I'm trying to homebrew a magic item that is, effectively, a portable ram. It's a set of knuckledusters that provides +4 to the Strength ability check rolled when trying to break down a door. It also should provide advantage on that roll, too, if possible. But, I'm having trouble finding the correct parameters to make this happen during homebrew.

I can see how to add +4 to the player's Strength score, but that's not what I want. I can raise the maximum Strength score above 20, but that is also not what I want.  I just want it to roll whatever their normal Strength ability modifier (e.g. +3 for a Str of 17) and an additional +4 on top of that.  I also want that roll to have Advantage.

It seems I can only get Advantage indicators to show up in the Skills and Saving Throws areas of the character sheet, rather than the Ability Score section.  If that's the case, I can just have him roll with advantage by pressing shift when clicking his Strength ability score.  But, that still doesn't solve the issue of getting +4 added on top of his usual Strength modifier for a basic Strength roll (e.g. NOT Athletics).

My first forum post. I appreciate any insights or advice you may have.

The thing you don’t understand is that an (Athletics) check is a Strength check. There is no such thing as a “skill check” in D&D, only Ability checks that use skills, and ones that don’t use skills. Any bonus you apply to any Strength Check will apply to all Strength Checks whether or not they include skills.

Technically, they could use a Strength (Athletics) Check when they break down a door if the DM calls for it. What you want to do is either:

• Make the bonus temporary/toggleable (only applied some of the times).
• Make an Action with its own roll attached to the magic item.

Neither of those are possible. They are adding that sort of functionality, but Lord knows how long it will take so don’t hold your breath.

You have four options.

1. Just list it in plain text and the player can remember to add 4 to their roll just like they learned to do in 2nd grade.
2. Just list it in plain text and then create a custom action for it directly on the character sheet.
3. Apply the bonus for the +4 to Str Checks and Advantage on Str Checks, and then make the magic item require Attunement so whenever they want to use it they can attune it, and then unattune it when they’re done.
4. Add an action for what to a feat that they can add to their character.

I hope that helps.

This was all incredibly helpful! Thank you. It clarified a lot of what I was trying to piece together reading other forum posts.

I do realize there's no such thing as an Athletics check, only a Strength check to which an Athletics proficiency bonus has been added. I was just thinking that since there are so many spells, items, and other effects that impose a bonus to a vanilla ability check (i.e. one made without adding a proficiency bonus), that that may have been possible to apply somehow on the character sheet. And you've given me some great ideas for how to achieve that, even if the hard-working devs may not have made it turnkey just yet.

I think in the case of this simple and not-frequently used magic item, your #1 sounds like the least trouble. If I feel like it, I may experiment with #2 and #3 just to help myself learn what's possible (I just started homebrewing and there's a steep learning curve on how to achieve the effects you're looking for). I hadn't even thought about using attunement as a toggle for "one off" or "niche" abilities like this. It's a clever hack I'll keep in mind.

Thanks again for the thorough and helpful response.

 Happy to help, one thing though...

Quote from DrBaka >>

I was just thinking that since there are so many spells, items, and other effects that impose a bonus to a vanilla ability check (i.e. one made without adding a proficiency bonus), that that may have been possible to apply somehow on the character sheet.

Thanks again for the thorough and helpful response.

 Anything that grants a bonus to certain Ability Checks (like +1 to all Str Checks for example) apply that bonus to all checks that use that ability, vanilla checks, checks that apply Skill proficiencies, Checks with sprinkles, all of them. So if something grants “+N/Advantage to all Strength Checks” then that includes, but is not limited to Strength Checks and Strength (Athletics) Checks. If something grants a bonus or advantage/disadvantage to “Intelligence checks” then that includes vanilla Int Checks, and any Intelligence checks for Arcana, History, Investigation, Nature, and Religion checks too. It also includes and Tool proficiency checks that use the relevant Ability too.

That’s why there’s no way to make it only apply to vanilla checks, because the regular stuff doesn’t actually work that way.

Edit: I mean, even Initiative is actually a Dexterity Check. That’s why a Bard’s Jack of All Trades applies to Initiative rolls too.

Okay, I see your point. However, my intent was not to suggest that something could add a bonus to flat Strength checks at all times while somehow not adding its bonus to Strength (Athletics) tests at the same time. Rather, my intent was to make a magic item that had the effect of letting a single PC gain the mechanical effect of using the common piece of adventuring gear, the portable ram, together with help from another character.  Here is the portable ram's description from the PHB:

You can use a portable ram to break down doors. When doing so, you gain a +4 bonus on the Strength check. One other character can help you use the ram, giving you advantage on this check.

Note that the description explicitly states that the bonus only applies when using the ram to break down doors. I trust that this shows in RAW what I was hoping to model in homebrew, which is to say a bonus to a flat Strength ability check while not simultaneously adding that bonus alongside a proficiency bonus for a skill (e.g. Athletics). And you gave me some great pointers on how to achieve that within the current features available on DDB.

I did try to read up on whether RAW explicitly tied breaking doors down to a skill or not. There are sections in the PHB and DMG that have relevant text, and while Athletics proficiency isn't explicitly forbidden in the contest, it's also noticeably absent from descriptions of door breaking. I contrast this with other Strength ability checks, like the rules for a long jump, which explicitly mention Athletics as applicable.

Given that interpretation of the sources on door breaking, and given the fact that flat Strength checks that don't apply the proficiency bonus from Athletics (or any other skill) do exist, the mechanism I wanted to simulate with this item was a bonus to a Strength check for the sole and only purpose of breaking down doors in exactly the same specific way that a portable ram's bonus only applies to the Strength check used to break down a door.  I just wanted the player to have a button that they could click that would execute a 1d20+Str+4 roll with advantage.

And again, you helped me figure out how best to do just that (and some things not to bother with for something this simple to do in your head). 

Update: Best solution for me turned out to be to make the +1 brass knuckles normally (modified club +1). Then, also created a separate custom action for breaking doors with the knuckles that rolls 1d20+Str+4. Allows display of my chosen door-breaking text both on the DDB character sheet and in my VTT (using Beyond20 to link DDB to Roll20).

Only functionality that's not working perfect is that holding shift while clicking the button to send the dice roll to VTT doesn't apply advantage. This is likely a Beyond20 failure, not a DDB failure. My player will simply click the button twice to simulate advantage. That's more than sufficient and looks good, too.

Thanks again!  Learned a lot about homebrew and DDB parameters during this exercise.

Happy to help. But remember, they are updating the homebrewer so who knows how or when the system will change.