In the Dungeon Master’s Guide. Chapter 8, “Running the Game,” specifically pages 242–245.
Done.
…
Why are you still here?
Okay, okay.
A common-enough critique of D&D 5e is that it focuses most of its rules on Combat. Even if we assume this is true of the Player’s Handbook (which is actually questionable—in the PHB, the Combat chapter is 12 pages, while Equipment is 20; Spellcasting is only 6, but the Spells themselves add another 76, though many spells do deal damage) a question arises about the other two pillars of the game. Where are all the mechanics for Exploration and Roleplay?
In the Adventure modules, usually.
(Spoiler warning beyond this point! Spoilers for Lost Mine of Phandelver.)
In Phandelver part 1: Goblin Arrows, the text includes:
… any character who approaches to make a closer investigation can identify the horses as belonging to Gundren Rockseeker and Sildar Hallwinter.
LMoP: Goblin Ambush
A little further down (this being intended for completely new players) it continues:
The characters might capture one or more goblins by knocking them unconscious… a captured goblin can be convinced to share what it knows…
Ibid.
That’s a social encounter. Because these are not especially dedicated goblins, there are no published DCs, and the intent appears to be that if the players attempt to ask, cajole, or threaten them at all, you can divulge what they know. A more experienced DM might use the Conversation Reaction tables in the DMG as a basis, and set a DC of something like 10–15 for Charisma (Persuasion or Intimidation) checks.
Still further in the chapter, we read:
About 10 minutes after heading down the trail, a party on the path encounters a hidden snare. … [T]he character in the lead spots the trap automatically if his or her passive Wisdom (Perception) is 12 or higher. Otherwise the character must succeed on a DC 12 Wisdom (Perception) check to notice the trap. … triggers the snare and must succeed on a DC 10 Dexterity saving throw.
Ibid.
That’s an Exploration encounter. This trap is hidden, but not especially well. It’s clear which rolls are required and what the DCs are. I’ve written my own encounters with very similar content.
Going back to the PHB, let’s look at some common adventuring gear. For example, a Lock:
Without the key, a creature proficient with thieves’ tools can pick this lock with a successful DC 15 Dexterity check.
PHB: Equipment.
Almost all of the equipment here actually has specific mechanics. Much of it is combat-ish, like the Hunting Trap‘s DC 13 Dex save or the Holy Water‘s 2d6 radiant damage. But there is also a lot of exploration focus: Lamps and Lanterns have specific mechanical light they emit; Manacles have DCs to escape, break, and lockpick them; Tents sleep two (omg they were roommates).
Among Spells, most with casting times or durations over 1 minute—and a handful quicker ones—are explicitly either exploratory or social: arcane eye, augury, charm person, create food and water, friends, minor illusion, etc.
There are three main reasons I can see for both the perception and any reality that the rules are more focused on Combat than on Exploration or Roleplay encounters:
- D&D 5e is, at its core, a game about fighting monsters and other baddies. The mechanics, including where the mechanics choose to focus, are designed to help create that fiction: This is a dangerous world and resorting to violence is commonplace.
- Combat takes place on the smallest time scale: 6-second Rounds. To navigate such a tight time frame, the rules have to constrain players actions much more.
- Combat rules are generalizable in a way—or to an extent—that Exploration and Roleplay rules are not.
I think the last point is particularly interesting. There’s no check needed to convince these goblins to spill their secrets. Later, a goblin leader has a name (Yeemik) along with specific goals and even deceptions. (To be fair, this module continues to be a little light on help for new DMs: it would be helpful to specify that Yeemik should either make make checks or set defined DCs for sneaking and parley.) In Phandalin, there are stated DCs for checks on History and Insight. Outside of town there are specified DCs for Persuasion, Arcana, History, knocking over a statue, Perception, Survival, spotting traps, Religion, Athletics, and lines like: “if they defeat the hobgoblin war band or come to terms with Targor.”
Each of these checks pertains to a specific thing in the world. This hobgoblin can be convinced on a DC 15 Persuasion check. This escarpment requires a DC 12 Athletics check to climb. This fact requires a DC 11 Religion check to recall. This path requires a DC 10 Survival check to follow.
In fact, these rules are generalized in the PHB in chapter 7: Using Ability Scores. The concept of “Bounded Accuracy” is linked to the “Typical Difficulty Classes” table. Thanks to that table we know that knocking over that statue (DC 20) is the hardest thing on the list, technically. We know that some facts are not common knowledge but likely known by any learned person. There’s a lock that is better than average: the DC to unlock it is 20. There is a door in one adventure that says it would, in theory, take a DC 70 Strength check to knock down—a fact included only to underscore the impossibility of the task (spoilers!).
However that’s, more or less, all you can say, in general. The DMG goes a little further in providing tables for DCs to track a creature and DCs for conversational checks based on the disposition of a character towards the party. There are optional Loyalty rules you can use. Xanathar’s Guide fills in some example tables for using artisan’s tools. Tasha’s Cauldron adds examples of things a creature might want to be used in parley. It also includes a list of spells you can use to mechanically describe the effects of certain natural hazards, to help round out some of the exploration.
These are all, though, examples. Starting points. Any individual NPC, trap, hazard, path, or fact, may be more or less difficult to convince, spot, avoid, follow, or know. An NPC in one adventure specifies that “requests made to her succeed with a DC 14 Charisma (Persuasion) [check].” Others in the same chapter—more wary or with less reason to cooperate—require a DC 18 or 19 check to let some information slip. A contingent of downtrodden servants requires only a DC 12 check.
All of the examples are helpful for creating a mental framework for assigning DCs. I think most DMs with more than a single session under their belt have had to improvise DCs as the characters consider something hitherto undreamt. Knowing, for example, that a shopkeeper is on friendly terms with the party but that they are asking for a discount that would put them at a loss, we might set a Persuasion DC at 18 or 20—and make a small withdrawal on their good will on a success. If there are external factors, like with the NPCs above, that may raise or lower it. But then the party decides to Intimidate the shopkeep instead, which needs a DC 25 because even the attempt changes their relationship with the party.
So where are the general rules for Exploration and Roleplay encounters? Spread out, admittedly, across the PHB, DMG, and to a lesser extent XGtE and TCoE.
The specific rules, though, are typically found in the adventures, alongside the specific entity they describe.
Anyone can make a Charisma check—just like anyone can take the Ready or Dash actions—and that’s described in the core rule books. Whether it succeeds or not depends on who they’re talking to. Different creatures have different Armor Classes to hit, and so to do different creatures have different wants, needs, and opinions; different trails receive different levels of upkeep; and different traps are hidden differently.
James DM 