D&D 5E What is your "Sweet Spot" of Success? (poll)

What chance represents the "sweet spot" for a good PC to perform a "difficult" task?

  • less than 10%

  • 10%

  • 15%

  • 20%

  • 25%

  • 30%

  • 35%

  • 40%

  • 45%

  • 50%

  • 55%

  • 60%

  • 65%

  • 70%

  • 75%

  • 80%

  • 85%

  • 90%

  • greater than 90%


Results are only viewable after voting.

DND_Reborn

The High Aldwin
Here's the scenario:
  • Your PC is "good" at a task (whatever "good" means to you), not great, but definitely above average.
  • You are trying a "difficult" task (whatever "difficult" means to you).
What chance of success is perfect for you, the "sweet spot" if you will; where the enjoyment of success meets the risk of failure?

So, if you choose 50%, you are saying you want your PC to succeed at the task half the time and fail half the time, making success rewarding and failure a bit painful.

You have two votes for your response, in case you want a slightly wider range.
 

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Well, my reasoning goes something like this:

I think an "average" person should succeed on an "average" task about 55-65% of the time. A "good" person should succeed on an "average" task about 75% of the time and a "master" at a task about 90% of the time.

Scale the difficulty up to the next level (aka, "difficult"), and drop everyone's percentages about 50%.
 


I was thinking that being good as an average task is about 75%, so a DC20 task would be about 50%, maybe 40% with some other variables.
 

In most editions, difficulty of tasks are described based on the experience of the unskilled and untalented.

To the unskilled untalented (a +0), something is difficult if it is achievable but unlikely to succeed. That is a DC 15. 30% chance.

To the good (a +6 or 7), you hit a 15 on a 8 or 9. 55-60% chance.
 

This feels a bit like "how red is that wall?" to me, because "good" and "difficult" are really subjective even in actual rules text, much less in totally abstract land.

Do you have a particular task example in mind? Maybe a specific challenge for a specific skill?

Without context, my general take is that a character doing something they are good at should be at least as effective as the combat hit rate baseline, around 65%. A specialized character should have a 10% or less chance of failure at a difficult task they've built toward accomplishing, depending on the level appropriateness of the task.
 

These are very vague terms, so everyone's going to have their own views. To me, a difficult task is something an unskilled person isn't going to succeed at often, say about 10% of the time. I figure a difficult task could be done successfully about a third of the time by someone descent at it. Even someone who's an expert should still fail about a third the time.
 



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