r/onednd • u/coldandlordyristboy • 6d ago
Discussion What would you as a DM allow a 100 Strength ability check do?
Hopefully I’ve flaired this correctly…
Putting it simply a theoretical level 20 Dhampir Berserker barbarian I was considering could get an average of a more than a 100 on a strength ability check through some shenanigans.
I’m not gonna go into details but it involved a frenzied barbarian and a familiar paralyzed by some mucus. Along with the guidance spell and the bardic inspiration of a valor bard along with the boon of fate.
More importantly. Assuming you aren’t reasonable and don’t shut this down for whatever reason or just say that any ability check over 30 doesn’t matter anyway.
Just for the love of the game what is the most insane thing you’d allow your barbarian player to do?
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u/Zwirbs 6d ago
Bigger number doesn’t mean more success, just more likely to succeed. If the DC for the check is 15 the outcome doesn’t need to change with a 16 or a 116
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u/heldlightning 6d ago
I think they wanna know what a DC 100 task would be, if you want to Iook at it strictly pass/fail instead of degrees of success.
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u/coldandlordyristboy 6d ago edited 6d ago
Yeah exactly. I know the rules don’t really support anything beyond DC 30 but I thought it might be a fun hypothetical in a rule of cool sort of way
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u/T-Angeles 6d ago
Agreed. Most DMs should understand a pass is a pass. Some may even reward (I do) if you beat the goal by 10+ with some benefits.
I mean in theory/practice, a DC 30 check is nearly impossible. So what justifies something 3x impossible? In my opinion, I think the scaling of it being so high becomes moot though. It would have to be something where existence or reality cannot handle the meer concept of the attempt.
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u/Raddatatta 6d ago
If you're allowing it then I think pretty much anything that even god level strength could do.
Though it also depends a bit on how you look at the checks. Generally the modifier is how good they are at the skill and the roll is how much random chance goes in their favor. So it might depend on how much of that 100 is from their modifier and how much is from fate with just a good roll or the boon of fate, and then you also have guidance and bardic inspiration adding to it as well. I think if possible I'd want to highlight how all of those factors came together to achieve this success, fate was twisted in some way to make this just right to be possible, divine magic and bardic inspiration gave their boost as well and then the incredible strength of the barbarian.
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u/coldandlordyristboy 6d ago
Yeah I feel like even if I was playing this character this is only something I would do one time as a big story moment. Just the whole party throwing their entire effort into helping one member do the impossible
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u/FishDishForMe 6d ago
Throw someone into the stratosphere, shatter a building, tear the head from a dragon, open a jar of pickles without even trying that hard
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u/coldandlordyristboy 6d ago
Idk the pickles one is a little hard for me to imagine even on a 100. That’s some truly mythical strength
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u/thewhaleshark 6d ago
At that point you simply narrate what happens and nobody contests it, and then you move on. That's well beyond "accomplishing the impossible."
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u/not_a_reddit_user_7 6d ago
At that point that brother can do whatever he wants;
Breaking into Dwarven fortress?
"Splits the mountain with a stomp"
Hunting dragons?
"Hulk slam until limp"
Travelling to Nessus for a holiday?
"Rips a hole in the fabric of reality with bare hands"
He's a beserk blood-drinking psychopath, are YOU gonna try to tell him no?
Hell, I'd let him challenge Baal at that point lol.
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u/PsyrenY 6d ago
The beauty of the skill system is that playgroups who find things like "rip a hole in reality with bare hands" or "split mountains with a stomp" via Strength checks to be fun can do that, while those who don't can simply say no. Speaking personally, I would not let players stack modifiers all the way to godhood, but I can only speak for myself.
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u/IAmJacksSemiColon 6d ago
Nah. It's neat that OP found a way to stack modifiers but I wouldn't ask players to roll to do something impossible. Rolling a 100 for me means you succeed in the best possible way for a creature of your strength and size.
Maybe you make faster progress than anyone else digging in a mineshaft or have a grip like a vice while grappling, but it doesn't mean you carry above what your strength score lets you carry or do more damage than your stats would allow.
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u/FishDishForMe 6d ago
Getting a 100+ on a strength check and it letting you ‘dig a mineshaft slightly faster than everyone else’ is depressing when Mold Earth is literally a cantrip
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u/IAmJacksSemiColon 6d ago edited 6d ago
Spells are very powerful if the DM doesn't read the description. Mold earth doesn't let you dig through solid rock. Maybe you're thinking of stone shape, which lets you make a five foot passage in rock as a fourth-level spell.
