Don't Say No; Determine Difficulty

A good rule of thumb to use, when a player-character tries something strange or daring in combat, is this: Don't say no to his proposal; just determine the difficulty of the maneuver in your head, give him a general idea of that difficulty, and let him try it.

An easy way to do that is arbitrarily to assign a "difficulty number" of 1 to 10 to any special maneuver. Then, have the character roll against whichever of his abilities (Strength, Dexterity, etc.) that seems most closely to pertain to the task . . . and subtract that difficulty number from his ability. If he succeeds in rolling equal to or less than his modified ability, he has succeeded in his task.

Example: Drusilla wants to try the same maneuver Rathnar was going to pull. She, too, has no acrobatic training, but is in light leather armor. The DM thinks that this will be pretty difficult for her (though not as difficult as it was for Rathnar), and assigns the maneuver a difficulty factor of 5 if she leaves her spear behind. It'll be an 8, if she tries to take her spear along on the maneuver. He tells Drusilla's player that it is difficult but possible, though it will be nearly impossible if she uses her spear. Reluctantly, she drops the spear and pulls out a short sword before attempting the maneuver.

Her Dexterity score is 13; with the –5 penalty, it's modified to an 8. On her combat action, she attempts the maneuver, and rolls 1d20 against her modified Dex. She rolls an 8, and achieves it exactly; Drusilla rolls between the orc's legs, stands up behind him, and drives the short sword home before he knows what hit him. The DM gives her an arbitrary +4 to attack rolls for the surprise value of the maneuver.

Someone with Acrobatics nonweapon proficiency might be able to perform that same tuck-and-roll with no penalty, or with a penalty dictated only by the type of armor he is wearing. See the "Armor Modifiers for Wrestling Table" on page 97 of the Player's Handbook; those modifiers would work equally well in this situation.

Another thing to do when a maneuver will probably work automatically if the intended target doesn't see it coming, is to assign a difficulty number to the target's chance of seeing it. This difficulty could be a penalty or a bonus, depending on how obvious the maneuver is, and so could be from 1 to 10 in either direction. The DM would have the intended target roll 1d20 against his modified Intelligence, and if he rolled equal to or less than that number, he'd see the maneuver coming and be able to avoid it. If he failed, the DM could give the attacker ordinary chances of success, or even make the attack an automatic success.

Example: Amstard is in a street brawl with a big brute of a warrior; they've been punching the daylights out of one another, and Amstard has just been knocked down. His player announces that he's trying a classic trick: He'll inconspicuously pick up a handful of sand and, as he's rising to return to the fight, he'll dash the sand into his opponent's face, blinding him.

That's a reasonable trick to try. The DM decides that the brute's chance to figure out Amstard's maneuver is directly proportional to Amstard's finesse in scooping up the sand. He tells Amstard to roll against his Dexterity, unmodified, when picking up the sand—and the number he makes his roll by will be the brute's difficulty number in seeing it coming.

Amstard's Dexterity is 13. He rolls a 10 on 1d20, making it by 3. The brute's Intelligence is 10; with the difficulty of 3, his modified Intelligence is 7. Secretly, the DM rolls 1d20 for the brute, achieving an 8; the brute doesn't see the maneuver coming. But Amstard's player can't be told that until Amstard is committed to his maneuver.

Amstard now throws the sand; this counts as an attack. The DM gives him an ordinary attack roll to succeed. Amstard successfully hits vs. the brute's AC, and now the brute is temporarily blinded . . .

That's how the thought process works, anyway. The players should have the opportunity to try just about any maneuver or approach they can imagine, and the DM should figure out how likely each try is of success. Nothing should be impossible to try just because it isn't specifically covered in the rules.

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