4e Mechanics & Rules Discussion

[Tegyrius]

The "Modifiers" section on pages 45-46 has what you need, but it's obfuscated (see below):

Sometimes, external factors help you to succeed. Such modifiers will step up one of your base dice to a better die, from a D6 to a D8 for example. Other times, something hampers your action. This will downstep one of your base dice. You can get modifiers to skill rolls in several different ways: specialties, the difficulty of the action itself, and help from others.

A +1 modifier means upgrading a base die one step, a +2 modifier means upgrading two steps, and so on. A –1 modifier means downgrading a base die one step, –2 means two steps down, and so on. Several modifiers can apply to the same roll, and they are cumulative. A +2 modifier and a –1 modifier add up to +1, for example.

When stepping up and down, always try to balance your dice as much as possible – i.e. step up a lower base die first, and downstep a higher base die. You can never go above two D12s, no matter what modifiers you have. To downstep past two D6s, remove one die. You can never go below one D6. If you lack a skill level and start with just a single base die, step up by adding a D6 (as one step up) and step it up further as needed.

Italicized and bolded for emphasis. The italicized paragraph is where the order of operations is scripted. The bolded sentence is the key to this scenario, and I'm particularly wroth with Free League over it because of what I consider a very poor layout choice here. They put that sentence by itself on the backside of page 45, so in both PDF and print versions, it's not visible on the same spread as the rest of this section.

- C.