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For some skills, it's totally clear. A lock has a DC of say 25 to open, then you need to hit 25 with your d20 + Disable Device ranks + mods, etc. If you don't, it don't open.
But for other skills, it doesn't seem so clear. There are degrees of success. Take Knowledge (religion) for example. DC 10 to recognize a holy symbol and DC 15 to know some mythology. Do I have to pick? If I say, "Go for mythology," and end up with a 14, am I out of luck? No nuthin'? I don't think so (at least I hope not). You roll and try to get as high a score as possible. If you hit 10, you know who the holy symbol belongs to, if you hit 15 you know some myths, if you hit 20 probably know some obscure details or unorthodox practices.
The only reason I bring this up is I've seen some really good discussions of skills where people talk about skill checks in these skill as if they were all or nothing. They do it because that's the way the language in the books is, as if it were all or nothing. I just wonder if the descriptions of success should be re-worded a little to reflect the way these skills are really used.
This is all kinda' lame without an example. I'll go look for one ...
... okay, back. How about this, from Knowledge:
"Answering questions within your field of study has a DC of 10 (for really easy questions), 15 (for basic questions), or 20 to 30 (for really tough questions)."
It just seems to me you don't say "I'm going to ask an easy question!" nor do you ask a question and have the DM say "That's really tough." You roll first and figure out how much information you know after. Maybe it should be re-written:
"When you attempt to remember information in your field of study, roll a d20 and add your modifiers. If your skill check reaches 10, you can only remember really easy information. If it reaches 15 you can remember basic information, and if you can reach 30 you can remember a bit of quite obscure but relevant information."
I guess I just want the text to be written more like I've experienced skill checks being used. I used Knowledge as my example, but I'd say Diplomacy, influencing animals with Handle Animals, maybe Heal, certainly Craft, Perform, Profession and probably a few others work like this, where you just want to roll as high as you can and see what you end up with rather than shooting for a fixed DC target.
Any thoughts? Does this even matter?
I have given this thread my leafy blessing.