Modifiers and Effective Skill

Sometimes you will have modifiers (bonuses or penalties) to a roll. For instance, if you were trying to stop a very heavy door from closing, you might have to roll against Strength at a penalty of -2 (or ST-2, for short) because the door is heavy. In that case, with a Strength of 12, you would need to roll a 10 or less to succeed.

Likewise, for an especially easy task, you would get a bonus to your attempt. You might roll Animal Handling+4 to make friends with a very friendly dog. If your skill were 12, a roll of 16 or less would succeed.

Your effective skill for a given task is your basic skill (your actual level in that skill) plus or minus any appropriate modifiers. In the example above, your basic skill is 12 but your effective skill is 16. You may not attempt to roll if your effective skill is less than 3, unless you are attempting a defense roll.