So I was looking for a sample table of difficulties for Acrobatics, but couldn't find anything.
What is the difficulty to balance on a thick tree limb?
"" while moving at full speed?
What is the difficulty to balance on a thin tree limb, or jump from thin limb to the next?
What is the difficulty to stay standing or running up and down a big dragon?
"" and if that dragon is flying,
"" and if you are trying to shoot at the dragon while staying on top of it as it rolls over?
What is the difficulty to keep running and jumping from falling parts of a bridge or sinking ice blocks across a semi frozen river, without falling in?
What is the difficulty to do something like a Somersault over a similar sized target while trying to attack them mid flight?
What is the difficulty to jump and stay balanced on top of enemy's heads while fighting?
Most of these... actually all of these are scenes from various television and movie fantasy shows we have seen. It seems logical that some of these daring actions might even provide surpise to enemies who are taken back by the daring and reckless behavior. But I get the feeling most DMs would just say it's impossible, and if you roll a 20, you pull it off while the enemies get attacks of opportunity.
I've actually had one DM say I needed to make a grappling check to balance on a moving target... I was thinking... hmn.. balance = grapple? WTF? Legolas must be strong enough to put Smaug in a headlock.
5e doesn't have codified tables for each and every type of ability check. They all fall into the same broad categories:
Very easy 5
Easy 10
Medium 15
Hard 20
Very hard 25
Nearly impossible 30
With advantage and disadvantage covering contingencies as described in the Basic Rules.
shintashi wrote:
Stop mixing up Tolkien! Legoland ... I mean Legolas* never directly fought Smaug. 
Now balancing on the back of an oliphant is a different story. As a DM if someone is trying to climb on the back of a creature it's either a Dexterity (acrobatics) check to be a CGI elf or a Strength (athletics) check to hold on like a rodeo cowboy.
I also regularly allow Dexterity (acrobatics) checks for scaling structures as well if it's not just a straight scaling a cliff (parkour/Jackie Chan vs rock climbing).
*BTW I don't really have a problem with Legolas or elves in general. I just have a slight preference for playing dwarves so the attitude rubs off.
Tempest_Stormwind wrote:
It is really up to your DM to adjucate, but I'll give my opinion in the following, with some justifications. I recommend iserith's thread on adjucating actions in the DM help section for more advanced ideas on how to narrate the outcomes.
shintashi wrote:
Its going to depend on the DM and what type of campaign he wants to run. Some folks want more of the 'flashy' stuff, so the DCs are lower, some want a more 'gritty' campaign, so the DCs are higher. Plus different people have different opinions of how hard something would be.
Much thanks Regin ^_^
I agree each DM is going to say different stuff, but its nice to have something to work with. I suspect people will come into this thread as well as others like it and use them for reference points for their own campaign skill epicness.