THE CORE MECHANIC 1. Roll a d20. You want to roll high! 2. Add all relevant modifiers. 3. Compare the total to a target number. If your check result is higher than or equal to the target number, you succeed. If your check result is lower than the target number, you fail.
Otherwise, it’s a failure, which means the character or monster makes no progress toward the objective or makes progress combined with a setback determined by the DM.