At The Table: Complex Skill Checks

Often times in more sophisticated campaigns you may want to devise some complex action for the players to perform. Things like repairing a piece of machinery or performing a lengthy magical ritual aren’t well-covered by most rule systems. Often these actions are too important to players’ success or the plot to wager on just one skill check. This is where the concept of complex skill checks comes into play.

What is a Complex Skill Check?

A complex skill check is, at its core, single large action spread across several skill checks. Complex checks are designed for situations where an action will take several combat rounds to complete and in this capacity are useful for adding tension to a high-pressure scenario. Complex skill checks also have varying degrees of success depending on which rolls succeed or fail. That feature makes them useful for checks with no retry, where however far you get is the limit of what you achieve. I’ll provide examples of both uses below.

Building Complex Skill Checks Into Encounters

If you are going to use a complex skill check it should be the focal point of the encounter. The character(s) performing the check will need to devote their full attention to the task at hand. If enemies threaten them the other party members will have to defend them. Damage to a character performing the check may reduce their chance of success. Complex skill checks are also time-consuming, increasing the chances of being interrupted by friends or foes. The farther into the complex task the player gets, the more difficult each individual check becomes, further driving up the tension.

Performing a complex skill check is a lot like spellcasting and for the most part can be treated the same way as concentrating to maintain a spell. Damage to the character increases the difficulty proportional to the damage received, violent motion increases the difficulty my a similar amount, and sudden noises or distractions also increase the difficulty by a predetermined amount.

Performing Complex Skill Checks

If the task involves several actions that can be done in parallel (such as opening a series of valves), then several characters can participate at the same time. They do not grant Aid bonuses to each other. A single character performing a complex action can receive an Aid bonus from a non-participating character if the action being performed would normally allow it (typically physical actions allow assistance and mental actions do not). All participating characters make their skill checks on their own turns if in combat, or simultaneously if not. Once all the dice for one set of actions have been rolled, tally up the successful checks and determine the level of success.

Often complex skill checks require a specific series of steps. Different steps in a series cannot be performed in parallel and typically (but not always) have to be performed by the same character. A failure at one step usually ends the complex skill check, but some complex checks may have branching outcomes that allow for some failures. GMs use your imagination here.

Complex Check Stat Block

Each step of a complex check has several statistics that describe what’s necessary to perform it:
Max participants: The maximum number of characters that can work on this step in parallel
Prerequisites: Things a character must have to participate in this step
Skill check: The skill check each participant must perform during this step
Successes to Proceed: The number of successes needed to proceed to the next step or complete the check. These might be per-participant or a total number overall.
Max Failures: The number of failures, which if surpassed, cause the whole process to fail. These might be per-participant or a combined total.
Time: How long this step takes to perform

Example Complex Skill Checks

Perform Ritual Magic

Step 1: Prepare ritual area
This requires writing a magic circle on the ground
Max participants: 4
Prerequisites: All participants must possess the ability to scribe scrolls
Skill check: Spellcraft DC 5+level of ritual spell
Successes to Proceed: 4 total
Max Failures: 2 total
Time: Two minutes per check (2-12 minutes depending on number of participants and if they need to retry)

Step 2: Set Up Ritual Components
You must correctly arrange the spell components within the ritual circle
Max participants: 4
Prerequisites: Trained in Knowledge (Arcana)
Skill check: Knowledge (Arcana) DC 10+level of ritual spell
Successes to Proceed: 4 total
Max Failures: 2 total
Time: One round per check

Step 3: Perform Invocation
The senior spellcaster stands within the prepared ritual circle and casts the spell
Max Participants: 1
Prerequisites: Must know the ritual spell
Skill check: Spellcraft DC 15+level of ritual spell
Successes to Proceed: 1
Max Failures: 0 (failure destroys ritual circle, requiring start over)
Time: one round


Operate Complex Mechanism

Step 1: Analyze how it works
You must examine the mechanism and correctly deduce how to operate it
Max Participants: unlimited
Prerequisites: Trained in Disable Device
Skill check: Disable Device DC 22
Successes to Proceed: 3 total
Max Failures: 0 per participant (You get the wrong idea about how it works and must stop helping. Other participants may proceed.)
Time: 10 minutes per check

Step 2: Open steam valves
Four valves must be opened in unison
Max Participants: 4 (aid allowed)
Prerequisites: none
Skill check: Strength DC 14
Successes to Proceed: 1 per participant
Max Failures: 0 total (not opening all the valves together causes a small explosion and breaks the machine, making retrying impossible)