Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Nevvur" data-source="post: 7289209" data-attributes="member: 6783882">Hasn't come up enough in my games to justify a house rule, and that's one of my biggest prerequisites to consider instating one. I agree it feels odd for certain characters to lend help in certain tasks, but as long as it's infrequent, I can chalk it up to heroic luck, fate, divine providence, etc... The dumb barbarian helps with an arcana check? He recalls a story told by the village elders that relates to the matter at hand, inspiring the nerd mage who now makes the check with advantage.The uncouth rogue helps with a bard's persuasion check? He's making the bard look more agreeable simply by being himself.And so on...It would be only after three or so unlikely help actions in a relatively short period of time that I start to worry the mechanics are intruding on the narrative. At that point, I think it would be better to approach the unlikely helper's player about maintaining a sensible narrative. If the player recognizes a given ability (skill) check is a good candidate for the help action, he can suggest an appropriate PC other than his own do so. It's not like he's going to get extra points for running the PC who does it*.If you really want to deal with this 'problem' via house rule, I would prefer option 1 (use the lowest modifier but with advantage)edit: a DM might also consider requiring the player to explain how the helper is helping. Lack of a reasonable explanation is justification for denying the help action. * - Really, this sort of thinking applies to so much more than just taking the help action. For example, the player of a dumb barbarian can still "solve the puzzle" and share the answer with the table, with the narrative handling it as the smart wizard coming up with the solution.</blockquote>

Verification