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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ruin Explorer" data-source="post: 8213150" data-attributes="member: 18"><p>I get your approach but it doesn't add "challenge" as a matter of demonstrable fact, just a small amount of suspense/drama. Still, maybe that suspense is worth it. I'd say be very careful if you increase the DCs because 5E has very limited mitigation. Advantage is easy to get, but that, Proficiency and the Stat mod are all you can get (well possibly also Guidance if you allowed it, and possibly Expertise but it's incredibly unlikely with these skills, as few classes have access to it and Feats cannot be assumed). With no other bonuses available, no "double advantage" and so on, 5E does not reward thorough preparation or higher effort in the way previous editions did. This is a double edged sword because in practice it massively speeds the game up, both by simplifying DCs and bonus calculations, and preventing people scrabbling for bonuses and looking through table to see what else they can do and so on, but it also means in situations like this, where the PCs would want to spend a lot more effort, they cannot. So if you simply bump the DC by 5 and add in the anti ruin rules suggested, you've made the situation objectively worse for the PCs, not better, because there is literally nothing they can do beyond the what they could before, their chance of it being ruined is actually exactly the same (if following the suggestion) and now there's also a chance of a lot of extra time and money also being needed. So to be clear adding that in and upping the DC by 5 is not "compensating" for a "benefit". It's actually adding an extra penalty whilst retaining the same chance of total failure. Obviously there may be items where you feel that is a good approach but please bear in mind the DC math means this is never a gain for the PCs if the DC goes up.</p></blockquote><p></p>

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