u/darkfire9251

>Flint and steel. A small fire starter. With it, routine attempts to light a fire always succeed.

Realistically, how are the players supposed to start a fire without one? If they can't, and flint and steel is needed, why would it make the attempt succeed every time, especially in battle? This would effectively mean that casting a light spell is harder than doing the involved process of starting a fire by hand, which feels a bit absurd.

The way I would run it:

• Starting a fire from zero, under time pressure, requires flint and steel. The item does not give any advantage to rolls. Without time pressure or with another fire source, lighting a torch just works out without rolls.
• Check whether lighting the fire succeeds: roll for DEX with a normal DC (maybe hard DC if in combat) and disadvantage from darkness.
• In combat, lighting the fire should take an action (it is not an easy process like flicking a lighter)

...however I am not sure if that's not too punishing.

In other words, what was the RAW intention here? How would the players light a fire without flint and steel?

Here's a little trick to make this rule easier - by flipping the script. The 3 conditions need to be met to roll: time pressure, consequences of failure, and skill requirements.

Therefore:

- don't roll when there's no time pressure (Do roll for random encounters if it takes hours in a dangerous place though)

- don't roll if there are no consequences of failure

- don't roll if the action doesn't require any specific skill

None of these stopped you from requiring a roll? Then go for it!

Hope that helps 😛

Edit: My point is basically that this lowers cognitive load for GMing