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For example, my entire party is versed in Arcana and they attempted to recall lore on a spell.

  • Party member A made the skill check while being helped by B and failed with advantage.
  • B tried while being helped by A and failed with advantage.
  • C tried while being helped by D and failed with advantage.
  • D tried while being helped by C and failed with advantage.
  • E tried while being helped by A and succeeded because of advantage.

By working together in this way can a party of X size perform 2X skill checks on the same task?

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Are you a player or the DM? \$\endgroup\$
    – Rubiksmoose
    Mar 14, 2019 at 18:20
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    \$\begingroup\$ related: rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/56017/… \$\endgroup\$
    – Raj
    Mar 14, 2019 at 18:45
  • \$\begingroup\$ I'm the DM. My party likes to have 10 skill checks for every skill they all can perform. \$\endgroup\$
    – kent
    Mar 15, 2019 at 0:06

1 Answer 1

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This is a great time to use a group check

The Basic Rules (and this question on this site) detail the procedure for this:

...everyone in the group makes the ability check. If at least half the group succeeds, the whole group succeeds. Otherwise, the group fails.

If the entire party is collaborating by pulling their knowledge together (essentially what your series of checks boils down to), a group check is the perfect way to make this system work without almost guaranteeing someone rolls high enough for the success.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Can I use a group check when they are essentially attempting it in pairs? Can it be used whenever three or more players are attempting the same task, or does it have to be the whole party? \$\endgroup\$
    – kent
    Mar 15, 2019 at 0:08
  • \$\begingroup\$ @kent as the GM you can use them whenever you think it is warranted. \$\endgroup\$
    – David Coffron
    Mar 15, 2019 at 0:23
  • \$\begingroup\$ I'm not sure if a group check is a good idea, if the task actually succeeds, if a single one of the chars succeeds (assuming everyone is willing to share the information). If I had to make a ruling in this scenario, I'd ask for the players to make one roll for one char of their choice with advantage, maybe for another one by a specific PC that is more familiar with the topic. \$\endgroup\$
    – fabian
    Mar 15, 2019 at 10:34
  • \$\begingroup\$ @fabian the problem with that is players ask why they didn't get a chance to succeed, and if everyone tries someone's extremely likely to roll lucky once \$\endgroup\$
    – David Coffron
    Mar 15, 2019 at 12:45

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