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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Whizbang Dustyboots" data-source="post: 9500458" data-attributes="member: 11760">One of the issues of Knock magazine had a good guideline, involving tools, skills and lots of time.<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">If you have all three of those, no roll is needed, barring exceptional circumstances (unlocking a treasure chest belong to a demon lord or something). You know how to do this, you have the means to do the thing and the time required to do so.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">If you have only two of those, you need to roll. Maybe you're under a time crunch (the guards are coming!), your tools were taken from you and you have to improvise with the bard's hairpin or maybe your party is asking you to do a skill challenge that you're just not qualified to do (the door unlocks if you play the right song on the pipe organ -- which you don't know how to play).</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">If you have none of those, no roll is possible. The task is impossible for you.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">For 5E, I would add one more category: If you just have one of those, you can roll with disadvantage. You know how to pick locks, but you don't have the right tools and you're in a hurry -- but you might as well try.</li> </ul>This is not exactly how it works under 2024 D&D, so discuss with your players beforehand. It means less rolling overall when it should just be an instant success or instant failure. If you're like me and think that rolling on things that you should just be able to do is boring and punitive, this is a good alternative, I think.Doing it this way also allows you to benefit from the help action with a second qualified person helping with advice or shining a light in the right spot, etc. I like encouraging the help action personally, so this is a plus in my book.</blockquote>

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