Ability Checks Made Easy

Rolling an ability check can often be the most rewarding and most challenging part of any game session. Let’s break down how to make this easy for Game Masters.

If the players need to roll an Ability Check to accomplish something, it will always be listed in the text of the adventure like this:

ABILITY SCORE (Skill) of 00 or higher

For instance:
DEXTERITY (Stealth) of 12 or higher
INTELLIGENCE (Investigation) of 15 or higher
CHARISMA (Persuasion) of 11 or higher

STEP 01

As Game Master, once you see the text calling for an Ability Check, describe the challenge, tell the player which ability and skill applies, and ask them to roll a check.

STEP 02

The player looks for either the ability score bonus or the skill bonus on their character sheet. If they have the skill, have them use that bonus; it will always be higher. If they don’t have the necessary skill, have them use their ability score bonus instead.

STEP 03

Have the player roll a 20-sided die and add the appropriate modifier. If the total meets or exceeds the difficulty number, the player’s attempt succeeds.

Rolling a “1” should always fail. Rolling a “natural 20” on the dice (before adding modifiers) should always succeed spectacularly!