If for any reason a pc fails a skill check e.g heal can the pc then turn round and say "I dont know wots that is or wots wrong with him but im going to do this to see if it works" Is this the right way about going around a failed check?
|
Try Again: Any conditions that apply to successive attempts
to use the skill successfully. If the skill doesn't allow you to
attempt the same task more than once, or if failure carries an
inherent penalty (such as with the Climb skill), you can't take
20. If this paragraph is omitted, the skill can be retried
without any inherent penalty other than the additional time
required.
Depending on the skill involved, this very well could be the case. Check the 'Try Again' entry for additional details.
Many times the limits aren't applicable to multiple characters making the same skill check. Appraise, for example, or Knowledge. Bluff, though, is a different story:
Try Again: If you fail to deceive someone, further attempts
to deceive them are at a –10 penalty and may be impossible
(GM discretion).
After being lied to once, I'd rule that the skepticism carries over to the next person's attempt as well. They probably would have been better off to use the 'Aid Another' rules instead...
:)
If for any reason a pc fails a skill check e.g heal can the pc then turn round and say "I dont know wots that is or wots wrong with him but im going to do this to see if it works" Is this the right way about going around a failed check?
Is your situation "The PC failed their check, so they don't know what's wrong or how to fix it. Therefore, they're going to try something random which just so happens to be the correct thing to do."?
By RAW, from a purely mechanical perspective, it doesn't matter what they describe themselves as doing, if they fail the heal check, it doesn't work. This could be described as treating the wrong problem or a symptom instead of the problem, or could be that they just botched the job. As per the Try Again rules, if they failed at providing first aid or they can clearly see that they didn't help, they can try again - as another standard action (i.e. next turn).
From a metagame perspective, I'd first tell the player "No, that's what you just tried, and it didn't help. You can try again next turn." If they insist, I'd probably let them try it, then say "Your patient screams in pain as you manhandle the bones you're trying to set without having any idea of what you're doing." or "You tie a bandage around the wound, but it slips off as soon as he moves because you didn't secure it correctly." or something like that.
|
|
Oops, sorry, missed the 'heal' example. Here's heal's Try Again:
Try Again: Varies. Generally speaking, you can't try a Heal check again without witnessing proof of the original check's
failure. You can always retry a check to provide first aid, assuming the target of the previous attempt is still alive.
So they would think that it worked until enough time had passed to demonstrate that it actually didn't... Otherwise they could try again.
In this case, with more than one PC having the skill, you MIGHT allow the second character to make a 'supervisory' check. If the second check exceeded the first by a reasonable amount, +5/+10/whatever, you could rule that they noticed the mistake. A lot of real world tutoring works this way.