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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cadfan" data-source="post: 4623076" data-attributes="member: 40961">For the OP: The flaw in Imaro's reading of Page 42 is that he's using it as an absolute guide instead of a set of guidelines for ad hoc stunts and new skill uses. Here's what he's referring to: The table gives example skill DCs in case your PCs come up with a skill use not covered by the rules.  These skill DCs don't cover anything in particular: they're just examples.  The idea is simple: the PC comes up with an idea not covered by existing skill DCs.  The DM decides if this should be "easy, medium, or hard" for the character to accomplish.  Then he looks at the character's level, and sets the DC according to what is known to be "easy, medium, or hard" for a character of that level.  That's it. Some people go into a sort of rage over this because they feel that it implies that the DC of a task goes up as the PCs advance in levels.  For example, a level 1 PC might want to leap from a building onto the back of a galloping horse, and the DM might call that a hard athletics check, and assign a DC of 25 based on the page 42 chart.  That's going to be nearly impossible for a level 1 PC.  Many sessions later, a level 11 PC might want to do the same thing, and critics worry that the DM will assign the level 11 "hard" DC to the task, resulting in a DC of 30- a skill DC that rose based on nothing more than the character advancing in level. The flaw in that reasoning is in not understanding the purpose of an "action the rules don't cover" section.  The goal is to provide fast DCs calibrated to the player's level and applied BY THE DM AS HE DEEMS FIT.  That's why there isn't any guide for what counts as easy, medium, or hard.  ITS JUST A CHART OF DIFFICULTY CHECKS.  If your DM decides that a task is "medium" for a level 1 PC, and gives it a skill DC of 20, and then later forgets and redecides that its an "medium" DC for a level 8 PC, that's really his problem, not the chart's. The chart isn't rules!  Its guidelines for how to make ad hoc rulings, and everyone should be judging according to the criteria on what makes good ad hoc rulings.  NOT on what makes good permanent rules.</blockquote>

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