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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Wulf Ratbane" data-source="post: 2993748" data-attributes="member: 94">Exactly.And for me, in terms of "apotheosis," the problem is that what should be the climax of the game-- the point at which the heroes have access to powers typically reserved to the gods-- is dragged out from 10th to 20th level.I'm not having this argument again. It's settled, inasmuch as you're either in one camp or the other by now.For the most part, skills increase linearly alongside DCs as the task gets more difficult. And for the most part, the top end DC is 30, with some 35's and 40's occasionally. (For comparison, consider using the Climb skill to climb across a slippery overhang from underneath: DC30. That's impressive!)There are points in the career of the D&D character where your skill bonus doesn't track linearly-- there are big bumps and boosts. For example, your character's first access to a +5 skill item; and again when he finds a +10 skill item. Those are really big bumps.(And problematic. You'll note that 3.0 didn't even have +5 items; they were all +10. Somebody wiser than me figured out that you really needed to flatten those bumps out a little bit.)And at high levels, you'll typically rack up a lot of those big bumps-- not just skills, either, but also your BAB, your AC, your saving throws, etc. When they exceed +20, then the panoply of "fixed DC tasks" can become either automatic failures or automatic successes.The dramatic tension is embodied in the d20 roll.It's not a line, it's a bell curve. (And the bell changes shape and moves from PC to PC and task to task.)The sweet spot is that portion of the curve that extends from just inside "always succeeds," reaches its apex at "50%", and tapers off on the right side just shy of "always fails."And no, "1 always fails" and "20 always succeeds" isn't a satisfactory boundary on either end of this bell curve. I believe that's why it exists, but I don't believe it's working.At least, it's not working for me.</blockquote>

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