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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celtavian" data-source="post: 6656386" data-attributes="member: 5834">Just to further discuss DCs and the 5E system. I'm convertingPathfinder material to 5E. 5E's open-ended DC system with loose guidelines has encouraged me to design traps, haunts, and the like in a fashion that suits my tastes using DCs appropriate to the level of the PCs. I've been deciding DCs based on how dangerous I want the trap or haunt to be. The PCs are low level, so I want around a 50% success rate on the trap or haunt. I calculate that percentage based on a PC with a 12 stat and no proficiency in the saving throw I'm using. The examples set out by 5E encourage the use of natural language to explain the trap versus mechanical language including how to defeat it.One of the things I always hated about 3E/Pathfinder was that a roll defeated nearly any trap whether it made sense or not. In 5E you are encouraged to write the trap out so that it explains how to disarm it using thieves' tools or some alternate method. I never liked haunts being destroyed with positive energy regardless of type. For haunts immunity to fear made you immune to haunts. That did not fit my view of how haunts should work. Supernatural powers can affect the physical world in fiction, no reason to make immunity to fear circumvent a haunt. Here' some material I wrote to handle it using the 5E feel:RESTLESS PLAGUE VICTIMS HAUNT: Challenge: CR1 (200 XP)Notice: DC 12 Perception check to notice stench of burning flesh. Trigger: Proximity Avoidance: Do not enter haunt area. Effect: Burning plague victims appear on bedframes, sitting straight up and screaming, their mouths full of fire and ashes. All characters in the room must make a DC 11 Wisdom saving throw or be frightened. They can make a new saving throw at the end of their turn to end the frightened condition. Destruction: Cast a hallow and lesser restoration on the area while invoking Iomedae to cleanse her church. Interlinked Bear Trap: Challenge CR 3 (700)Type: Mechanical Perception Traps covered with rubble, trash, and offal. DC 15 Perception to notice. Disarm: DC 15 Thieves’ tools Dex check to disarm. You can also disarm the trap by using a staff or similar device and making a DC 10 strength check to activate it.Effect: Each square in the area is trapped. Sharp jaws spring shut. DC 13 Dexterity saving throw or take 2d4 piercing damage and stop moving. Action to make a DC 13 strength check to free self from trap. Each failed check does one point of piercing damage. A DC 15 Thieves’ tool disarm check can dismantle the trap. I'm finding 5E to be very friendly to design as a DM. I can write in a very naturalistic fashion how I believe something should work. I can convert that to a game rule for resolution very easily. I focus less on a preset static world DC and more on how to make the trap, haunt, or hazard interesting for the PCs. 5E encourages naturalistic design versus mechanical design. No more do rolls make no sense. Instead what the PC is rolling to accomplish is clearly defined and the DM has a lot of latitude in how he designs a particular world feature. There is no preset template for how they work. Instead, you design the fiction you want to accomplish prior to designing the world feature. Then you write a resolution rule that you feel accomplishes the dramatic purpose you were seeking in the fiction. You can even focus on a single character that may not be as competent as another character. For example, you could make crossing a river interesting for the no Athletics skill swimmer, while allowing the high Athletics skill swimmer to cross without difficulty. You could turn a fairly minor encounter into a difficult encounter for the player that writes his character is afraid of water or hasn't learned to swim but is too prideful or shy to mention it to his fellows. You require he make checks to cross the river turning a boring encounter into a bit of fictional dramatic tension. I find this is the method of resolution the 5E DC system encourages with its very light rules and no preset DCs. I feel 5E encourages less of a focus on a unified mechanic and more of a focus on the fiction. I very much prefer that to prior editions of D&D that often relied on static world DCs or a very clear mechanical resolution that felt more constricting. At least that is how I see 5E's DC system. It seems very open-ended and allows a DM a lot of freedom to interpret the world in whatever way he sees fits fictionally and mechanically. I feel very inspired rather than limited when it comes to encounter design in 5E in all aspects of the game.</blockquote>

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