Skills
Ability Checks
Sometimes you try to do something to which no specific skill really applies. In these cases, you make an ability check. An ability check is the roll of ld20 plus the appropriate ability modifier. Essentially, you're making an untrained skill check. The DM assigns a Difficulty Class, or sets up an opposed check when two characters are engaged in a contest using one ability score or another. The initiative check in combat, for example, is essentially a Dexterity check. The character who rolls highest goes first.
In some cases, an action is a straight test of one's ability with no luck involved. Just as you wouldn't make a height check to see who is taller, you don't make a Strength check to see who is stronger. When two characters arm wrestle, for example, the stronger character simply wins. In the case of identical scores, flip a coin.
| Example Ability Checks | |
| Task | Key Ability |
| Breaking open a jammed or locked door | Strength |
| Threading a needle | Dexterity |
| Holding one's breath | Constitution |
| Navigating a maze | Intelligence |
| Remembering to lock a door | Wisdom |
| Getting oneself singled out in a crowd | Charisma |
Breaking Open Doors: A common use of Strength is to break open doors. For example, Krusk approaches a locked door. He tries his Strength against it. He takes 10, adds +3 for his Strength, and gets a 13. The DM says that the door holds. (The player doesn't know that the door's DC is 15.) Krusk's player can keep making checks. He needs a roll of 12 or higher to get a result of 15 or higher. If he can devote sufficient time, he can take 20, for a total of 23, and plow through the door.
Larger and smaller creatures get size bonuses and size penalties on these checks: Fine -16, Diminutive -12, Tiny -8, Small -4, Large +4, Huge +8, Gargantuan +12, Colossal +16.
A portable ram improves a character's chance of breaking open a door.
| Example Door DCs | |
|---|---|
| DC | Door |
| 10 or lower | A door just about anyone can break open. |
| 11 to 15 | A door that a strong person could break with one try and an average person might break with one try. |
| 13 | Typical DC for a simple wooden door. |
| 16 to 20 | A door that almost anyone could break, given time. |
| 18 | Typical DC for a good wooden door. |
| 21 to 25 | A door that only a strong or very strong person has a hope of breaking, and probably not on the first try. |
| 23 | Typical DC for a strong wooden door. |
| 25 | Typical DC for an iron-barred wooden door. |
| 26 or higher | A door that only an exceptionally strong person has a hope of breaking. |
| 28 | Typical DC for an iron door. |
| +5* | Hold portal (increases DC by 5). |
| +10* | Arcane lock (increases DC by 10). |
| *Not cumulative; if both apply, use the larger number. | |