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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Felon" data-source="post: 3448826" data-attributes="member: 8158">Reducing a check's DC is, for all meaningful purposes, the same thing as adding a bonus to the check. It's subtracting a number instead of adding a number. Actually, it's a little worse since the reduced DC is a separate thing to make a note of on your character sheet, rather than something you figure directly into your total modifier.Letting folks take 10 has a big drawback: it's a one-time deal, so if you have two abilities like that, they don't synergize at all. Oh sure, we could make some rule that multiple "take 10" abilities have a cumulative effect, like letting you "take 12", but once you start getting into cumulative benefits, guess what we're back to doing now? I'll give you a hint: I've been told it's bad and boring and to be avoided at all costs. Look guys, our choices here seem to be: A) play the "I just can't imagine" card, or B) combine the info at hand with the power of reason and realize that it is possible to make  educated guesses. I'm going with the latter, heedless of any scandalous accusations of "assuming" or "speculating". In fact I'll provide a simple exercise in the power of reason right now:It ultimately doesn't matter whether or not you replace numerical bonuses with other benefits. Factoring in that you take 10, and then factoring in that you can go ahead and roll and then reroll if you don't like what you get, and then factoring in whatever other abilities you have, and so on...folks, this ain't really speeding things up. At the end of the day, as long as we have a pile of things that modify a character's ability to resolve a check, then we'll still have a bloated process for check resolution. You actually have to pare away the number of benefits you get, not just paint a smiley face on them to make them look more cuddly and no-brainerish.I don't think may folks complain about Improved Initiative adding a numerical bonus to a character's initiative modifier. That's probably because there's currently so little that factors into it. See my point?</blockquote>

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