Skills, Saves and Ability Checks

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Non-Combat Challenges

Outside of combat, and even sometimes inside combat, characters will use skills or just raw talent to try to achieve goals or outcomes. Usually, this involves a skill check, using one of the skills of the game. Other times, no skill is available to cover the scenario, and only the character's raw power, charm, or wit can overcome the obstacle.

In some cases, the GM can allow players to role-play these situations, describing how their character interacts with the situation, and if it is convincing enough, the GM may just allow the character to succeed. However, sometimes the action they're describing has some risk involved. It's not a sure thing, or the consequences for failing are significant enough that adding a bit of randomness to the outcome increases the suspense, and therefore everyone's enjoyment of the story. In these cases, the character will be required to make a skill or ability check against a DC determined by the GM.

But how does the GM choose these DC's? What seems impossible for a level 1 character rapidly becomes trivial by the time they're 10th or 15th level. Epic level characters are an even more volatile case, with potential skills ranging anywhere from pathetic to god-like. This page describes how to select an appropriate Difficulty Class for both skill checks and ability checks.

Choosing a DC

To use the tables below, determine how hard you want the skill or ability check to be, using the following criteria:

• Easy: An easy check should be something that a random townsfolk could reasonably attempt. This is an everyday task, or the sort of thing that a first-day student of the skill could try to do. If the check is to do something that /anyone/ should have a pretty good chance of succeeding on, it's an easy check.

• Average: An average check is the sort of task a commoner would only succeed on around half the time. Gambling against amateurs is an example of an average skill check. The average person at the table (thinks he) has about a 50/50 chance of winning. Average checks could also be for common tasks among modestly skilled folks. Fashioning nails or horseshoes at a smithy would be an average task. It's easy for an expert, but quite hard if you've never done it before.

• Hard: A hard check is something best left to the experts. This is something a common townsperson will nearly always fail to do, but a hero has an average chance to succeed. Hard checks assume the person making the attempt is very good at the task in question, and even then, there's a decent chance for failure. Sneaking past an alert guard, or lying to the head of the Thieves' Guild are examples of hard skill checks. Hard checks are also good target DC's for performing something cinematic or so clever it forces the opposition to re-evaluate their approach.

• Impossible: An impossible check is the sort of thing that bards sing about for years to come. It is the sort of task that no one could really pull off, so if a player character manages it, it is remarkable and cinematic and a true expression of their worthiness to be called a hero. Impossible checks are also useful for those times the player wants to try something that should just never work, but won't break the adventure if he manages to squeak through it.

Some Important Suggestions

• Be careful never to allow plot-breaking skill checks, no matter how much the players beg.
• Conversely, if someone wants to try something that is fancy or cinematic or just plan neat, don't make it an impossible check (or, if you do, award the character a circumstance bonus for trying something cool, to actually give them a chance to succeed). Generally a Hard DC is appropriate for these things. If you make it too easy, it doesn't seem special that they pulled it off. If you make it too hard, they won't try neat things in the future, since they know it will just waste their action to try.
• If you are asking the players to make a skill check that will give them that vital clue that leads to the next step in the adventure, you should either make sure the check DC is low enough that someone will actually get it, or have a backup plan in mind if no one gets it. It's okay to punish the players for missing a clue as long as it doesn't cause the whole adventure to stall out because they don't know where to go next. In fact, it's kind of awesome if the plot gets more difficult or complicated, or the bad guys get an edge, if the players all failed their check for something. Just make sure you can keep your plot moving no matter how the dice rolls turn out.

Skill Checks

In any case where a skill exists to make a check, the skill should be used to resolve the check. Characters who don't have the skill, particularly when the skill requires training to perform, simply can't make the check. An exception to this is when the target DC is below 10, which anyone can attempt (even on a trained-only skill). However, you will note that those DC's are quite rare, and only exist for the easiest of checks. If the skill can be performed untrained, anyone can roll.

Skill Check DC's By Level

Level	Easy Skill Check	Average Skill Check	Hard Skill Check	Impossible Skill Check
1	4	13	18	24
2	4	14	20	26
3	5	15	21	28
4	5	16	23	30
5	6	17	25	33
6	6	18	27	35
7	7	19	28	37
8	7	20	32	41
9	8	21	33	43
10	8	23	35	45
11	9	24	37	48
12	9	25	39	50
13	10	26	40	52
14	10	28	42	54
15	12	29	44	57
16	12	30	47	60
17	13	31	48	62
18	14	32	50	64
19	15	34	51	66
20	15	35	53	68
21	17	36	67	93
22	17	37	69	96
23	18	39	71	99
24	18	40	75	104
25	19	43	77	107
26	20	45	79	110
27	23	46	82	114
28	24	47	84	117
29	25	49	86	120
30	25	50	88	123
31	26	51	91	127
32	27	52	94	131
33	28	54	96	134
34	28	55	99	138
35	30	57	102	142

Ability Checks

Ability checks are checks made against a character's raw ability score. To lift up that portcullis using raw brute strength might require a strength check, since there is no skill to allow that task to be performed. However, even at epic levels, ability checks will never have as much variance as a skill check. Ability modifiers can only be raised so high, after all. Thus, the target DC's for ability scores are necessarily lower.

Optional Rule: Minimum Required Stat

GM's can require that, in order to even attempt an ability check, the character must have a minimum ability score equal to the ability check's target DC. This prevents the pox-laden, unbathed fighter from making a lucky roll and appearing more attractive to the princess than the bard with the 20 charisma. Using these rules, that fighter who has a 7 charisma isn't even allowed to roll. Of course, sometimes these outcomes are hilarious, and can be justified as the princess having really strange taste in men. GM's should decide if they want to apply this rule, either all the time, or on a case-by-case basis.

Ability Check DC's By Level

Level	Easy Ability Check	Average Ability Check	Hard Ability Check	Impossible Ability Check
1	5	11	13	19
2	5	11	13	19
3	5	11	13	19
4	5	11	14	20
5	5	11	14	20
6	5	11	14	20
7	5	11	15	21
8	5	11	15	21
9	5	11	16	22
10	6	12	16	22
11	6	12	17	23
12	6	12	17	23
13	6	12	17	23
14	6	12	18	24
15	6	12	18	24
16	7	13	19	25
17	7	13	19	25
18	7	13	19	25
19	7	13	20	26
20	7	13	20	26
21	8	14	21	27
22	8	14	21	27
23	8	14	22	28
24	9	15	22	28
25	9	15	23	29
26	10	16	23	29
27	10	16	23	29
28	11	17	24	30
29	11	17	24	30
30	12	18	25	31
31	12	18	25	31
32	13	19	26	32
33	13	19	26	32
34	14	20	27	33
35	14	20	28	34