{"id":786,"date":"2004-03-13T00:25:18","date_gmt":"2004-03-13T00:25:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/random-average.com\/?p=786"},"modified":"2004-03-13T00:25:18","modified_gmt":"2004-03-13T00:25:18","slug":"d20-skill-check-hack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/randomaverage.com\/index.php\/2004\/03\/d20-skill-check-hack\/","title":{"rendered":"d20 skill-check hack"},"content":{"rendered":"

As noted here<\/a>:
\nWhere d20 breaks down is when it shifts to non-combat rolls where the entire task (skill) is handled with a single, linear-odds roll.
\nHere’s how to fix that.
\nThere’s a little known optional combat rule that states that people can choose to ‘roll’ their AC every round. Basically, you don’t have a Base 10 AC… figure out whatever you’ve got over 10, call that your “AC Bonus”, and add that to a d20 roll every time you’re attacked.
\nI doubt anyone does that — hell, I doubt anyone knows it’s there — but look in the DMG.
\nANYWAY: while I don’t recommend it for combat necessarily, I think it would be useful for Skill Checks. Many of these are Opposed Rolls anyway — this little house-rule would make all Skill checks opposed.
\nFind the current DC for a skill. Subtract 10. Whatever’s left over is the DC Bonus. When someone tries to do something to overcome that challenge, the GM rolls a d20 and adds that DC bonus.
\nWhat does this do? Two main things.
\n1. <\/b>Creates a pyamidal instead of linear success curve. In the case of a Thief with Open Locks +15 vs. a Lock with a DC bonus of +15 (formerly a DC 25 lock):
\n00.25% You Crit succeed, it crit fails.
\n02.50% You Crit, it fails
\n49.5% You succeed, it fails (or, you tie each other)
\n44.75% You fail, it succeeds.
\n02.50% You fail, it crit succeeds
\n00.25% You crit fail, it crit succeeds
\n00.25% Mutual Fumble
\nIt’s a pyramid curve, but it’s a curve.
\n2. Removes instances of “Ugh… I got a 19… I know that d20 modules always set the DC’s in five-point increments on everything, so I’ll spend an Action Dice to give me a boost… worse case scenario, I get to a 20, and maybe I’ll get to the 25 break point.” (Particularly annoying on Gather Information charts, when adding the AD will almost certainly glean more info)… If the DC’s are d20+5, d20+10, d20+15, et cetera instead of 15, 20, 25… there wouldn’t be those artifical ‘rungs’ in the DCs to shoot for… that d20+5 DC might be, on your try, a net DC 6 all the way up to a net DC 25… every NPC you talk to is talkative in different ways, after all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As noted here: Where d20 breaks down is when it shifts to non-combat rolls where the entire task (skill) is<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-d20"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/randomaverage.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/randomaverage.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/randomaverage.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/randomaverage.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/randomaverage.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=786"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/randomaverage.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/randomaverage.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/randomaverage.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/randomaverage.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}