D&D 5E Help Me Reverse-Engineer 5e DCs

[Fanaelialae]

That wouldn't be too bad, but then the trouble is when told that a tiny 5% increase in chance of success on a roll is also a drastic improvement for "Take 10" (2 ability score points), or whatever they're calling it in 5th.

As a side note, the video of the skills and abilities seminar clearly has one of the devs saying that the ability bonus for 17 is +3 and an 18 is +4. So it's not likely they're changing the bonuses, despite the mathematical need to in order for things to work and make sense.

That's why I explained it as a curve. The idea is that a Str 18 task is WAAAAY harder than a Str 10 task.

To illustrate, if a Str 10 character can be assumed to automatically bench press 50 lbs, a Str 12 char might press 75 lbs, a Str 14 char might press 125 lbs, a Str 16 char might press 225 lbs, and a Str 18 char might press 425 lbs. It's not a linear increase.

Now granted, that would make a Str 20 task pressing 825 lbs, virtually impossible for Mr. Str 10, and very difficult for Sir Str 18.

The major drawback of this model is that I suspect it's easier for most people to place the difficulty of something on a line rather than a curve. Still, it would avoid the necessity of ability score bloat, simply by virtue of a Str score of 30 already pressing something like 256,000 lbs (roughly 116 tons). How much stronger would any creature really need to be?

I'm not saying that it's all that likely. Just that it's one possibility among any number of options that we simply don't know enough about.

 

[LostSoul]

Give DCs & stats descriptors.

DC 5 Very Easy
DC 10 Easy
DC 15 Moderate
DC 20 Hard
DC 25 Very Hard
DC 30 Impossible

10-11 Very Easy
12-13 Easy
14-15 Moderate
16-17 Hard
18-19 Very Hard
20-21 Impossible

Or whatever. Then you say that it's Easy to kick in an old wooden door on a run-down shack, but Hard to kick in an oak door.

And then:

If your skill rank is greater than the task’s DC rank, you automatically succeed.

If your skill rank equals the task’s DC rank, you need to make a check with a result of 15 or higher to succeed.

If your skill rank is below the task’s DC rank, you automatically fail.​

 

[Ranganathan]

As a librarian I'm rather partial to it myself.

I understand the curve nature of the "take ability score" mechanic, what I'm saying is its wonky because we all know that it will feel wonky to get a small bonus from an apparently high ability score. As was said, going from a 100% success to a 30% chance is a terrible drop off (18 to 17 for example).

I'm just saying that is a wonky spike.

 

[Thaumaturge]

One explanation is there aren't modifiers, instead, you try to roll under your ability score for skills and saves.

I don't really think this is it, but it's something I think just about any time I've read something about saves, skills, or ability scores.

Thaumaturge.

 

[Grazzt]

One explanation is there aren't modifiers, instead, you try to roll under your ability score for skills and saves.

I don't really think this is it, but it's something I think just about any time I've read something about saves, skills, or ability scores.

Thaumaturge.

I believe someone was on record (Monte maybe??) saying it's still 1d20 + whatever against a target number.

 

[Ranganathan]

I believe someone was on record (Monte maybe??) saying it's still 1d20 + whatever against a target number.

In the Obsidian Portal videos for the seminars, you clearly hear one person (not Monte) talk about this, skills, ability scores, and ability bonuses. The section I'm thinking of starts around 16:00 on the skills and abilities seminar video.

 

[Frostmarrow]

I think things would be better if we rolled effect after succeeding with a check like we do in combat. Instead of an ability score bonus we would have an effect die.

8 d3
9
10 d4
11
12 d6
13
14 d8
15
16 d10
17
18 d12

It's now pretty easy to assign a difficulty to any problem (in hit points). Very easy to make combined tests with multiple characters and even to mix combat and skill checks in the same round. First you roll under* your ability score on a d20 then you roll effect depending on your score.

* Blasphemy