miss the lock jam rule from prerevision.... too.

 

[Prism]

4 skill ranks (maxed at level 1) + stat bonus + ??? (maybe +2 for mw tools) + 3 (skill focus feat) + 30 for the roll

mang, youse guys are using some very high stat gens for your PCs or you are giving out some nice cash to start.

wow.

yeah, i do miss the lock jam rule from prerevision.... too.

Yeah I suppose I'm being a bit extreme. Just thinking of my halfling rogue with his 18 dex and MW tools I think I bought after the 1st adventure. Still, i know when I DM i'd prefer to keep the varience of just 1-20 for skills so I have the option of currently unpickable locks etc without going crazy on the DC's.

 

[Ranger REG]

I don't like auto-success on 20 because I don't think that a shaky, epileptic peasant-child wielding a wooden stick nonproficiently at -8 should have the same chance to hit the AC 42 Gold Dragon as a Level 11 Fighter with +21 to attack.

How often can you roll a 20 on a d20?

Unless you prefer to use d100 as an attack roll... reduce the 5% (1-in-20) to 1% chance of a lucky strike.