2.3 Making Checks

Checks are required to perform actions that have a chance of failure where the difficulty is not measured by the defense of another creature or object. For example, climbing a wall or remembering an obscure piece of trivia may require a check.

To make a check, roll 1d10 and add your modifier with the check. You compare that result to a difficulty value that represents the difficulty of the task. The more difficult the task, the higher the difficulty value will be. If your result is equal to or higher than the difficulty value, the check succeeds. This usually means you accomplish a task successfully. Otherwise, the check fails. This usually means that nothing happens, though sometimes there are specific consequences for failure.

2.3.1 Critical Success

If your check result is at least 10 higher than the difficulty value, your check is a critical success. Some checks have a special effect on a critical success. For example, a critical success while climbing means you move twice as quickly.

2.3.2 Standard Difficulty Values

Most checks are made against a fixed difficulty value that represents how hard the task is. Detailed rules for determining difficulty values in specific circumstances can be found in the Expanded Skills chapter from the Tome of Guidance. However, most of the time, it’s not worth the effort to consult charts and tables to figure out how hard a task is. Instead, you can estimate it based on the guidelines below.

• Easy (DV 0): Only an exceptionally incompetent or impaired person could possibly fail a DV 0 check. For example, this includes walking on rough ground without tripping (Balance) or noticing that a yelling, red-faced person is angry (Social Insight).
• Average (DV 5): A typical human with no relevant skills should still succeed at a DV 5 check without much issue. However, it would be possible to fail in a stressful situation where time is limited if the person had no relevant training. For example, this includes climbing a ladder (Climb) or hearing the topic of a nearby conversation in a crowded bar (Awareness).
• Hard (DV 10): A typical human with no relevant skills might succeed at a DV 10 check, but only if they were very lucky or had a lot of time on their hands. An experienced practicioner might fail infrequently in stressful circumstances, but a world-class expert would never fail. For example, this includes swimming in fast-moving water (Swim) or providing first aid to mitigate a barely lethal wound (Medicine).
• Very Hard (DV 15): Only an experienced practicioner could succeed at a DV 15 check, and they would still need to get lucky if they were in a rush. Even a world-class expert at the peak of real-world human potential could fail, but only rarely. For example, this includes picking a well-made lock (Devices) or holding your breath for eight minutes while staying still (Endurance).
• Almost Impossible (DV 20): A world-class expert like an Olympic medalist could succeed at a DV 20 check if they were lucky or patient. Succeeding consistently at tasks of this difficulty requires superhuman capabilities. For example, this includes climbing a weathered natural rock wall without equipment (Climb) or squeezing through a space with a diameter of only half a foot (Flexibility).
• Impossible (DV 25+): No real-world human can succeed at a DV 25 check. This sort of feat is only possible for high-level Rise characters who have explicitly surpassed ordinary limitations. For example, this includes running at full speed along a slack rope (Balance) or climbing a sheer glass pane (Climb).

2.3.3 Trying Again

You can think of checks as being broadly divided into two categories: checks that give you information, and checks that cause a change in the world around you. In general, you can retry checks that change your environment indefinitely until you succeed. The only major limiting factor to those checks is that failure sometimes also changes your environment in ways that may punish your failure or make it impossible to retry the check. For example, if you are trying to climb a cliff, you can keep trying until you succeed, but you may take falling damage from falling off while halfway up the cliff.

You generally cannot retry checks that give you information unless the situation changes in a way that is relevant to your check. This generally means that you must learn new information before making the check again. For example, if you’ve already examined a creature to determine whether they are disguised, you can’t keep just keep staring that creature to make sure. However, if you splash the creature with water which washes away some makeup, you can try again now that you have more information.

In addition, checks that require a free action to make can never be made more than once for the same purpose within a round.

2.3.4 Opposed Checks

An opposed check involves multiple creatures competing to get the highest result. In case of a tie, all tied creatures roll again to break the tie. Usually, the creature with the highest result succeeds, while all other creatures either fail completely or simply succeed less effectively depending on the situation.

Some opposed checks involve multiple creatures using the same skill to see who does the best job. For example, a climbing race up a wall might involve each participant rolling a Climb check, or you might make a Strength check to hold a door closed while another creature tries to shove it open. Alternately, it can involve creatures rolling opposite skills. For example, if you are trying to hide, you roll a Stealth check opposed by the Awareness check of any creatures who could notice you.

Not all opposed checks require all participants to roll at the same time. For example, a creature who creates a disguise rolls the Disguise check at the time that the disguise is created. A creature who tries to notice the disguise would roll their Awareness check at the time they see the disguised creature.

2.3.5 Hidden Checks

The GM can always make checks on your character’s behalf without telling you. Generally, this is used for observation-based skills. For example, it’s very suspicious if the GM tells you to make an Awareness check and then tells you that you don’t see anything interesting. One of the ways a GM can avoid that is by simply rolling a check on behalf of your character and only telling you the result if you succeed.

2.3.6 Helping On Checks

You can help an ally make a check. To help an ally, you make a check of the same type against a difficulty value that is 5 lower than the regular difficulty value. This has the same requirements, including time and physical contact, as the check would have if you made it yourself. For example, to help an ally climb a cliff, you must be able to touch your ally to guide them up. Success means that the ally gains a +2 bonus to the check.

Multiple creatures can try to help the same person. At the GM’s discretion, there may be a practical limit to how many people can assist with the same task. The bonus from multiple creatures helping does not stack. It just makes it more likely that the helping attempt will succeed.

2.3.7 Checks for Timed Tasks

For every 5 points by which you beat the difficulty value to accomplish a timed task, the time required is usually halved. This only applies for tasks that have a base time requirement of at least one minute, if the GM agrees that it is relevant, and if there are no other specific ways in which your result is improved with higher check results.