Rule question regarding rolling a natural 1 on a caster level check

[Corrado marcucci]

Hi, we had this come up. We looked up when is a 1 an auto fail. In the core rule book it states that Attacks and saves 1 always fails 20 always succeeds. A natural 1 is not an auto fail for skill checks, but we couldn't find any thing on if a natural 1 is an auto fail on a caster level check. Please let me know what you think and if possible let me know where the rule can be found so we can present it as fact and not have to spend all night in a debate.

Thank you

[LazarX]

Corrado marcucci wrote:

Hi, we had this come up. We looked up when is a 1 an auto fail. In the core rule book it states that Attacks and saves 1 always fails 20 always succeeds. A natural 1 is not an auto fail for skill checks, but we couldn't find any thing on if a natural 1 is an auto fail on a caster level check. Please let me know what you think and if possible let me know where the rule can be found so we can present it as fact and not have to spend all night in a debate.

Thank you

It's not an auto-fail, but depending on the DC it may well be a failure anyway. On the same tack a 20 is not an auto-succeed.

[The Fox]

Natural 1 auto-fails on attacks and saves. Natural 20 auto succeeds on attacks and saves. That's it.

[TetsujinOni]

Caster level checks are not attack rolls.

Automatic failures are specifically enumerated and the roll of a natural 1 on the die merely results in adding 1 to the static part of any check other than those called out.

Flagged to move to the general rules forum as this is unrelated to PFS.

[Majuba]

There's a great thread, not too old, that has all the odds and ends of 'natural' 1's and 20's. There are a few things beyond attacks and saves that have effects (like natural 20 works on stabilization checks, or natural 1's on UMD (when you fail)), but those are by far the largest group.

[Lifat]

Yeah. Unless the rules specify that a certain check has special rules for a 1 or a 20 then you are to assume they have no effect. (outside the roll itself)...

Caster level checks has no special rules for a 1 or a 20. So... If you have a high enough modifier you could potential succeed on a 1. If you have a low enough modifier you could potentially fail on a 20 too.