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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Charlaquin" data-source="post: 7800223" data-attributes="member: 6779196">I think we might be talking about different things here. To illustrate what I mean, consider a rogue in a dungeon attempting to pick a lock. First, let’s assume that there is no time pressure - no wandering monsters that might come upon her while she works, no evil ritual that will be completed at the stroke of midnight, she has all the time she needs to work on picking this lock.Personally, I would not call for a check in this situation. If the lock is within her ability to pick it, she will eventually do so, and since there is no time pressure, there is nothing stopping her from keeping at it until it works. So I would just narrate success.Some DMs might rule that there is a risk of causing damage to the lock, and call for a check to resolve that uncertainty. If she succeeds, she gets the lock open with no problem, if she fails, the lock is damaged and can’t be picked. I’d say that’s a pretty reasonable call to make.Other DMs might rule that the player must make a check, and only gets one shot at the check. If she succeeds, she opens the lock, if she fails, she doesn’t. Typically, the explanation for this is that the one roll represents the character’s best effort - that in the case of a high roll she did take as much time as she needed and got it open as in the first example, and on a low roll it turned out that the lock was beyond her ability to pick.Personally I find this third option extremely meta and dissatisfying. But, it does provide a consequence for failure. Namely, that you can’t try again.</blockquote>

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