I disagree that the DM shouldn’t let them try. For a lockpicking example, there are plenty of people who think they could pick a lock who have no shot of actually doing it. The DM shouldn’t be telling them no if their character might think they could do it. They should just roll and tell them they failed. Let them try. They don’t have to know they didn’t stand a chance —unless they get a nat 20, because obviously then they’ll know it was always going to fail.
Yeah, obviously mailing it shouldn’t do anything. They should roll to attack and then roll for damage, because that’s what they’re doing, not a skill check. And yeah, it’s going to destroy something. For something like a lockpick, they could roll and break the lock. Pathfinder handles this better with degrees of success.
I disagree that the DM shouldn’t let them try. For a lockpicking example, there are plenty of people who think they could pick a lock who have no shot of actually doing it. The DM shouldn’t be telling them no if their character might think they could do it. They should just roll and tell them they failed. Let them try. They don’t have to know they didn’t stand a chance —unless they get a nat 20, because obviously then they’ll know it was always going to fail.
Yeah, obviously mailing it shouldn’t do anything. They should roll to attack and then roll for damage, because that’s what they’re doing, not a skill check. And yeah, it’s going to destroy something. For something like a lockpick, they could roll and break the lock. Pathfinder handles this better with degrees of success.