Has anyone tried the Proficiency Dice Variant rule from the DMG?

[Mith]

Hello,

I was wondering if anyone has ever tried using the proficency die option in the DMG where you add an extra die to a roll instead of a static bonus. The scaling goes d4 -> d6 -> d8 -> d10 -> d12 instead of 2->3->4->5->6. Expertise would double the dice rolled.

On average, this would increase the die roll by .5. So the average roll is 11+(2,3,4,5,6) at a given proficiency level.

Reading other people's house rule of letting skills be 2d10 instead of 1d20 to reduce the swing, I wonder if it would be too much to allow Expertise to grant a +1 to the skill roll as well.
This allows the Expert to always make a DC 10 in their field. The average roll at level 20 with a 20 in the chosen stat would be: (11.5 from 2d10)+(13 from 2d12)+6 = 30.5. This is from an individual that has reached the peak of mortal ability in attribute and proficiency in a given skill. Compare to the normal variant: (10.5 from d20)+(12 from proficiency)+(5 from attribute bonus) = 27.5. A 3 point difference or about 10% improvement.

I am aware that there is Reliable talent for Rogues and I think Bards gets something like that as well that helps them as well. I see this as helping those that want to use Expertise feats to gain Expertise in other classes.

What is your experience/opinion of the variant, and/or my idea of a house rule?

[TheUser]

Hello,

I was wondering if anyone has ever tried using the proficency die option in the DMG where you add an extra die to a roll instead of a static bonus. The scaling goes d4 -> d6 -> d8 -> d10 -> d12 instead of 2->3->4->5->6. Expertise would double the dice rolled.

On average, this would increase the die roll by .5. So the average roll is 11+(2,3,4,5,6) at a given proficiency level.

Reading other people's house rule of letting skills be 2d10 instead of 1d20 to reduce the swing, I wonder if it would be too much to allow Expertise to grant a +1 to the skill roll as well.
This allows the Expert to always make a DC 10 in their field. The average roll at level 20 with a 20 in the chosen stat would be: (11.5 from 2d10)+(13 from 2d12)+6 = 30.5. This is from an individual that has reached the peak of mortal ability in attribute and proficiency in a given skill. Compare to the normal variant: (10.5 from d20)+(12 from proficiency)+(5 from attribute bonus) = 27.5. A 3 point difference or about 10% improvement.

I am aware that there is Reliable talent for Rogues and I think Bards gets something like that as well that helps them as well. I see this as helping those that want to use Expertise feats to gain Expertise in other classes.

What is your experience/opinion of the variant, and/or my idea of a house rule?
2d10 or 1-100?
Making a crit miss snake eyes on 2d10 reduces crit miss chances by a lot; the same for crit strikes.
Do you make crits 96+ and misses 0-5?

[Mith]

2d10 or 1-100?
Making a crit miss snake eyes on 2d10 reduces crit miss chances by a lot; the same for crit strikes.
Do you make crits 96+ and misses 0-5?

2d10 likely, although I do like the idea of using percentiles, I think that might be to much fuss. Percentile break down to 1% increments vs. 5% of the 1d20, which may not gain much for the conversion. The idea is only for skills, so critical failure/success do not come into play.

[Talyn]

Our group tried the dice variant, and it only lasted a session or two - the much-enhanced randomness stressed out some members of the group (not me, I didn't mind it), and, believe it or not, rolling the extra dice was a pain to keep track of, especially for the DM.

If we had a different group, I think it would have worked out fine, it doesn't seem mechanically any better or worse, but it just wasn't for us.

[Mith]

Thanks for your response. I can see why one would like the consistency of the static boost, but I feel that if it was combined with replacing the 1d20 with 2d10 for skill rolls, it would not be so swingy to cause problems. With regards to combat, would taking out the natural 1 auto miss, allowing for a high proficiency die roll and high attribute sat to still have effect help balance out the variance of the attack roll value due to the variance of the proficiency die?