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Proficiency vs. Ability vs. Expertise
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<blockquote data-quote="DEFCON 1" data-source="post: 7642934" data-attributes="member: 7006"><p>Oh yeah, I always knew there was also a practical math difference, but if you went back to the old thread I had made when I talked about how it was actually working, there was a lot of pushback on the idea. The numbers were calculated in certain situations where there wasn't as much of a difference to warrant (in their opinion) making the switch. But as I said then (like I said here), we really only care about the appearance of difference. If it appears like the higher modified people succeed more often (even if you were to white-room the math and come to the conclusion "Oh no, at these specific DCs its only a 6% difference between the two and thus your decision to change was unnecessary")... then we go by the appearance rather than the "real math".</p><p></p><p>And for us its the same way across the board with everything-- the "real math" has never been a concern, its always just the <em>story</em> that comes out of the numbers and dice. If at the end of the day someone has a +7 to their Arcana check... it doesn't matter to me in the slightest HOW they got to that +7. They have a +7? They're knowledgeable about Arcana. But is it +3 from proficiency and +4 from INT? Is it +6 from Expertise and +1 from INT? Or they have no proficiency whatsoever and instead have a magical item that boosts their INT? When the dice drops, it doesn't really matter. When I tell them to roll an Arcana check, no one is comparing and contrasting what the individual parts were that GOT them to +7, they just care that they have a +7 because they have a better chance of answering the question that the check is asking about the information about magic. And its never a concern that "Well, my knowledge is from my background and I'm kinda smart and yours is from your class and you're really smart, and that character is dumb as a brick but for some reason has spent most of their life doing nothing but reading and learning about magic information so they have expertise in it." etc. etc. etc.</p><p></p><p>Heck, I have a hard enough time just getting the players to even kinda sorta roleplay their characters along the lines of their stats, let alone then divide everything up into their component parts. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite2" alt=";)" title="Wink ;)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=";)" /></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="DEFCON 1, post: 7642934, member: 7006"] Oh yeah, I always knew there was also a practical math difference, but if you went back to the old thread I had made when I talked about how it was actually working, there was a lot of pushback on the idea. The numbers were calculated in certain situations where there wasn't as much of a difference to warrant (in their opinion) making the switch. But as I said then (like I said here), we really only care about the appearance of difference. If it appears like the higher modified people succeed more often (even if you were to white-room the math and come to the conclusion "Oh no, at these specific DCs its only a 6% difference between the two and thus your decision to change was unnecessary")... then we go by the appearance rather than the "real math". And for us its the same way across the board with everything-- the "real math" has never been a concern, its always just the [I]story[/I] that comes out of the numbers and dice. If at the end of the day someone has a +7 to their Arcana check... it doesn't matter to me in the slightest HOW they got to that +7. They have a +7? They're knowledgeable about Arcana. But is it +3 from proficiency and +4 from INT? Is it +6 from Expertise and +1 from INT? Or they have no proficiency whatsoever and instead have a magical item that boosts their INT? When the dice drops, it doesn't really matter. When I tell them to roll an Arcana check, no one is comparing and contrasting what the individual parts were that GOT them to +7, they just care that they have a +7 because they have a better chance of answering the question that the check is asking about the information about magic. And its never a concern that "Well, my knowledge is from my background and I'm kinda smart and yours is from your class and you're really smart, and that character is dumb as a brick but for some reason has spent most of their life doing nothing but reading and learning about magic information so they have expertise in it." etc. etc. etc. Heck, I have a hard enough time just getting the players to even kinda sorta roleplay their characters along the lines of their stats, let alone then divide everything up into their component parts. ;) [/QUOTE]
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