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Message: <blockquote data-quote="N'raac" data-source="post: 6176698" data-attributes="member: 6681948">I think the easy answer here is to take the Defense Roll approach. Every creature has an attack bonus and a defense bonus, but we assume the defensive roll is waived in favour of Taking 10. The defense bonus + 10 = the DC to hit the creature in combat.So you don't need to set the DC for winning the Tug of War against the Ogre, or Sense Motive against the NPC. Just Take 10 on the STR/Bluff check - that is the DC, no die rolling required.If that NPC has a +5 Bluff, the Sense Motive DC is 15 - if you set it at, say, 20 or 25 because you want the PC's to have great difficulty discerning the NPC's tells - why? Why is it more difficult when this NPC only has a +5 to Bluff? Now, perhaps your issue is that the 21 STR Ogre has a +5 STR bonus, so the 10 STR Elf really does have a 30% chance of winning a Tug of War by the rules as written. The d20 is a pretty wild swing of potential results - so there will be results like that. It's part of the game. You could revise the mechanics - no more 1d20 rolls - roll 3d6 instead. Same average of 10.5, but much less variation. But that changes the game pretty significantly.So, out of curiosity, how likely did you set the 10 STR Elf winning the Tug of War? Did you make it easier than the RAW would suggest, or more difficult? I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that you made success more difficult for the PC. Would you make success way easier if the bonuses were reversed? If so, maybe you should switch to 3d6 instead of d20 - that will reduce the impact of random chance and increase the impact of bonuses/native ability. Overcoming a 5 point difference (assuming the same "take 10") requires that Elf to roll 15+ on 3d6, a 9.23% chance of success. But less than a 10% chance of failure if the PC's hold that +5 advantage.This has a lot of ripple effects - bonuses and penalties start to mean a lot more when they cause a slight deviation from needing to roll 10 or more (62.5% chance) to needing a 12 or more (37.5%), so it's not a change that should be taken lightly. It will massively reduce the impact luck has on success or failure - but that's what it sounds like you are after.</blockquote>

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