Originally Posted by Orbax
Originally Posted by Grantig

Missing out additional info, as a history check fails and maybe later coming to a wrong assumption is completely different from such hard-checks as "kid dies because surprise skill check in the middle of a conversation".
A hard-check in a surprise situation, okay, but several of the checks here seem just to be there to enforce reloading.

That is another critical point. In D&D you always know that "phew, ok...gonna go talk to that druid. Can someone cast guidance on me? Druid player, can I get enhance ability on Charisma? Oh, I cast disguise self on me to make myself look like a wood-elf. Here goes nothing!"

NOW you can mess with rolls being important. Players know, will prep, will get info, use spells, all of that before going in and talking to an important NPC. If I narrated them walking into a tense situation with the King of All Lands and God and Satan and they saw it from 100 feet and cut them off as they began to whisper plans on what to do and said "So, you continue walking the 100 feet up to them. They immediately notice you. What do you say". Lol, wow that is fucking them. That is exactly what they do with cut scenes over and over for this stuff.

The thing is, in this Kagha situation, you can do all that stuff. You probably have talked to the tieflings and know that Kagha has arrested their child for stealing the idol, so you have in information to prep. Cast guidance and disguise self on yourself before you open the stone door.

If you don't prep before opening the door, that's kind of on you. And at that point you're 15 feet away, and maybe your DM would still allow you to cast guidance. But most DMs would either not allow that or would roleplay the Kagha noticing the players and asking "Hey, why are you casting all those spells aimed at influencing opinions on yourself from 15 feet away from me?" (which the game can't do)

Btw I agree that the Kagha situation should have more options. An insight check to guess that the child is going to run, a dexterity check to put yourself in front of the child/kill the snake, and initial dialogue option (NOT a check) to walk between the snake and the child, similar to putting yourself between the crossbow tiefling and the caged goblin. I like the dialogue dice rolls, but there should be more degrees of failure/success and the kid shouldn't die from failure from a basically unrelated check.