Step 2: Calculate the Result and Compare it to the DC

Sum any modifiers that you identified in Step 1. Next, add that value to the highest number that came up on your d20 roll. This total is your check result.

Sometimes you’ll know the Difficulty Class (DC) of your check. In these cases, if your result is equal to or greater than the DC, you succeed! If you roll anything less than the DC, you fail.

Other times, you might not know the DC right away. Swimming across a river would require an Athletics check, but it doesn’t have a specified DC. How will you know if you succeed or fail? You call out your result to the GM and they will let you know if it is a success, failure, or otherwise. While you might learn the exact DC through trial and error, DCs sometimes change, so asking the GM whether a check is successful is the best way to determine whether or not you have met or exceeded the DC.

Calculating DCs

Whenever you attempt a check, you compare your result against a DC. When someone or something else attempts a check against you, rather than both forces rolling against one another, the GM (or player, if the opponent is another PC) compares their result to a fixed score based on your relevant statistic, such as a defence, your weapon skill, spell skill or a passive skill score. Your score for a given statistic is 10 + the total modifier for that statistic.

This score is further modified, by any instances of +1d or -1d, including your proficiency rank. The second die in your pool grants +4 to your score, the third +2, and +1 thereafter to a maximum of total dice pool modifier of +10.

Dice Pool Size	Score
2d20kh1	14 + modifier
3d20kh1	16 + modifier
4d20kh1	17 + modifier
5d20kh1	18 + modifier
6d20kh1	19 + modifier
7d20kh1	20 + modifier