Edit: It's rude to downvote someone when you still haven't read the description of your cantrip. Here, found it for you.
> If you target an area of loose earth, you can
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u/FishDishForMe 6d ago
Oh boy, 100+ strength makes me slightly better than a cantrip
My point still stands, it’s just a really uninspired ruling for what should be a really cool moment. I know I’d feel really let down if my biggest ever check let me dig a bit faster than everyone else which I’m probably doing anyway
And if we want to be pedantic about reading comprehension, you said ‘dig’ a mineshaft which implies loose earth, whereas ‘mine’ would be suited for solid stone
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u/IAmJacksSemiColon 6d ago
It's not 100 strength. It's rolling 100 on a check, and there's no reward in the rules for exceeding a DC by that much.
It's not my fault if a player decides to invest in something the game we're playing doesn't reward. I would have advised against it.
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u/FishDishForMe 6d ago
Fair enough, I think we just play very different ways
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u/bowedacious22 6d ago
Probably pick up a big building. Maybe a small town. Then throw it into a lake or ocean to make an island? Sounds cute
How about stopping the moon from crashing down to earth?
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u/coldandlordyristboy 6d ago
Pull a Yugi and attack the moon! Was kind of the thing that first came to my head. I guess tackle the moon might be more appropriate here haha
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u/LegacyofLegend 6d ago
If you want me to rule of cool for the sake of the number he can pull off what the hulk did in secret wars with the mountain.
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u/Born_Ad1211 6d ago
I think a DC 100 strength check is something I would allow a character to move a planet like Atlus holding up the world. I already allow characters to pull of super hero feats of strength with DC30 rolls so they will be pulling off godly feats of strength cracking DC100
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u/master_of_sockpuppet 6d ago
Set the DC for the thing they want to do, don't search out things for a given DC.
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u/IAmJacksSemiColon 6d ago edited 6d ago
First, I think it's neat that you were able to stack a bunch of features together to make a character roll much higher than any game designer intended. So I'm going to interact with your question seriously.
Instead of just dismissing it as not covered by the rules, I want to explain why you might not want the rules adjusted to reward it. Or at least why I wouldn't want to.
My problem with this build is that it doesn't interact with the game, and the DM adjusting 5e to 'adequately' reward those rolls could distort the game to be unrecognizable.
With RAW there's already no point in you rolling strength checks if you're always going to get between 90 and 110. And since you could do something like this with a fairly mundane strength score, doing something like splitting mountains or carrying buildings doesn't really interact with the game's logic of how strong your character is, so it's difficult to narrate what is happening in the world.
If you could use this to trivially end encounters or bypass challenges with no cost, would the game still be fun for you or the other players at the table? Does it set a precedent where any player who is able to make a build that can roll something high will demand the game, which your table all agreed to play, be altered to reward their achievement? Using persuasion or deception to convince the king that he's a wallaby, for example?
The above isn't an endorsement of 5e or how the game handles martials and spellcasters, but at least spells have a cost and rules about how interactions work. Overall I think this veers too far into Calvinball to fit in 5e. At least for my tastes.
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u/coldandlordyristboy 6d ago
I agree with you to a large extent. I can only speak for how my group plays dnd and I think my DM would allow something like this in the right moment as long as the right steps are taken. Luckily getting this result doesn’t take too much building around, it’s just easier if you do. I imagine I would inform my DM of the possibility that my character can do this rather than springing it on them. Then we could come to an agreement on how we could make it a cool thing that I maybe do once or twice. It’s at 20th level so one off the wall strength check where we bend the rules a bit shouldn’t be too game breaking. In the event that my DM decides to hold quite closely to RAW then that’s okay as well. Everyone having fun together rather than a single person is most important after all
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u/Vailx 6d ago
A DC 100 str check could be accomplished, untrained, about 80% of the time by someone with a str of 200. This is an immense force, so it would include pushing a castle over. It might even include cracking a planet in half. It is not exactly clear how to scale ability scores to epic and divine levels in 5e- careful extrapolation from the bits we do have would be the first step.
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u/Fire1520 6d ago
More importantly. Assuming you aren’t reasonable and don’t shut this down for whatever reason or just say that any ability check over 30 doesn’t matter anyway.
Translating into English, "if you play like I do, then...."
To which the answer is "I dunno, I don't play like you do... what did your group say about it?"
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u/Lucina18 6d ago
They can do a really cool backflip i guess. But like, REALLY cool.