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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 6259112" data-attributes="member: 42582">Yes it does. In the example of the rogue knocking the ogre into the chandelier, the only factor the GM takes account of in setting the DC is the level of the PC (not the level of the ogre, nor the level of the encounter, nor the "level" of the dungeon).No "objective" DC is associated with anything beyond doors and environmental/endurance hazards. All the terrain on pp 67 through 69, for instance, uses the level scaling charts to set the DCs.Page 175 of Essentials has a chart with "objective" DCs for doors that is no different from the DMG other than some marginal changes to the actual target numbers.The jump check DCs under the Athletics skill are also identical to those in the PHB; I haven't checked if the numbers for climing and swimming change, but they are still "objective" DCs.The only DCs that I can think of in the skill descriptions that change are the Endurance ones (which now match what was said in the DMG for food, air and water - whereas beforehand the DMG and PHB were contradictory) and the Acrobatics ones, which are now given in relative rather than "objective" terms, which matches the approach to terrain DCs in the DMG. The environmental hazard DCs are now also prevented in relative terms, rather than the "objective" DCs on DMG p 159. That also brings them into line with the DMG's treatment of terrain effects.So I don't see this big shift between the DMG/PHB and Essentials - there is no shift at all with respect to doors - except that of the two somewhat conflicting approaches found in the DMG ("objective" and relative/scaling) the rules opt for a consistent approach to terrain and environment as relative/scaling DCs.It has always seemed obvious to me that a GM will narrate the ingame situation that produces these scaling DCs in an appropriate fashion - as was discussed early in the life of edition, well before Essentials was published, when high level PCs are slip-sliding around on cave slime it's not just ordinary slime, it's astral teflon slime!</blockquote>

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