Low Skill Check DCs and the "Auto-Success"

[Splode]

I see it at most tables I play at. Let's say a Monk wants to jump across a thing. The Monk has a +20 to Acrobatics and the DC of the jump is 15. As a time saving measure, the GM just declares the jump a success.

Is there any textual rules precedence for the "auto-success" on skill checks, or is this just a house rule?

[Nefreet]

Rolling a natural 1 on a Skill Check isn't an automatic failure (for most skills), so there's virtually no point in spending the time to roll a dice if their static bonuses are higher than the DC.

Plus, you can just Take 10.

[Rynjin]

Textual rules precedent:

"If the result of your skill check is equal to or greater than the difficulty class (or DC) of the task you are attempting to accomplish, you succeed. "

What more do you need? Last I checked 20 exceeds 15.

[Snowblind]

The die still technically needs to be rolled.

It just doesn't change anything, since the monk's check will exceed the DC regardless of what they roll (20+1d20>15 for any value of 1d20) and a nat.1 is not a fail on skill checks.

Since the result is a forgone conclusion and rolling is a complete waste of time GMs just say "don't bother".

Note that if there was for example a hypothetical ability that made a character(no choice) reroll the first nat.1 on a skill check they rolled each day, then the die would need to be rolled.

[StabbittyDoom]

Unless you have some special class/feat mechanic that depends on the result of your die rolls, there is literally no point in rolling a skill check if your modifier is 1 point less than the DC or greater. Since there's no auto-success or auto-failure on skills, actually rolling the die is just wasting time at that point. In fact, take-10 exists in part to make this a more common occurrence out of combat so that the DM doesn't have to have people make 17 skill checks just to wipe their own bum (metaphorically speaking).

One of my favorite DMs has a habit of just ball-parking skill DCs and assuming certain characters make their checks, proceeding to that stage without waiting. It helps keep the action going and keeps things fun. If you can succeed on a 1, it's not a challenge, so don't slow down for it. If anything it makes me feel more bad-ass at that skill because the character is so good at it that it becomes fair to simply assume they will succeed at most tasks rather than to bother checking.