Strength Check DC's

[DungeonmasterCal]

Are there any charts that offer suggested DC's for lifting and carrying? Just because an ability score says a character can lift and tote a certain amount, that doesn't mean it should automatically work (off balance, injured, etc).

Any help is appreciated!

 

[Jeff Wilder]

Are there any charts that offer suggested DC's for lifting and carrying? Just because an ability score says a character can lift and tote a certain amount, that doesn't mean it should automatically work (off balance, injured, etc).

I think the idea behind lifting and carrying rules is just that ... it's what you can do as any kind of sustained effort. Requiring an ability check to do what's already covered by Strength would be like requiring an ability check for Dexterity to give you a bonus to AC.

That said, a Strength check is perfectly reasonable for any sort of "burst effort" ... moving a boulder, breaking a door, snapping a chain. In most cases where this can be done, it's under Break DC in the materials descriptions. In other cases, just set the DC as appropriate.

IMO, many designers set ability checks too high, BTW. If a DC 15 is average difficulty for a skill, average difficulty for an ability check should be substantially lower ... probably around 12. Presumably, average difficulty for a skill check assumes a character with ranks in that skill, and of course one can't have ranks in an ability check.

 

[Dross]

Are there any charts that offer suggested DC's for lifting and carrying? Just because an ability score says a character can lift and tote a certain amount, that doesn't mean it should automatically work (off balance, injured, etc).

Any help is appreciated!

I think that the problem of carrying things is not it's weight, but it's size/shape/container etc. How easy would it be to carry a box of feathers weighing a few hundred pounds for instance? A few hundred poundes of lead in the shape of a box? That's why expensive, heavy, weirdly shaped statues of gold that do not fit into handy havesacks/portable holes etc can be fun.

This does mean that there is a need for DM adjudication.

However, in most cases it shouldn't be an issue unless you want it to.