Free tables Natural 20 — skill checks

Natural 20 Table — Animal Handling Skill Checks, d20

A free d20 table for a natural 20 on a Animal Handling check in 5e. Twenty outcomes, from solid to legendary.

A natural 20 on a skill check is not a critical success in fifth edition — criticals apply to attack rolls only, and a 20 on a check is simply a 20. Which is why a legendary roll so often feels like nothing happened. This table gives it somewhere to land.

Twenty results written for Animal Handling specifically. A legendary Animal Handling roll has nothing in common with a legendary roll at anything else, which is why there are eighteen of these and not one.

Roll d20 when a player rolls a natural 20 on a skill check and succeeding quietly would be a waste.

Severity tiers

Each result names its tier, so you can see at a glance how bad a roll was without decoding a colour.

Solid 1–10 — Cleanly done, with something small to show for it.
Impressive 11–17 — Better than anyone expected. Momentum, or an obstacle gone.
Legendary 18–20 — Scene-shaping. The kind of success people repeat afterwards.

The table

20 results. Roll d20.

d20	Result	Tier	What happens
1	It Settles	Solid	The animal calms completely and stays calm. No extra effect.
2	Follows You	Solid	It will follow you willingly for the rest of the scene.
3	Took the Food	Solid	It accepts you as a source of safety. It won't flee from you again today.
4	Read Its Mood	Solid	You know what it wants, what frightens it, and what it will not do.
5	Quiet Beast	Solid	It makes no noise while you're near it, which may matter a great deal.
6	Showed You Something	Solid	It leads you to something it has found — a body, a cache, a way through.
7	Good Hands	Solid	You have advantage on your next Animal Handling check this scene.
8	Rode It Out	Solid	If you are mounted, you and your mount ignore the next effect that would unseat you.
9	Vouched For	Solid	One ally is accepted by the animal as readily as you are.
10	Healthy Again	Solid	You spot and relieve what was wrong with it — a thorn, a wound, a sickness.
11	It Fights With You	Impressive	The animal takes your side in the coming encounter, of its own accord.
12	The Whole Pack	Impressive	Every animal of that kind in the area responds to you the same way.
13	Carried a Message	Impressive	It will take something to somewhere you name, and it will get there.
14	Warned You	Impressive	The animal alerts you to a danger nobody else has noticed yet.
15	It Won't Be Ridden	Impressive	You turn a hostile creature's mount, beast, or hound against it. It refuses to serve them this scene.
16	Taught It	Impressive	The animal learns a simple trick from you, permanently, in a matter of minutes.
17	Safe Passage	Impressive	The party may pass through this creature's territory unmolested.
18	It Chooses You	Legendary	The animal attaches itself to you for good. The DM should make it a real companion, with real limits.
19	Understood Each Other	Legendary	For a few moments you genuinely communicate. The DM answers one question the creature could plausibly know the answer to, truthfully.
20	The One They'll Talk About	Legendary	You calm, turn, or command something nobody believed could be handled. If it was going to be a fight, it isn't one now.

Questions

Is a natural 20 a critical success on a skill check?

Not by the rules. Criticals apply to attack rolls. A 20 on a check is a 20 — which is why a spectacular roll so often produces a shrug. This table is the house rule that fixes that.

Does a natural 20 automatically succeed?

No. On an ability check there is no automatic success — if the DC is 25 and your total is 22, you failed with a 20.