So I was curious to see how the new DCs matched up with the goal for each section in Doomsday Dawn. Here's the results for Lost Star.
A2. Mudchewer Central - “DC 8 Perception.” Context: searching the room for items. Easy level 1. Assuming everyone rolls, "You can usually skip rolling and assume the characters succeed against easy DCs unless it’s necessary for everybody to try the check." In this case, only one person needs to succeed.
A4. Motivation Room section - “DC 13 Medicine.” Context: finding details about the dead bodies. Medium level 1. Assuming everyone rolls this, there's very little challenge here.
A5. Fungus Bloom section - “DC 14 Nature.” Context: requirement to identify the fungus and its details. Medium level 2. Not really that much challenge, and really only level 2 because the fungus is.
A6. Purification Fountain section - “DC 16 Thievery.” Context: opening the locked door. Hard level 2. I originally had this as Incredible 1, but switched it after referencing the other key-related sections.
A9. Choking Sands section - “DC 8 Religion.” Context: Identifying Pharasma. Easy level 1.
A11. Pharasma’s Sanctum section - “DC 16 Thievery.” Context: Getting into the room without fighting Drakus for the key. Hard level 2, but really, this should never come up.
A12. Drakus’s Lair section - “DC 17 Thievery.” Context: Opening Drakus's chest without the key. Incredible level 2.
These are the changes. What didn't change in Lost Star?
A6. Purification Fountain section - DC 12 Thievery to remove the idol. This doesn't align with the table at all, which is kind of weird.
A7. Goblin Headquarters section - DC 15 Athletics/Perception/Thievery for all things related to the secret door, which is technically Hard level 1, but is weird given all the other Drakus's key checks appear to be level 2. Also a DC 12 Perception to notice the goblins beforehand, again not aligning with the table.
A8. Room of Ruined Repose section - DC 15 Perception to find the corpse pile's gear. Hard level 1. Noted as 50% for someone who's strong in the skill, which aligns with the numbers. 18 Wis and trained has a 50% chance here.
A10. Befouled Shrine section - DC 12 Athletics to open the door without Drakus noticing. Medium-Hard level 1. Probably going to be slightly over 50% for the first shot, but you only have one try at it. Still doesn't align with the table. Also a DC 15 Pharasma Lore check (Hard level 1), which is realistically only coming up for a cleric of Pharasma.
Post-game: DC 15 Society - Hard level 1 to know more details about Necerion.
So what's noticeable here? The Hard+ level 2 checks, for one, are definitely not designed for a PC group to easily do. What the change does mean, though, is that it's going to be significantly less likely for a rogue to break their picks or undo their progress, given a 18 Dex rogue now needs a 2 on the die to crit fail the locks, and a 3 on the chest.
The other thing I'm looking at is the weird DC 12 checks scattered throughout, which don't seem to align with anything.