Most of us have probably heard about the option of rolling 3d6 in the place of a d20 roll.
I had an idea to make this option available through a feat.
Equilibrium
You can focus to perform adequately at most tasks, neither great, nor poor.
Benefit: You can choose to roll 3d6 instead of a d20 on any attack roll, saving throw, or skill check. This allows you to perform more consistently, rolling 7-14 over 80% of the time. On attack rolls, you cannot miss on a natural roll of 1, nor threaten a critical hit on an attack unless your weapon normally would threaten on an 18 or lower.
To put things in perspective, here's a chart demonstrating the chance of success, depending on the roll result needed.
The left column is the minimum roll result needed for success.
The middle column is the chance of success on a normal d20 roll.
The right column is the chance of success on a 3d6 roll (rounded to the nearest .1%)
1__100%__100%
2___95%__100%
3___90%__100%
4___85%__99.5%
5___80%__98.1%
6___75%__95.4%
7___70%__90.7%
8___65%__83.8%
9___60%__74.1%
10__55%__62.5%
11__50%__50%
12__45%__37.5%
13__40%__25.9%
14__35%__16.2%
15__30%__9.3%
16__25%__4.6%
17__20%__1.9%
18__15%__0.5%
19__10%__0%
20___5%__0%
As you can see, this feat is beneficial when you only need a 10 or lower to succeed. As such, one might choose to use this feat when they have a particularly high modifier, to hopefully minimize their chance of failure.
For example, this feat is great for saving throws, when you already have a high bonus, like a rogue making a reflex save.
Another example is certain skill checks. Using this feat is similar to taking 10, except there's still a small range of uncertainty, and they don't need to be free of distractions or threats. You can think of it as a "take 7" feat, with a 90.7% chance of success, that you can use at any time.
A fighter with high attack bonuses could also use this to minimize his miss chance, and the cost of critical chance.
As a feat, should it have a prerequisite, like 13 Wis?
Do you think you would ever take this feat? Why or why not?
Would it be better as a default option, item ability, or spell?
Questions, Comments, Suggestions?
It's kind of likea weaker version of taking 10, except you can use it when you are not allowed to take 10, as such it does have its uses.
It's effectively a +1 to all checks, attack rolls and saves that require a 10 to succeed and even more for lower ones, so it is pretty good in regards to saves and skills, if you know what DC you're up against, which you usually don't, or shouldn't without metagaming.
As for attack rolls, taking away the chance to crit seems like a disadvantage too great for a slightly better chance to hit when it is already reasonable.
So that's where I see the problems, with it. I wouldn't take the feat but it's certainly not the worst i've seen.
I agree about the lost crit chance, and would only expect to see people use this feat on attack rolls when they really need to land that hit, like to finish off a monster's last bit of HP, or to apply a weapon ability or poison or something like that.
I see this as a really powerful feat for a skill monkey, especially if your group uses critical failure rules. Even if you could still crit on a 3 or 18 with this feat, the chances are greatly reduced.
I'd also probably use this to reduce the uncertainty for saves that I have high bonuses for. With an 80% chance at a 7-14 roll, I can save with greater confidence.
Even without knowing the exact DCs you're up against, you do know which skills and saves you're good at, and can tell when a roll close to 10 should be good enough. The idea is that you're so skilled at certain tasks, that you can reduce the variability of your results. You're consistently good, even if not great.
This is great. I once wasted 2 true strikes in a row by fumbling. I threw the D20 in the trash at the convention. This is a much better solution.
Instead of a prerequisite, how about the character must use 3D6 for all attack rolls.
I would be extermely wary of a feat like this. It alters one of the fundamental mechanical aspects of the game - the d20 roll - so could have unforseen consequences.