My apologies for rambling here...
@Primitive Screwhead: I could be wrong, but perhaps you're saying the DM should use the "Actions the Rules Don't Cover" guidelines (DMG p42)?
Yes, thats exactly what I am saying. Page 178 of the PHB talks about DCs and specifies that the "...DM sets the DCs for specific situations based on level, conditions, and circumstances, as detailed in the
Dungeon Masters Guide."
On page 180 under Acrobatic Stunts, it calls out a 'Base DC' of 15, which probably should have been written as the DC under the First Aid use of Heal (pg 185 ), which states "
DC: Varies depending on the task you're attempting"
The only reason I can think they used "Base DC" here is that they were trying to address a wide range of stunt manuevers while still giving the player an idea of the intended difficulty range. It would be hard to put in a table, like they did with other skills, the individual types of stunts. Leaving it open to players leads to more imaginative use of the skill... {theoretically, still trying to get my group into using skill stunts...}
I find that the DMG DC table gets alot of milage. Before each session I write down on a note-pad the medium DC and normal damage expressions for the level of the PCs... and tend to use those numbers a fair amount in the game instead of having to stop and calculate DCs. Just toss a DM friend here and there and call it a day.
Best page of rules I have ever seen for gaming!