Automatic Failures and Successes on Skill Checks
With One D&D's test release, there's been a lot of talk about automatic failures and successes on skill checks. Most of it bad.
After thinking about it for a while now, I'm completely on board. I'm also acknowledging this is contrary to my overall belief that's critical strikes are bad for the game in general. That said, if we're going to allow critical strikes on attacks, we should probably allow them on skill checks as well.
- There's always a chance for success or failure regardless of how skill you are.
A perfect modern day example of this is combat sports. Sometimes people get lucky, sometimes people make a mistake. Accidents happen, injuries happen.
A rogue who's an expert in stealth might get unlucky and step on a broken board. A paladin in heavy armor might accidentally sneak past a day-dreaming guard or the guard might recognize them as someone they thought they knew.
- Skill checks should only happen when there's a chance for success and a chance for failure
If the DM feels there's no situation a rogue shouldn't be able to sneak up on someone, there shouldn't be a skill check. No sane DM asks for a perception check to see if the player sees the enemy in front of them.
One game I played in, a new player playing a level one character asked if he could try to steal a Vorpal Sword. The DM asked for a Sleight of Hand check, the player rolled a 20. This was a problem for the entire party now because a level one character has a +3 weapon that can occasionally one-shot an enemy. Super cool for one player, kind of annoying for the rest of the party, and a nightmare for the DM. Should the DM asked for that roll? No. Was it a house rule that he played with criticals on success checks? Yep.
I've made less game breaking mistakes by hiding essential information behind skill checks, seeing a player fail, realizing my mistake only to ask everyone at the table to make similar skill checks to bail me out. One time I had sequence where I asked for a DC 10 skill check and the players failed at least 6 rolls before someone finally passed. I should have never asked for the roll since I didn't have a plan if they failed... and boy did they fail spectacularly.