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<blockquote data-quote="iserith" data-source="post: 8919354" data-attributes="member: 97077">Not to focus too much on your examples, but sometimes thieves can't pick locks. That's not really a problem in and of itself. (Plus, they could just take 10 times the normal amount of time to do it to automatically succeed, provided the task is not impossible.) Further, why is the DM asking the cleric to make a check to recall lore about their own religion? That seems like it shouldn't come up much at all.I think you also underestimate how much players can and will boost their ability checks on the spot with Help, Working Together, guidance, Inspiration, bardic inspiration, and other sources of advantages and bonuses to which they have access. That they may sometimes have to reach to hit a higher DC is fine - that's just more incentive to spend their resources and come up with better approaches to goals.The game works fine with DCs of 10, 15, or 20, and the DMG says as much. So leave the spreadsheets and graphs in math class and go with your gut, assigning advantage when appropriate. The DM won't always calibrate that exactly right, but there really is no &quot;right&quot; here and expecting a DM to make a perfect call every time is folly even if the DMG came with a statistical calculator. What's more important in my view are not the DCs, but whether a DM should call for a roll at all and what impact that has on the game. The DMG explains this in The Role of the Dice, showing the upsides and downsides of each approach. Your examples remind me of a DM who may simply be asking for too many rolls, and the drawback here is that roleplaying can diminish if the players feel their decision matter less than what the dice say.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="iserith, post: 8919354, member: 97077"] Not to focus too much on your examples, but sometimes thieves can't pick locks. That's not really a problem in and of itself. (Plus, they could just take 10 times the normal amount of time to do it to automatically succeed, provided the task is not impossible.) Further, why is the DM asking the cleric to make a check to recall lore about their own religion? That seems like it shouldn't come up much at all. I think you also underestimate how much players can and will boost their ability checks on the spot with Help, Working Together, guidance, Inspiration, bardic inspiration, and other sources of advantages and bonuses to which they have access. That they may sometimes have to reach to hit a higher DC is fine - that's just more incentive to spend their resources and come up with better approaches to goals. The game works fine with DCs of 10, 15, or 20, and the DMG says as much. So leave the spreadsheets and graphs in math class and go with your gut, assigning advantage when appropriate. The DM won't always calibrate that exactly right, but there really is no "right" here and expecting a DM to make a perfect call every time is folly even if the DMG came with a statistical calculator. What's more important in my view are not the DCs, but whether a DM should call for a roll at all and what impact [I]that [/I]has on the game. The DMG explains this in The Role of the Dice, showing the upsides and downsides of each approach. Your examples remind me of a DM who may simply be asking for too many rolls, and the drawback here is that roleplaying can diminish if the players feel their decision matter less than what the dice say. [/QUOTE]

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