Setting Roll Difficulty¶

When a player makes an action roll, you'll often have to set the Difficulty of that challenge to know whether they've succeeded or failed. Setting a target number for Difficulty can feel like it relies on a lot of factors, but it's best not to overcomplicate the question: How hard is the task they're trying to accomplish in this scene? Use the following rubric as a general guideline when setting Difficulty.

Difficulty doesn't need to be a multiple of 5, so feel free to choose numbers between two of the rubric options. Additionally, while most Difficulties fall between 5 and 30, you can select numbers outside that range to fit the story. You can choose to keep this Difficulty secret or tell the player what they're aiming for up front; both playstyles work well in Daggerheart.

Degrees of Success and Failure¶

Often, instead of setting a single value for success, you might instead give a player different outcomes based on the relative success or failure of their roll. This tactic is especially useful on rolls to inspect an area, recall something from the past, or persuade an NPC to surrender information. Simply pick a target number and scale the amount of information you give them up or down based on the player's relative roll result.

Difficulty Rolls¶

When a PC rolls against an adversary, the stat block provides a Difficulty for the roll. However, if an NPC doesn't have a stat block—or if you like the unpredictability of rolling—you can have that NPC make a roll to determine what the Difficulty would be. Though this can add to the time it takes to resolve the scene, it can also be a useful tool in situations where you're unsure what the Difficulty should be. To make a Difficulty Roll, roll a d20 and add any relevant Experience the NPC or adversary has to its total.

Tip: Attack rolls against adversaries use that stat block's assigned Difficulty. For other PC action rolls, it's often easiest to add the relevant Experience to the adversary's current Difficulty to determine the new Difficulty.

Example Difficulty¶

Included here are Difficulty examples for each trait. Don't feel the need to refer to these during play—just use them to get a sense for how Difficulty works so you can make judgment calls on the fly as your players take actions.

Example Difficulty Settings¶

Agility¶

Strength¶

Finesse¶

Instinct¶

Presence¶

Knowledge¶