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<blockquote data-quote="Mustrum_Ridcully" data-source="post: 4669277" data-attributes="member: 710">It increases the absolute percentage of you succeeded by 10 points. If you had a 10 % chance to succeed, that would be doubling your chance. If you had a 80 % chance to succeed, that would be increasing your chance by 11.25 %. But that is actually of no consequence if there is someone around that has an 80 % chance to succeed, and you need only one success. (And in some cases, two people trying the same and one failing might be worse then just one succeeded.)Your chance to fail with 2 skill points: 90 %. Without them: 80 %.Your comrades chance to fail: 20 %.Total chance of failure if both of you get to try and only the better result counts with 2 skill points on your side: 80 % x 20 % = 16 %. Without the 2 skill points: 90 % x 20 % = 18 %.Chance of Success is accordingly 84 % vs 82 %. In total, that's roughly a 2 % increase in your chance for the party to succeed. If your comrade had these 2 ranks to spend, he would have a straigth 90 % to succeed without your help. With your help but no ranks, 90 % x 10 % = 9 % chance of failure. That's more than a 50 % improvement of his chance to succeed. And that is basically your best case scenario -&nbsp; both rolls can be used, failure of an individual doesn't count. So in a &quot;everyone rolls Knowledge/Gather Information&quot; scenario, it is a tiny benefit.Your lesson: Maximize the skills in your party. Don't have Jack of Trades, Specialize.Notable Exception: Skills that have fixed DCs don't need to be maximized. They only need to be spread around if these skills checks have to be taken individually. Unfortunately, most of these skills are like Climb or Swim, and those are the most costly for those that are already bad at them (e.g. they are cross class skills and the ability score is a &quot;dump&quot; stat, or their armor makes things worse.)Of course, similar success/failure changes apply in 4E. But you never just have &quot;2 ranks&quot;, you get a solid +5 to +8 bonus, and the rest scales with levels.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Mustrum_Ridcully, post: 4669277, member: 710"] It increases the absolute percentage of you succeeded by 10 points. If you had a 10 % chance to succeed, that would be doubling your chance. If you had a 80 % chance to succeed, that would be increasing your chance by 11.25 %. But that is actually of no consequence if there is someone around that has an 80 % chance to succeed, and you need only one success. (And in some cases, two people trying the same and one failing might be worse then just one succeeded.) Your chance to fail with 2 skill points: 90 %. Without them: 80 %. Your comrades chance to fail: 20 %. Total chance of failure if both of you get to try and only the better result counts with 2 skill points on your side: 80 % x 20 % = 16 %. Without the 2 skill points: 90 % x 20 % = 18 %. Chance of Success is accordingly 84 % vs 82 %. In total, that's roughly a 2 % increase in your chance for the party to succeed. If your comrade had these 2 ranks to spend, he would have a straigth 90 % to succeed without your help. With your help but no ranks, 90 % x 10 % = 9 % chance of failure. That's more than a 50 % improvement of his chance to succeed. And that is basically your best case scenario - both rolls can be used, failure of an individual doesn't count. So in a "everyone rolls Knowledge/Gather Information" scenario, it is a tiny benefit. Your lesson: Maximize the skills in your party. Don't have Jack of Trades, Specialize. Notable Exception: Skills that have fixed DCs don't need to be maximized. They only need to be spread around if these skills checks have to be taken individually. Unfortunately, most of these skills are like Climb or Swim, and those are the most costly for those that are already bad at them (e.g. they are cross class skills and the ability score is a "dump" stat, or their armor makes things worse.) Of course, similar success/failure changes apply in 4E. But you never just have "2 ranks", you get a solid +5 to +8 bonus, and the rest scales with levels. [/QUOTE]

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