Favorable and Unfavorable Conditions

Some situations may make a skill easier or harder to use, resulting in a bonus or penalty to the skill modifier or a change to the skill check's DC.

The GM can alter the odds of success in four ways to take into account exceptional circumstances:

1. Give the skill user a +2 circumstance bonus to represent conditions that improve performance, such as having the perfect tool for the job, getting help from another character, or working under conditions that are significantly better than normal.

2. Give the skill user a -2 circumstance penalty to represent conditions that hamper performance, such as being forced to use improvised tools or possessing misleading information.

3. Reduce the DC by 2 to represent circumstances that make the task easier, such as having a friendly audience when making a Perform check or searching for information on an extremely well documented topic with a Computer Use check.

4. Increase the DC by 2 to represent circumstances that make the task harder, such as making a Perform check in front of a hostile audience or searching for information on a very poorly documented topic with a Computer Use check.

Conditions that affect a character's ability to perform the skill change the character's skill modifier. Conditions that modify how well the character must perform the skill to succeed change the DC. A bonus on a character's skill modifier or a reduction in the DC of the check have the same result-they create a better chance for success. But they represent different circumstances, and sometimes that difference is important.