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Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
Skill Challenge DCs
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<blockquote data-quote="Jhaelen" data-source="post: 4940348" data-attributes="member: 46713"><p>First, thanks to Mustrum for the article overview!</p><p>Maybe, but the question is: What _is_ the intention?</p><p>Nope, they've been using aid another all the time, in and outside of combats, when scouting and (re)searching stuff. I guess, they're just experienced and clever players <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></p><p>The example I gave wasn't part of a skill challenge. It was a regular perception check at the start of one of the encounters. And it's just a single example of dozens of DCs that are completely off. The party's elven ranger had a spot modifier of +12. So, the passive perception was high enough to spot absolutely everything in the whole adventure with but a glance.</p><p></p><p>Part of the point I was trying to make here is this: The suggested DCs may work or even be required for skill challenges to work but it's a mistake to use the same DCs for regular skill checks. Regular skill checks (where a single success is sufficient) should have higher DCs to be meaningful.</p><p></p><p>I'm not exaggerating. All but one pc had skill modifiers of +9 or higher. A skill DC of 10 (i.e. moderate) means auto success. Add the bonuses from (multiple) aid another actions and a 'hard' DC is also an auto-success.</p><p></p><p></p><p>I know, and I've done the math. When the DMG was released there was a huge discussion which led to the birth of the Obsidian system as an alternative to the 'official' skill challenges. </p><p>That was when I created an excel sheet and a sample party to investigate the inner workings of skill challenges. I've adjusted the sheet to use the errataed version and it shows that low complexity skill challenges will auto-succeed at every level. Higher complexity skill challenges have a success rate of about 80% +/- 5%. This is assuming the pcs will always use their highest skills but doesn't include the effects of aid another (with aid another skill challenges of every complexity at every level will succeed 100% of the time).</p><p></p><p>Back then it was only an assumption, but now playtesting has shown it to be correct.</p><p></p><p>What I would like to see is a 50% success rate _at most_. And this requires the applications of restrictions and/or increasing the DCs.</p><p></p><p>Unfortunately, I'm also still waiting for my copy of the DMG2 which is supposed to contain an update on skill challenges.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Jhaelen, post: 4940348, member: 46713"] First, thanks to Mustrum for the article overview! Maybe, but the question is: What _is_ the intention? Nope, they've been using aid another all the time, in and outside of combats, when scouting and (re)searching stuff. I guess, they're just experienced and clever players :) The example I gave wasn't part of a skill challenge. It was a regular perception check at the start of one of the encounters. And it's just a single example of dozens of DCs that are completely off. The party's elven ranger had a spot modifier of +12. So, the passive perception was high enough to spot absolutely everything in the whole adventure with but a glance. Part of the point I was trying to make here is this: The suggested DCs may work or even be required for skill challenges to work but it's a mistake to use the same DCs for regular skill checks. Regular skill checks (where a single success is sufficient) should have higher DCs to be meaningful. I'm not exaggerating. All but one pc had skill modifiers of +9 or higher. A skill DC of 10 (i.e. moderate) means auto success. Add the bonuses from (multiple) aid another actions and a 'hard' DC is also an auto-success. I know, and I've done the math. When the DMG was released there was a huge discussion which led to the birth of the Obsidian system as an alternative to the 'official' skill challenges. That was when I created an excel sheet and a sample party to investigate the inner workings of skill challenges. I've adjusted the sheet to use the errataed version and it shows that low complexity skill challenges will auto-succeed at every level. Higher complexity skill challenges have a success rate of about 80% +/- 5%. This is assuming the pcs will always use their highest skills but doesn't include the effects of aid another (with aid another skill challenges of every complexity at every level will succeed 100% of the time). Back then it was only an assumption, but now playtesting has shown it to be correct. What I would like to see is a 50% success rate _at most_. And this requires the applications of restrictions and/or increasing the DCs. Unfortunately, I'm also still waiting for my copy of the DMG2 which is supposed to contain an update on skill challenges. [/QUOTE]
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