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General Tabletop Discussion
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Can you retry a failed skill check? How long?
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<blockquote data-quote="James Gasik" data-source="post: 9700384" data-attributes="member: 6877472"><p>Locks, especially ones you'd expect in an era with less than modern technology aren't a barrier, they're a deterrent at best. If there's something you really want to protect, you'll hide it or place traps.</p><p></p><p>And really, the real question here is: why would you want the PC's to fail to open a door? How does that serve the adventure?</p><p></p><p>In The Sunless Citadel, there's a locked door (DC 20) that you're meant to get the key for by dealing with the Kobolds. The door leads to what could be a tough encounter for level 1 characters (when I ran the 5e conversion, I killed my first 5e PC, a level 1 Monk in the fight).</p><p></p><p>Opening the door too early might actually be lethal to the party. I'd consider that a good reason to not want the PC's to open it. If I had to run the adventure again, I'd have the door be Arcane Locked or something to prevent it from being opened in this manner at all, rather than risk a party getting lucky (which is what happened with my group, the Urchin Barbarian rolled a 20 even as the Cleric was saying he could cast <em>guidance</em>).</p><p></p><p>This is what I keep tripping on- why do we want there to be insurmountable obstacles in an adventure anyways? What purpose is it serving? What happens if the party fails to scale a mountain cliff to get to the adventure? They take some bludgeoning damage and go home?</p><p></p><p>Is that the way we'd want the session to end?</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="James Gasik, post: 9700384, member: 6877472"] Locks, especially ones you'd expect in an era with less than modern technology aren't a barrier, they're a deterrent at best. If there's something you really want to protect, you'll hide it or place traps. And really, the real question here is: why would you want the PC's to fail to open a door? How does that serve the adventure? In The Sunless Citadel, there's a locked door (DC 20) that you're meant to get the key for by dealing with the Kobolds. The door leads to what could be a tough encounter for level 1 characters (when I ran the 5e conversion, I killed my first 5e PC, a level 1 Monk in the fight). Opening the door too early might actually be lethal to the party. I'd consider that a good reason to not want the PC's to open it. If I had to run the adventure again, I'd have the door be Arcane Locked or something to prevent it from being opened in this manner at all, rather than risk a party getting lucky (which is what happened with my group, the Urchin Barbarian rolled a 20 even as the Cleric was saying he could cast [I]guidance[/I]). This is what I keep tripping on- why do we want there to be insurmountable obstacles in an adventure anyways? What purpose is it serving? What happens if the party fails to scale a mountain cliff to get to the adventure? They take some bludgeoning damage and go home? Is that the way we'd want the session to end? [/QUOTE]
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Can you retry a failed skill check? How long?
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