Do you add your Proficiency Bonus to Ability Checks?

Post/Author/DateTimePost
#1

JohnnyNitro

Apr 03, 2015 12:05:27

The heading says it all. My group has been assuming you do since you're not getting a Skill bonus. We figured this was the best way to still give an upper-hand (wanted to say "advantage", but we all know the can of worms that would have opened) to a STR-based PC on a break-down-door check, or a DEX-based PC trying to wriggle free of a Barbarian's grapple. Don't see any language in the PHB addressing this specifically, but maybe I'm missing something...

#2

jaelis

Apr 03, 2015 12:16:27

Only if you are actually proficient. There's no particular skill associated with breaking down a door, so you wouldn't add your prof bonus. If you used some kind of tool that you were proficient in, then I guess you would.

 

I'm not sure why you feel a Str-based character should have an extra bonus to break something... they have a high strength, that is what they are using. And same with Dex in your example.

#3

paulstrait

Apr 03, 2015 12:29:06

JohnnyNitro wrote:
#4

Hamsterkill

Apr 03, 2015 12:46:34


As I recall, escaping a grapple is specified in the PHB as an Athletics or Acrobatics check against the grappler's Athletics check.

 

You  could obviously argue that breaking down a door requires athletics and use that as the check. That's at the DM's discretion. For instance, I believe the PHB shows lockpicking and trap disarming as "Other Dexterity". A DM can decide, based on the situation, whether something would allow a proificiency bonus. For example, doing either of those things with Thieves Tools, if you're proficient, or judging that quick hands are useful and saying you can use Sleight of Hand or something.

#5

paulstrait

Apr 03, 2015 14:43:15

Hamsterkill wrote:
#6

Hamsterkill

Apr 03, 2015 14:55:43

paulstrait wrote:
#7

Tempest_Stormwind

Apr 03, 2015 15:42:12

Strictly speaking, there aren't any skill checks in 5e. There's ability checks, and the "skills" merely reflect situations where your training (proficiency) makes you more likely to succeed on the ability check. 

 

In the case of busting a door down, no amount of training changes that - you just give it a few good kicks or tackles, and it's solely a function of physical might and mass.

 

Now, there are actually ways of getting half your proficiency bonus on such a check - Jack of All Trades comes to mind. But that rarely reflects special training in one area, and more of the character having a hodgepodge set of skills that allow him to improvise in unusual circumstances.