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<blockquote data-quote="D'karr" data-source="post: 6009686" data-attributes="member: 336">Except that the expected difficulty level is &quot;infinitely&quot; tweakable and from there the difficulty can also be assessed on at least 3 parameters.&nbsp; That is a lot less restrictive than you might think.If a player wants to attempt something the DM gets to determine, based on the description, the &quot;difficulty&quot; of the attempt and the degree of difficulty from there.&nbsp; That allows a very large range of options.In 1e and Moldvay basic, I used to determine these things by assigning a difficulty level based on a &quot;perceived&quot; percentage.&nbsp; So I would wing it and come up with what I thought was a &quot;good&quot; average difficulty and had the player roll percentage dice to determine if his character succeeded.&nbsp; This was usually a completely made up number with no real basis on the &quot;experience&quot; of the character, or anything else except the &quot;perceived&quot; circumstance.In 4e I still have all the creative &quot;open-space&quot; to wing it, but I have a framework that gives me &quot;good enough&quot; averages to shoot for.&nbsp; So I go the the pg. 42 table and I assign whatever is being attempted a level.&nbsp; By tying it to level I can relate it to several meta-mechanics in the game such as monster level, trap/hazard level, the level of the dungeon they are in, the level of the adventure, or a perceived level that I've already assumed for the task.&nbsp; Then I assign it a difficulty based on what they are attempting.&nbsp; It might be a level 1 task that is easy, or a level 6 task that is hard.&nbsp; And when the player is rolling for the attempt he is using the character appropriate &quot;skill&quot;.&nbsp; So that the in-gameworld character skill is accounted for in the attempt.In 3.x there were some issues when I attempted to do something similar.&nbsp; I could default to my &quot;percentage&quot; solution or I could &quot;derive&quot; DC numbers based on &quot;known quantity&quot; tasks.&nbsp; The problem is that some of those &quot;known quantity&quot; tasks did not &quot;scale&quot; well.&nbsp; The perfect example of this lack of scaling was the &quot;tumble&quot; task to avoid provoking an AoO.&nbsp; This particular task had static DC numbers and did not in any way take into account the &quot;experience&quot; of the opponent that was trying to kill you.In 4e if a player wanted to do something similar, since this would be an improvised action not covered by the rules, I'd take the level of the creature look it up in the p.42 table and assign it an easy/moderate/hard DC based on the circumstance.&nbsp; The player would roll acrobatics, and the character skill is taken into account right from the beginning.IME, this has worked a lot better than me winging percentage numbers or trying to derive (guess) suitable DC numbers for tasks.-</blockquote>

[QUOTE="D'karr, post: 6009686, member: 336"] Except that the expected difficulty level is "infinitely" tweakable and from there the difficulty can also be assessed on at least 3 parameters. That is a lot less restrictive than you might think. If a player wants to attempt something the DM gets to determine, based on the description, the "difficulty" of the attempt and the degree of difficulty from there. That allows a very large range of options. In 1e and Moldvay basic, I used to determine these things by assigning a difficulty level based on a "perceived" percentage. So I would wing it and come up with what I thought was a "good" average difficulty and had the player roll percentage dice to determine if his character succeeded. This was usually a completely made up number with no real basis on the "experience" of the character, or anything else except the "perceived" circumstance. In 4e I still have all the creative "open-space" to wing it, but I have a framework that gives me "good enough" averages to shoot for. So I go the the pg. 42 table and I assign whatever is being attempted a level. By tying it to level I can relate it to several meta-mechanics in the game such as monster level, trap/hazard level, the level of the dungeon they are in, the level of the adventure, or a perceived level that I've already assumed for the task. Then I assign it a difficulty based on what they are attempting. It might be a level 1 task that is easy, or a level 6 task that is hard. And when the player is rolling for the attempt he is using the character appropriate "skill". So that the in-gameworld character skill is accounted for in the attempt. In 3.x there were some issues when I attempted to do something similar. I could default to my "percentage" solution or I could "derive" DC numbers based on "known quantity" tasks. The problem is that some of those "known quantity" tasks did not "scale" well. The perfect example of this lack of scaling was the "tumble" task to avoid provoking an AoO. This particular task had static DC numbers and did not in any way take into account the "experience" of the opponent that was trying to kill you. In 4e if a player wanted to do something similar, since this would be an improvised action not covered by the rules, I'd take the level of the creature look it up in the p.42 table and assign it an easy/moderate/hard DC based on the circumstance. The player would roll acrobatics, and the character skill is taken into account right from the beginning. IME, this has worked a lot better than me winging percentage numbers or trying to derive (guess) suitable DC numbers for tasks. - [/QUOTE]

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