D&D 5E The Limit, The Floor, or the Average?

[doctorbadwolf]

When you run or play 5e, do you treat things like lift/drag/carry weight, jump height/distance, etc as the limit, the floor, the average, or something else?

My habit has been for a few years now to treat them as essentially the floor. This is what you can do without needing to roll. It is also the floor in the sense that a low roll usually won’t go below them, except in exceptional circumstances.

If you treat these numbers the same way, as the floor of a PC’s capability, do you do the same for any of the following;

• Climbing half your speed
• Movement speed while dashing
• Dark vision radius
• Anything else you can think of

Why or why not?

 

[Lanefan]

When you run or play 5e, do you treat things like lift/drag/carry weight, jump height/distance, etc as the limit, the floor, the average, or something else?

My immediate question is, do the rules themselves not make these things clear? And if not, why not?

That said, for most things like this (in any edition) I'd generally see some as the limit (e.g. carry weight, dashing speed, etc.) and some as averages (e.g. dark vision radius, jump distance, etc.) depending on what the number was and how - if relevant - it related to anything realistic.

If you treat these numbers the same way, as the floor of a PC’s capability, do you do the same for any of the following;

• Climbing half your speed
• Movement speed while dashing
• Dark vision radius
• Anything else you can think of

Why or why not?

 

[iserith]

I treat them as the limit, but allow for particular circumstances outside of the PC to allow for them to exceed the limit. It's not enough to squint harder to see more distance in the dark or jump or run harder to gain more distance or speed, for example. There must be some kind of environmental or other situation present that allows for it and the PC taking advantage of it.

 

[Xeviat]

Oh, I suppose the floor. Rolling to push beyond is good, but how much?

I do like the idea that Olympic feats of athleticism are "taking 20" on their athletics/acrobatics/endurance checks. All the practice builds up to it. Maybe I'd still call for a roll for determining the competition, but the d20 has too much variance if it were, say, feet in a long jump.

 

[TrueAlphaGamer]

For most physical activity, it is the limit without further exertion. The characters can safely carry a given weight or jump a given height/distance, up to what is determined by their ability scores. Anything further is based on the situation, and would probably require a roll. For movement, it's basically the hard limit. It has to be, to maintain the cost/benefits of the movement system within combat. For darkvision, it is the hard limit of how far they can see, unless there's some sort of other light source that might be visible outside it.

 

[Asisreo]

Its the floor, always.

If you treat these numbers the same way, as the floor of a PC’s capability, do you do the same for any of the following;

• Climbing half your speed
• Movement speed while dashing
• Dark vision radius
• Anything else you can think of

Why or why not?

Interesting. If someone asked if they could roll to climb faster, I'd agree but also let them know that they're doing so with the failure-risk of losing your grip and falling. If there was already a DC to climb, I'd probably increase it by 5.

Darkvision is darkvision, though. Sure, I can focus to see better but there's nothing I can do to see the dark better than what I can automatically do (afaik).

Its basically a case-by-case basis. If I can imagine exerting yourself at a cost, I don't mind rolling for more.

 

[THEMNGMNT]

Hadn't thought about it, but I agree with the OP. I also find that my approach changes as characters level up. In Tier 1, character abilities are essentially identical to yours and mine. In Tier 2 and Tier 3 characters are clearly heroic. And by the time they reach Tier 4 they are superheroic and I have zero interest in counting 5 foot squares.

 

[Minigiant]

Neither? None of the Above?

I change the formula as you enter different tiers of play.

A level 1 fighter and a level 11 fighter do not calculate carrying capacity the same.

 

[Oofta]

Darkvision is how far you can see in the dark (with disadvantage on perception that most people forget). Other than that, the base is the floor unless there are extenuating circumstances. Horizontal jump for example is your your strength score (with a running start) but extenuating circumstance might be that you're jumping from one ship to another in the middle of a horrific storm. Then it might be athletics to just power your way through it, acrobatics to be graceful or investigation to time it just right.

Just kind of depends on what they're trying to do and what the scene is. My point with the investigation check is that I want to reward people for coming up with alternatives that make sense. On the other hand you couldn't use a persuasion check in my example to "charm" the ship into cooperating. Unless it was an intelligent living ship of course.

 

[cbwjm]

I guess the floor for some, maybe not for others. Jumping distance it is definitely the floor, roll an athletics check if you need to make up a couple feet in jumping distance. I'd likely do the same with climb speed. Current climb speed is a nice easy pace, no roll, try to speed up and risk falling.

Carry weight would be the limit, even if I allowed a roll to carry more, it wouldn't be for any great distance. Lifting something could be a roll to push beyond your limits though I don't think I've ever asked for one.

Movement speed and darkvision I tend to have as the limit. You can't move faster than your speed or see anything beyond your darkvision distance.