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Message: <blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 5508355" data-attributes="member: 1210">SKILL CHECKSWhen a character attempts a non-combat action that is assured of neither success nor failure, the dm should call for a skill check. Although this system does not have skills per se, your secondary skill and possibly race or class abilities give you bonuses to certain types of checks.     When you make a skill check, roll the dice indicated by the dm (although sometimes you get to choose the dice). If you roll your modified ability score or less, you generally succeed on the check.  However, some skill checks are harder, requiring you to hit a minimum DC or obtain multiple successes to succeed. In other words, when you make a skill check, higher is better as long as you still roll equal or less than the ability you are checking against.BONUSES AND PENALTIES TO CHECKSWhen something gives you a bonus or a penalty to skill checks, modify the appropriate ability score by the bonus or penalty. (Example: If you get a +2 bonus to checks involving blacksmithing and you are making a Strength check to forge a sword, you treat your Strength score of 13 as a 15 for purposes of the check.)SETTING THE DICE AND DCTypically when you make a skill check, the DM decides on the dice and DC (if any). However, there are times when you (or another player) get to choose the dice, typically when you are making some sort of opposed skill check.    A typical task that an untrained person will succeed on about half the time is usually rolled on 1d20. However, some tasks are either more or less difficult. Modifying the dice a check is made on is the equivalent of modifying the DC in 3e or 4e. Here is a list of several possible options and the implications of the difficulty of the check.2d6: Only difficult for those very weak in the skill2d8: Easy for the skilled, more or less standard for everyone else1d20: Standard3d6: Standard, but significantly harder or easier for the less or more skilled2d10: Standard, but slightly harder or easier for less or more skilled2d12: Slightly difficult for everyone, but luck plays a huge role4d6: Hard for anyone not fairly skilled5d6: Very difficult even for the highly skilledSome skill checks have a minimum DC for success. For example, a character attempting to roll a boulder out of the way of an ogre's cave might have to succeed at a Strength check on 4d6 with a DC of 15 in order to do so. This represents the fact that a character without either the raw physical ability or some way to apply a skill simply cannot move the boulder; it is too heavy.    Some skill checks require multiple successes. For example, a character climbing a crumbling wall might need to make three successive Strength checks on 2d12 to make it to the top (the 2d12 representing the wall's tendency to crumble away beneath the hapless character). OPPOSED CHECKSSometimes when you make a skill challenge, you are opposing another creature's check. Attempts to be sneaky, pick pockets or intimidate people are examples of these kinds of skill challenges. In these cases, the DM decides who the active party in the opposed check is; this is the one attempting to be sneaky, pick the pocket, etc. That person gets to pick the dice that the check is made on. As usual, the 10-second rule applies, and if the active party cannot make a decision, the checks default to 1d20.    The advantage of picking the dice is that a skilled party can choose dice that are reasonably easy for itself and fairly difficult for the opponent. A skilled thief attempting to pick someone's pocket with an overall skill of 20 can automatically succeed on a 1d20 check, but is still pretty likely to succeed a 4d6 check, while his victim may be unlikely to make that same check to spot his action.    Once the dice are chosen, each party in the opposed check makes a skill check on those dice. If both succeed, whoever has the higher successful roll wins.SKILL CHALLENGESSkill challenges are useful as a way to mark the party's progress through an adversarial environment, a way to run social combat, etc. Any situation overcome primarily or only through a series of skill checks is a skill challenge. Single skill checks are not skill challenges. Not all skill challenges involve multiple characters. Skill challenges are not a formal framework as in 4e, but 4e-style skill challenges are good examples, conceptually, of how skill challenges can work.</blockquote>

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