Skill check
A Skill check is one of the basic elements of Arkham Horror gameplay. Skill checks determine success or failure in fighting or evading monsters, in resisting sanity loss due to horror, in casting spells, and in many encounters.
At its most basic, a skill check consists of three parts:
- Determining the value for the skill check, based on the skill value and other factors;
- Rolling the number of dice given by that value;
- Comparing the number of successes rolled to the number of successes required, termed the difficulty.
If the number of successes is equal to or greater than the number required, the skill check passes, with one set of consequences.
If not, it fails, with a different set of consequences.
Note: If the adjusted value used for the skill check is 0 or less, it is not possible to succeed; the investigator immediately fails.
Types of Skill Checks
The four most commonly used and most critical types of skill checks are:
- Combat checks, based on the investigator's Fight skill value
- Evade checks, based on the investigator's Sneak skill value
- Horror checks, based on the investigator's Will skill value
- Spell checks, based on the investigator's Lore skill value
However, game encounters or situations may also require skill checks on the basic skills, without the extra modifiers possible on the above checks. These are:
For example, closing or sealing a gate requires the investigator to pass either a Fight check or Lore check; these do not use any modifiers which might be available in combat or spell-casting.
