Progressive checks are a tool that DMs can use in a lot of different situations, but they pop up in social situations more than others. This is a concept that transcends editions - it's as present in 5th as it was in earlier ones because it stands more or less in the DM's personal hands, rather than a hard-ruled thing.
The general ideal is that, except in obvious or extreme circumstances, for a difficult, progressing or complicated task (such as navigating a delicate social situation, or convincing the guards that you really should be let into that room) doing poorly or well on one check alone shouldn't be an absolute failure or an easy success, but that each check influences how the conversation progresses. Doing poorly on a first check shouldn't absolutely lock you out of progressing, or throw you into a fail state - but it will make climbing back out of the hole you dug harder, and if you continue to screw up, you'll fail for certain. Similarly, a good first check may not make the guards fall over themselves to let you pass, but it would certainly be likely to assure, allay or endear them to your situation, making it easier to convince them as the conversation progresses.
We don't have 'progressive checks' in BG3 at the moment - we have 'successive checks', which are more or less a dick move from any DM. Successive checks, like BG3 uses in many places, are checks that you have to pas one after the other, and any failure at any point catapults you into the exact same fail state as failing the first one (or not trying at all). These are checks that you ultimately have a completely minuscule chance of passing, even though each individual check might only be moderate, because you only have to fail one, any one, to end up at the same spot as if you never tried. It is the tool of a DM who has already decided how the conversation is going to go, and is just going to brow beat you with checks until you fail one and they can jump to the outcome they want.
Last edited by Niara; 09/01/21 02:59 AM.
