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<blockquote data-quote="ruleslawyer" data-source="post: 3359603" data-attributes="member: 1757">Is it (re)stating the obvious to mention once more that taking 20 is a direct analogue to rolling the dice 20 times on a skill check? Sure, if one were to actually roll those 20 times, there would be a 37% chance of failing to come up with a natural 20. But, a) the PCs might succeed on a 19, an 18, a 17, etc. anyway, so the 37% really only illustrates a border situation, and b) that's not really what taking 20 represents anyway. Taking 20 represents the amount of time it takes for you to know you've done your best, within your abilities. The analogy is less to a person searching for his keys and more to someone getting a phone call on the morning after a party from a friend who dropped an earring somewhere the previous night.&nbsp; The friend could have dropped the earring in a taxicab, down the sink, or on the street. You're not precisely sure what the earring looks like. BUT there's a difference between just glancing around your house to see it's there and actively moving every piece of furniture out of the way, shaking out the carpets, rooting through the garbage, and unscrewing your drainpipes to see if it was dropped down a sink. If you've done that, you can be sure that if you could have found the ring, you would have. That's taking 20.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="ruleslawyer, post: 3359603, member: 1757"] Is it (re)stating the obvious to mention once more that taking 20 is a direct analogue to rolling the dice 20 times on a skill check? Sure, if one were to actually roll those 20 times, there would be a 37% chance of failing to come up with a natural 20. But, a) the PCs might succeed on a 19, an 18, a 17, etc. anyway, so the 37% really only illustrates a border situation, and b) that's not really what taking 20 represents anyway. Taking 20 represents the amount of time it takes for you to know [i]you've done your best, within your abilities.[/i] The analogy is less to a person searching for his keys and more to someone getting a phone call on the morning after a party from a friend who dropped an earring somewhere the previous night. The friend could have dropped the earring in a taxicab, down the sink, or on the street. You're not precisely sure what the earring looks like. BUT there's a difference between just glancing around your house to see it's there and actively moving every piece of furniture out of the way, shaking out the carpets, rooting through the garbage, and unscrewing your drainpipes to see if it was dropped down a sink. If you've done that, you can be sure that [i]if you could have found the ring[/i], you would have. That's taking 20. [/QUOTE]

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