D&D 5E How to skill check (and why 5e got stealth wrong)

[Fanaelialae]

I don't think that houserule adds anything to the game.

I hated that the rule existed in 3e, it both doesn't make sense to me and feels too gamey (and punitive).

Is the lock now unpickable by everyone? What if a more skilled character attempts to do it? What if the Cleric casts Guidance increasing the character's skill?

What if a previous adventurer had once tried to pick the lock? Is the lock forever unpickable?

While I wouldn't do this for an ordinary lock, I would have no qualms about it for a unique lock.

The way we would handle it is basically using the "Let It Ride" rule. Each character (who is proficient with lock picking) could attempt it once. If they failed, they'd need a significant change in circumstances, such as leveling up (representing an improvement of their overall skill). Guidance wouldn't cut it, and ought to be used on the initial check, not saved for a "reroll".

Years ago, a friend of mine ran a campaign that contained a megadungeon. We made regular forrays into that dungeon, and one day came across a heavy vault door with a very complex lock at its center, a marvel of gnomish engineering. We happened to have a pair of rogues in the party, so we both gave it a go, but no dice. The DC was high.

Over the course of a number of sessions, we'd give it another go whenever our characters had leveled up and were passing by. Our luck was terrible though, and we never managed to pick it. That door haunted our dreams, taunting us with the vast hoard we imagined it must be guarding.

Finally, unable to wait any longer, we pooled our funds and had an alchemist brew up a large batch of acid. Burning through the lock, the vault finally opened and we discovered within a device that we were able to figure out with a bit of trial and error. We dubbed it The Evolution Machine because it forced a being inside it to undergo a harsh and painful evolutionary process. Unsurprisingly, we jumped at the chance to use it and became a party of feral halflings who would enter a berserker rage at low hit points, and dwarves with displacer beast tentacles and fire breath. Despite that we now looked like a bunch of scary freaks, we we're thrilled with our new powers and considered it well worth the effort.

Of course, burning through the lock had its own consequences. During a later delve we discovered evidence that others had been using the machine, and further on began encountering evolved versions of monsters in the dungeon!

My point being that the final twist would never have occurred if we'd been allowed to just Take 20 until we popped the lock. Hence, I think there certainly is a place for that sort of challenge, even though I wouldn't use it for every lock.

Regarding random encounters, I like them for the same reason. Not the old "an ogre jumps out from behind a bush and attacks" but rather a more nuanced approach. In a recent game, where it was just me and a henchman due to the other players being unable to make it, my character went out into the desert on a vision quest (with some psychedelic herbs). On his way back, the DM rolled a very dangerous encounter with a cyclops. Though my character saw him at a distance, he was suffering exhaustion from laying out in the sun all day, so I doubted my ability to outpace him, so I simply waited for him to reach me and acted very friendly, which confused it (as its goal had been undoubtedly to Rob and/or kill us). We spoke for a bit, during which time the vision quest came up, which the cyclops interpreted rather literally. The idea of improving his vision appealed to him, so I convinced him to smoke the herb in order to help him undergo his own vision quest. For better or worse, it wasn't enough to cause him to hallucinate, but it did mellow him out enough that we were able to leave while he waited for it to kick in. Hopefully we don't run across him again...

In case you're thinking that the DM went easy on me, think again. He TPK'd the party just a few weeks earlier with an encounter of similar lethality.

Emergent gameplay can be a lot of fun. I'm not suggesting that it's for everyone; simply that these techniques can bring a lot to the table, surprising not just the players but the DM as well. I can attest that I've enjoyed the style from both sides of the screen.

 

[Kinematics]

For the orc encampment stealth scenario, I'd use a decaying effect, dropping the rogue's stealth check by 1 point for every minute or two it takes him to work through the encampment. I'd still use FrogReaver's notes about the overall difficulty of the camp, rather than the PP of an orc, since that's what the stealth check is really against.

Maybe the camp difficulty is 19, and the rogue rolled a 25 for stealth. Rather than a complete win, that would be worth about 10 minutes' of sneaking, with near-misses happening as the effective stealth drops to 21, then 20. How close is he to his goal? Is he close enough to try to rush through on his existing roll, or does he want to take the chance at making another roll, which might make the rest of the trip a breeze, or might have him run headlong into an orc commander?

The single roll having a fixed effect kind of prevents that. If you roll badly at the start, you're caught at the edge of the encampment, and probably just run away and try again later. No real risk. If you succeed, you get through the camp without further issues, which is kind of boring. If you start rolling even a handful of dice for the orcs in the camp, probability makes the entire exercise futile, which robs the game of the fun of trying.

The decay effect seems a nice compromise all around. The player doesn't know the camp's DC, so doesn't know how long any given roll will last him. If he rolls well, he wants to milk that roll as far as he can, but if he tries to milk too much from it, it's worse than the risk of another stealth check. There's a challenge that's associated with the dice that isn't completely bound by the dice; you're kind of playing chicken with the DM. And depending on how close the rogue wants to cut things, his actions might raise the general wariness of the camp or have other side effects.