Ralph Mazza I hear you! And I don’t read it that way. I read it as the player deserving to hear why the rating is what it is.

For the record, and it seems like maybe I could have been more explicit, I very much set up the entirety of the Encounter around Beorn’s skepticism of the young thane. Every step of the way he’s all “slow down, bring me information.” And, in character, the PC pushed and pushed.

So in my mind at least, I’m not pulling a TN out of my ass. I’m generally very good at telegraphing the mechanics through the fiction.