Man, I'm a little envious of this. I'd never write up my D&D stuff, mechanically speaking, because it's a flaming hot mess.
Some of the DCs may be a little high, depending on the edition and character level. DC 20 on Arcana could be tough.
Also, you probably don't need to lock the tests to particular classes. If the characters have acquired the skill through some form of cross training, they shouldn't be locked out. 5E gives an opportunity to get weird skills through backgrounds, so keep that in mind.
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I set a DC20 because it should be hard for a lvl. 1 character to discern the magic. I could drop some 12s to 10s though. I also set the DCs a bit high because of the number of players involved.
If you want it to be hard, then it's fine. I just wanted to make sure it wasn't an oversight. I don't know that it's necessary to drop the lower numbers.
One thing to consider is whether you want to have the GM tell players to roll ("Okay, guys, roll Arcana.") or have the players have to figure out out. If you have all the players roll (or all proficient ones), that shifts the equation.
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My idea goes something like this:
Player: I want to do X!
Me: (ideally) You can certainly try!
(Circumstantially) Do you have a relevant proficiency? If not, feel free to role-play a conversation with the others to find out if someone does.
One thing to consider about that is that then you only roll if players decide to, and you can wind up with a conga line effect ("He failed, so I'm going to try.")
Personally, I like to have a mixture of both: I'll have everyone roll a test in some circumstances, then in others I'll just let one person roll if they bring it up (and make the expectation that it's final clear to my players). That way you don't wind up with large interruptions to the storytelling.
In the former case, you might want a higher DC if you want a chance of failure, since literally everyone (or everyone proficient) will roll. In the latter, you want a lower DC to reward players for their ingenuity, but also balance the fact that only one character rolls.
I also took into account my plans for future story. The party off to see the wizard will learn that it was summoning magic. I just wanted curious people with magic proficiency to have a specified (but very difficult) chance at a sneak peek.
I expect balancing the DC will be difficult. I also plan to have a lot less combat than most campaigns up front to focus on other skill checks and role-play. There will be combat next session, though.
And I think combat with 14 players involved will be a bit different. Do you use some shortcuts?
Last week we fought against 12 enemies and the battle lasted for 2 or 3 hours, it wasn't D&D and a bit slower because the enemies had a lot hp but with 14 players it can be the same.
My plan is to split the party into two groups for two different parallel campaigns, and one group will fight a few cultists in a very small dungeon, and the other will fight a necromancer and a few zombies in a graveyard. Just enough combat to get a feel for the mechanics, since I have a lot of new players.
I also have some fantasy-themed coloring pages and colored pencils to entertain the group not actively playing. I'll have to see how this works out.
Ah that's a good idea to split the group and it's also good that fights don't take that much time in d&d at least for the lower levels.
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