D&D 5E How easy are skill checks?

[Paraxis]

Working on building some optimized character ideas for the non combat pillars of the game, exploration and social I started looking at the math of advantage and guidance adding to checks.

The difficulty guidelines are given as.

• Very Easy - 5
• Easy - 10
• Medium - 15
• Hard - 20
• Very Hard - 25
• Nearly Impossible - 30

Seems straight forward but how hard is hard? Honestly not very.

With a +3 ability score modifier, +2 proficiency bonus, someone using the help action, and the guidance cantrip that can be used pretty freely at-will in non combat situations the math is 66.63% chance of hitting that Hard DC of 20. That is at first level and having just a 16 in the related ability.

Here is the link to Anydice if you want to see the other percentages and play around with the modifiers.
http://anydice.com/program/4b08

Getting advantage is as easy as another PC just saying they are helping you as long as they are proficient in the same skill.

Guidance is one of the best cantrips in the game, clerics and druids get it, bards can use magic secrets to get access to it, anyone that takes the magic initiate feat can get it, someone in your party should have this spell.

Just thinking on this and the help action seems like a great thing to be doing while exploring or scouting to boost the best persons passive perception up, since advantage equals a +5 bonus to passive checks this means most groups should always do this. A character with the perception proficiency and 16 wisdom already has a 15 so that means you can help them to have a passive perception of 20 and spot all those hard to see traps and ambushes.

So how easy are skill checks? I am thinking very easy.

EDIT: wanted to add in the extreme of skill checks that I can find and fixed a comment about the help action.
17th level lore bard with +5 ability mod, +12 from expertise, advantage, +1d4 guidance, +1d12 from bardic inspiration.
hits a DC 25 99.46% of the time, DC 30 94.72%, DC 35 80.71%, DC 40 54.46%, DC 45 23.33%, DC 50 3.91%.

17th level bard with a +0 ability mod, +3 from jack of all trades, advantage, +1d4 guidance, +1d12 bard inspiration.
hits a DC 20 84.46%, DC 25 60.71%, DC 30 28.89%, DC 35 6.54%
Sure thats a very high level character but with no proficiency and no ability mod using his class abilities, and spells to succeed 28.89% of the time on nearly impossible tasks.

 

[vermilion]

While many skill checks aren't too difficult to succeed against, the Help action doesn't work quite as liberally as you've described. PHB p.175 clarifies that a character can only help on a skill that it could perform itself unaided, and specifically notes that a character who lacks proficiency can't contribute to checks for that proficiency. There are some animal companions with useful skills, but unless the DM lets you train your pet orangutan in the use of Thieves' Tools, he's not going to be able to help you pick a lock.

 

[Paraxis]

While many skill checks aren't too difficult to succeed against, the Help action doesn't work quite as liberally as you've described. PHB p.175 clarifies that a character can only help on a skill that it could perform itself unaided, and specifically notes that a character who lacks proficiency can't contribute to checks for that proficiency. There are some animal companions with useful skills, but unless the DM lets you train your pet orangutan in the use of Thieves' Tools, he's not going to be able to help you pick a lock.

Very true, missed that was looking just under the Help action itself, I will edit the original post.

 

[RangerWickett]

I much prefer mini-skill challenges. Oh, you want to convince the merchant to give you a better deal on the items? Okay, it's Persuade to make a good first impression, and you'll also want an Insight role to gauge his mood, and a . . . whatever the hell 'Commerce' is would be useful beforehand to figure out what he's dealing with on his end to make sure you make it seem like good business sense. Then make a final Persuade check to actually seal the deal. The number of successes will influence the ultimate result, and it takes at least 3 to get a better deal than the baseline.

Want to sneak past those guards? Okay, Stealth first to get into a good vantage point to plan your route, Perception to find clear paths, Investigate to make sure you know the guards' patterns, then Stealth to start to move past them. How well you've rolled so far determines whether they've noticed anything amiss, and if they have, maybe an Acrobatics check to duck into better cover as they search, then another Stealth check to make a break for it while they're distracted. If you fail 3 times they spot you.

Y'know, stuff like that.

 

[vermilion]

Very true, missed that was looking just under the Help action itself, I will edit the original post.

That's certainly easy to do in this edition, the rules seemed to be spliced in a bit haphazardly. Every time I need to refer to something about a spell focus, it feels like a Choose Your Own Adventure book (In chapter 3? Go to chapter 5. In 5? Go to 10. Oops, you were eaten by the Tarrasque.)

 

[Falling Icicle]

Seems straight forward but how hard is hard? Honestly not very.

With a +3 ability score modifier, +2 proficiency bonus, someone using the help action, and the guidance cantrip that can be used pretty freely at-will in non combat situations the math is 66.63% chance of hitting that Hard DC of 20. That is at first level and having just a 16 in the related ability.

So even with a 16 score (which is a pretty high score in this edition), proficiency, guidance and aid another, you still fail 1/3 of the time. Sounds pretty hard to me!

 

[Paraxis]

So even with a 16 score (which is a pretty high score in this edition), proficiency, guidance and aid another, you still fail 1/3 of the time. Sounds pretty hard to me!

Those things are not hard to get at all is my point, 16 with either rolling or point buy is expected in 1 or 2 ability scores after racial modifiers in this edition, advantage with the help action is given in most situations, and guidance is an at-will spell that most groups will have access to.

So it sounds like a lot of stuff but it isn't, it seems to be the go to standard.

 

[Falling Icicle]

Those things are not hard to get at all is my point, 16 with either rolling or point buy is expected in 1 or 2 ability scores after racial modifiers in this edition, advantage with the help action is given in most situations, and guidance is an at-will spell that most groups will have access to.

So it sounds like a lot of stuff but it isn't, it seems to be the go to standard.

If you're using point buy, you can't even start with a 16 unless you have a racial bonus. You're only going to have that bonus on the things that you're character is pretty good at. Guidance is only available to two classes by default. Spending a feat to get it is an enormous expense. Bards can get it with magical secrets, but there are so many other things they might want to pick instead. Even if you happen to have all of that, there are plenty of situations where you won't be able to have guidance or be aided by another (especially in combat). Even in those times when you do, you still fail 1 out of every 3 attempts, which is a high rate of failure. When you have a very high ability score, training, you're blessed, and someone else is helping you, all at the same time, and you still fail 1 out of 3 times, I'd call that "hard."

 

[Quartz]

Seems straight forward but how hard is hard? Honestly not very.

With a +3 ability score modifier, +2 proficiency bonus, someone using the help action, and the guidance cantrip that can be used pretty freely at-will in non combat situations the math is 66.63% chance of hitting that Hard DC of 20. That is at first level and having just a 16 in the related ability.

The thing is that you're looking at how easy it is for a specialist, someone who's very good at it anyway, not your average adventurer. Consider a party of adventurers in the wilderness. They each make Easy survival checks. Survival checks are based off Wisdom, and many PCs are likely to have an 8 or 10 in that stat, and few PCs will haver proficiency. Guidance doesn't apply since the check represents the day's effort. Fortunately there's a ranger in the group so everyone makes the roll with Advantage, but that's still about a 25% chance of failure. That seems about right to me.

 

[Psikerlord#]

hmm that's interesting about helping on passive perception checks. I mean, a party would always do this, assuming you have at least 2 people skilled in perception. Very interesting indeed. Traps and ambushes just got a lot less dangerous indeed. Especially if one guy has observant!