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<blockquote data-quote="eyebeams" data-source="post: 3266532" data-attributes="member: 9225">I don't mean &quot;take 10&quot; in the sense of the formal rule. I mean that balance will skew if one group of characters (NPCs) is assumed to get a 10 and another isn't. It doesn't really matter where you assign that 10 -- you'll have scenarios arise where it skews resolution. For example, if the PC has an attack bonus of +5 and the NPC has a defense bonus of +15, the PC only hits the NPC on a natural 20 (the NPCs roll of 10 gives him a defense of 25), while of the NPC rolled defense like a PC the PC's chance of hitting actually increases, since it is possible that the NPC might roll as low as 16. Meanwhile, assuming natural 20 always hits, the PC's chance of hitting never gets *worse* than 5%, even iof the NPC was given a roll and got a 20 (for a total 35).In this scenario, even though you might think just using 10 would be fine, as you can see, it actually has a significant effect, as 20% of the NPC's possible defense roll results (1-4 on 1d20) could at least double the PC's chance to hit.Remember: Don't fall for the trap that an average result is equivalent to a random roll. There's a reason why Take 10 works the way it does in the SRD. You need to have symmetry on random results unless you're specifically planning to alter the chances for characters. You'll note that D&amp;D's suggestions for loading all dice rolls onto players or DMs never actually gets *rid of* a dice rolling procedure. Instead it just reverses the onus of a static DC from attack roll to AC, or from the player to the challenge.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="eyebeams, post: 3266532, member: 9225"] I don't mean "take 10" in the sense of the formal rule. I mean that balance will skew if one group of characters (NPCs) is assumed to get a 10 and another isn't. It doesn't really matter where you assign that 10 -- you'll have scenarios arise where it skews resolution. For example, if the PC has an attack bonus of +5 and the NPC has a defense bonus of +15, the PC only hits the NPC on a natural 20 (the NPCs roll of 10 gives him a defense of 25), while of the NPC rolled defense like a PC the PC's chance of hitting actually increases, since it is possible that the NPC might roll as low as 16. Meanwhile, assuming natural 20 always hits, the PC's chance of hitting never gets *worse* than 5%, even iof the NPC was given a roll and got a 20 (for a total 35). In this scenario, even though you might think just using 10 would be fine, as you can see, it actually has a significant effect, as 20% of the NPC's possible defense roll results (1-4 on 1d20) could at least double the PC's chance to hit. Remember: Don't fall for the trap that an average result is equivalent to a random roll. There's a reason why Take 10 works the way it does in the SRD. You need to have symmetry on random results unless you're specifically planning to alter the chances for characters. You'll note that D&D's suggestions for loading all dice rolls onto players or DMs never actually gets *rid of* a dice rolling procedure. Instead it just reverses the onus of a static DC from attack roll to AC, or from the player to the challenge. [/QUOTE]

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