Help me build a Skill Challenge

[Virindi]

Hello everyone,

His party wasn't keen on killing the Dragon and ended up talking their way past the dragon and its unborn. Anyways the party is back in town. And he wants to hire a group of adventurer's to steal 4 eggs from a dragon.

I think its great but not sure how to proceed, except I figured this could be an excellent skill challenge, instead of making some NPC's to battle out.

Any ideas toward this goal would be great!

 

[Virindi]

Any skill challenge gurus here?

 

[chronoplasm]

I'm not so much a guru, but I suppose I can help you.

OK, so here is how I see it:

The party needs to succeed four skill checks in order to succeed the skill challenge. If they fail three skill checks in a row, they fail the challenge and have to fight the dragon.
Also, personally I like to place 'time limits' on the skill challenges to make things more interesting. Perhaps the party has to complete the skill challenge within 10 turns?

To help the players complete the challenge, you might give them a small side quest they can complete somewhere that is rewarded with action points.

What skills are you going to need for the skill challenge?
Thievery and Stealth to actually take the eggs without being noticed.
Diplomacy and Bluff to distract mama-dragon. Perhaps each successful check with these two skills buys the party some extra time?
Nature and Arcana to disable the alarm. If the party doesn't perform a successful Nature or Arcana check during the skill challenge, perhaps they have to fight some monsters on the way out?

 

[Virindi]

Thanks, for the input. I think this will help me flesh out this skill challenge.

I would love to hear more ideas to get my creative juices flowing!

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

I guess the other dimension of the skill challenge is actually finding some NPCs foolish enough to go along with a plan that involves messing with a mama dragon's babies, lol.

Here are some possibilities as I see it:

Streetwise would get you into contact with the people you need to hire. Failure here maybe results in less qualified applicants for the job. Diplomacy then allows you to negotiate their pay rate. Less than honest PCs might also use bluff to exaggerate the expected rewards, etc. Perception and Insight are always available here as bonus roles. In effect this is almost a separate challenge from the lair part, but the roles here will determine how well equipped the party is to deal with the main part of the challenge (and what the ultimate best case reward is), which is in the spirit of a skill challenge for sure.

Another aspect of this would be the authorities. The local rulers of the town might not be super excited to hear that adventurers are planning on pissing off the local dragon. This would be another opportunity to use bluff, diplomacy, intimidate, history (well, the dragon DID eat part of the town 40 years ago), religion (Pelor decrees death to all evil dragons), etc. Failure here might just tarnish the party's rep in town or actually result in them having to recruit elsewhere or rush their plans. Again insight and perception can also add to this part.

The outline of how it should work in the lair sounds about right to me. You could also throw in a spot where athletics is needed to climb down into the right spot or dungeoneering check could allow setup of a superior diversion.

In general it can also be a good idea to throw in occasional use of some skill that wouldn't at first seem too relevant to a test in order to mix things up. You just need a plot hook to do it. Like Heal is one that works sometimes (you notice that the Mayor seems to be sick, healing him gives a diplomacy add). Endurance can sometimes work too (the barbarian is impressed by your ability to drink him under the table and agrees to help).

Honestly I think designing skill challenges is way harder than combat encounters!