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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Storm Raven" data-source="post: 2771302" data-attributes="member: 307">You've overestimated the difficulty of most things. I believe you have not yet gotten to the Take 10 rule, which basically says that for most skills, in an ordinary, non-stressful situation, you can "Take 10", with the result that you will get a "10" on your d20 roll without rolling. This represents an average everyday effort. This is true for all skills that do not specifically say you cannot Take 10 with them (such as Use Magic Device, whose text prohibits the use of Take 10).So, for example, most everyday people in a campaign world will make their living with a Craft or Profession skill. They will generally Take 10 on a daily basis, with the result being the ordinary result. Most adventurers Take 10 on common skill checks like Search (for searching a room), or other mundane tasks (like climbing a tree outside of combat). This has the result that a DC 10 skill check is something most people can do on a regular basis under normal conditions.An individual with training in a skill (say 4 ranks, the max for a 1st level character) could normally make a DC 14 check. Most artisans and peasants are likely to have Skill Focus in their primary occupation, meaning they could Take 10 and make a DC 17 skill check on a normal basis. For example, the village blacksmith, as a 1st level human commoner (see the DMG for the NPC classes), with 4 ranks in Craft: Blacksmithing and Skill Focus (Craft: Blacksmithing) and no stat bonuses would have a +7 modifier to all Craft: Blacksmithing tasks. If he Takes 10, he can regularly succeed at a DC 17 check.(As a side note, you may ask, what is a stressful situation? Combat is the primary stressful situation that crops up in games. Other things can be stressful too - trying to climb a mountain during an avalanche would be a stressful situation. Trying to disarm a trap while the floor slowly tilts to drop you into a pit of lava would be another. This basically is a DM call).So, setting DC 10 as the standard for what most people can accomplish untrained at a skill (assuming that most people have the "standard array" of stats of 10, 11, 10, 11, 10, 11and thus no stat bonuses or penalties), you get an array more or less like this:DC 0: An easy task, something most people could do even while being attacked by wolves.DC 5: A task that an individual with ordinary training could routinely accomplish under stress.DC 10: A task that almost anyone could accomplish under normal circumstances, but would be tough for an untrained person, and of medium difficulty for a trained person if they were under attack at the time.DC 15: A task that a trained individual could regularly expect to succeed at under normal circumstances.DC 20: A task that will usually require more than normal effort for a trained individual and would be very hard for an untrained individual.DC 25: A task that a trained individual could accomplish through repetition (using Take 20), or if they got lucky; or a highly skilled person (say, a very focused 3rd or 4th level character)could make. (For example, a 3rd level half-elven expert, with 6 ranks in Diplomacy, 5 ranks in Bluff, 5 ranks in Sense Motive, 5 ranks in Knowledge: Nobility and Royalty, the Skill Focus (Diplomacy) feat and the Negotiator feat would have a +19 on Diplomacy checks, and could make a DC 25 Diplomacy check with a Take 10).DC 30: A very difficult task.DC 40+: An insanely difficult task, usually only accomplishable by characters working in concert (via Aid Another) or by higher level characters very focused on the skill in question.Just so you know, you can Take 20 with some skills, but much less often. Take 20 basically requires that there be no penalty for failure with the skill, and you take 20 times as long as normal for the skill check. The net result is that you get a result of a "20" plus your skill modifier. So, for example, if you wanted to Search a chest for traps, you could normally Take 20 with the Search skill, because there is no penalty for not finding a trap that might be on it. A normal Search check takes one round, to Take 20 would require 20 rounds. Your end result would be 20 + your Search bonus. Using Disable Device to disarm a trap that you found is another story - if you fail your Disable Device check by 5 or more, you set the trap off - so there is a penalty for failure. You cannot Take 20 to disable a trap. You could, however, under normal circumstances, Take 10.</blockquote>

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