In just about any campaign, the following situation is bound to happen at some point. Someone rolls a skill check to perform an acrobatic feat or try some quick talking. They roll either a natural 20 or a natural 1. They either celebrate their crit success or crit fail and wait for the DM to describe their soaring achievement or tragic failure. Then, some other player interrupts and says that, actually, critical successes and critical failures don’t apply to skill checks, only attacks. This goes on for some time until someone points out that it doesn’t really matter, since a ❀natural 20 beats the skill DC or a natural 1 fails.
Well, it turns out it is possible to avoid these arguments altogether. The rarely-read Dungeons Master’s Guide actually has rules for crits on skill checks. The rules on page 242 of the guide state that the DM can choose to “take such an exceptional roll into account” when determining the outcome of a skill check. It mentions that critically f꧋ailing can cause something worse than just not succeeding at the attempt, such as a set of thieves’ tools breaking off in the lock during a lockpicking attempt. Critically succeeding, on the other hand, can go beyond the scope of the original attempt, such as finding an extra clue in an I𓃲nvestigation check.
In addition, DMs can experiment with degrees of success and failure. DMs often treat skill checks as binary. If it is over the DC it succeeds without a hitch, if it is under it fails horribly. However, these are not the only options. The Dungeon Master’s Guide describes different ways to implement different degrees of success and failure. Trying to disarm a trap is tricky business, but there’s a difference between not succeeding at the disarming attempt and getting a face full of arrows. Maybe t༒he trap only triggers if a player fails by 5 or more, otherwise they know to stop early.
Successes can vary too.🍬 If a player is trying to use Persuasion or Deception for a grift, there’s a difference between complete credulity and wary acceptance. That can be the difference between rolling a 14 and rolling an ♏18.
Of course, all of these things are optional for the DM to use to enhance their campaigns or not. Many DMs who don’t know about these rules use them anyway, since “I’m the DM and I say so” is rule zero of D&D. Stꦅill, the fact that it’s written down should shut down some arguments at the tabl💮e.
Source: