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<blockquote data-quote="Carnivorous_Bean" data-source="post: 4558878" data-attributes="member: 57974">Actually, it's not just about the feel -- it's a real mechanical problem with high-level play, that both skill levels and DCs inflate endlessly, while the random part -- the d20 -- grows less and less significant.In particular, it creates an imbalance where some characters will almost always succeed at certain tasks, and others will inevitably fail. The problem becomes that with a DC of 40, the characters with a skill modifier of +35 are almost always going to succeed, while those with a skill modifier of +20 (which is still immense) can only succeed on a natural 20.With such disparity in character power, the problem becomes -- how do I make an encounter where the highest-skilled players are challenged, but the lower-skilled ones aren't helplessly sidelined/doomed, depending on the nature of the skill check?Same thing with saves. You can get one save DC which half the party shrugs off, and the other half dies from with little or no chance of success. Same thing with AC and attack rolls. There's a concrete, objective mechanical time bomb built into the d20 system thanks to the steady -- and massive -- inflation of non-random modifiers as levels go up. Along with the dragging morass of iterative attacks, it's one of the main reasons so many people find the higher levels basically unplayable, unless you mostly ditch the rules and go freeform most of the time.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Carnivorous_Bean, post: 4558878, member: 57974"] Actually, it's not just about the feel -- it's a real mechanical problem with high-level play, that both skill levels and DCs inflate endlessly, while the random part -- the d20 -- grows less and less significant. In particular, it creates an imbalance where some characters will almost always succeed at certain tasks, and others will inevitably fail. The problem becomes that with a DC of 40, the characters with a skill modifier of +35 are almost always going to succeed, while those with a skill modifier of +20 (which is still immense) can only succeed on a natural 20. With such disparity in character power, the problem becomes -- how do I make an encounter where the highest-skilled players are challenged, but the lower-skilled ones aren't helplessly sidelined/doomed, depending on the nature of the skill check? Same thing with saves. You can get one save DC which half the party shrugs off, and the other half dies from with little or no chance of success. Same thing with AC and attack rolls. There's a concrete, objective mechanical time bomb built into the d20 system thanks to the steady -- and massive -- inflation of non-random modifiers as levels go up. Along with the dragging morass of iterative attacks, it's one of the main reasons so many people find the higher levels basically unplayable, unless you mostly ditch the rules and go freeform most of the time. [/QUOTE]

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