[RPG] How does DC work with natural 20

difficulty-classdnd-5eskills

To keep it short, the D&D Dungeon Master's Screen has certain Difficulty Levels with the respective DC. The issue is that there are two Difficulty Levels namely Very Hard and Nearly Impossible whose DC is greater than 20.

My question is; If you are trying to, for example, lockpick a very high-difficulty lock that requires a DC 25 and you get natural 20, do you lockpick it as it is "Natural Success" or do you have to have a +5 or higher modifier with thieve's tools as well? (My question applies for anything that may require a DC higher than 20, I set an example with the lockpick)

Best Answer

There is no automatic success for ability checks

Rolling a natural 20 only guarantees success when attempting an attack in 5e.

For skill checks, a natural 20 essentially means the pinnacle of what you are capable of doing naturally. So if the DC of a lock is 25, and your modifier on the roll is only +3, the lock is impossible for you to open without some sort of outside help that grants you a bonus (i.e. Bardic Inspiration, some sort of magic spell, etc.)

The PHB (pg. 174) further details this:

To make an ability check, roll a d20 and add the relevant ability modifier. As with other d20 rolls, apply bonuses and penalties, and compare the total to the DC. If the total equals or exceeds the DC, the ability check is a success the creature overcomes the challenge at hand. Otherwise, it’s a failure, which means the character or monster makes no progress toward the objective or makes progress combined with a setback determined by the DM.

Consider the notion of someone attempting to jump to the moon, which could be considered impossible. You could set a DC for such a feat if you were so inclined, but even if a 20 were rolled, the character would never meet the DC.

Otherwise, 1 in every 20 children would succeed when they tried. And the moon is a terrible place to raise a family.

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