How much XP for Skill Challenges?

[Kzach]

Between errata not being complete and confusing language, I'm at a loss to determine how much XP skill challenges should be set at.

The only one I think I'm right on are the most basic ones, i.e. a level 1 skill challenge that awards 100xp should be of complexity 1 and use DC's of 10. A level 1 skill challenge that is set at a complexity of 5 would award 500xp.

But what does a level 1 skill challenge with a complexity of 1 give if the DC's are set at 15? Or for that matter, all the in-betweens?

 

[1of3]

The complexity is thought to be the number of monsters, the level is the level of those imaginary monster.

Complexity 1, level 2 would be 125XP.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

There simply is no rule regarding XP variation based on specific characteristics of a given SC. It is assumed that the DCs will be in line with the guidelines in the DMG for the most part. So it isn't contemplated that you would set ALL the DCs for a level 1 challenge to hard. Basically that would be the same as making the SC about 8-9 levels higher. A level 1 has DC10, a level 10 has DC16. So a "level 1" with all hard DCs is basically a level 9.5 SC with moderate DCs.

Really the expectation is that for any given challenge it should be designed such that the party can't simply sit around and have Skilly McAwesome with his 10 higher than everyone else skill bonus make all the rolls. As long as that is true, you shouldn't have to twink with the DCs. If the party runs into a challenge now and then that proves to be trivial, them's the breaks. Now and then they'll also run into ones that are extra tough because they happen to involve a skill nobody is good at.

Remember one thing, a challenge will go from almost certain success to highly likely to fail based on a SMALL change in skill bonus or DC. Most encounters should generally be more on the "almost certain success" end of the spectrum. Failure in an SC is like failure in any encounter, it should be a possibility that hovers over the party but not something that happens often.

The nice thing about SCs is you CAN make some really hard to defeat ones now and then when you say want to put a serious fork in the road of the plot or whatever. It just has to be a situation where the party will get on with something interesting regardless of outcome. In this case its fine if its a pretty high level challenge, success should grant a wad of XP.

 

[ForbidenMaster]

Between errata not being complete and confusing language, I'm at a loss to determine how much XP skill challenges should be set at.

The only one I think I'm right on are the most basic ones, i.e. a level 1 skill challenge that awards 100xp should be of complexity 1 and use DC's of 10. A level 1 skill challenge that is set at a complexity of 5 would award 500xp.

But what does a level 1 skill challenge with a complexity of 1 give if the DC's are set at 15? Or for that matter, all the in-betweens?

If you use easy DCs, reduce the level of the challenge by one. If you use hard DCs, increase the level of the challenge by two.

DMG page 73
So a level one skill challenge with a complexity of 1 and DCs set to 15 would award 150xp.

 

[Kzach]

DMG page 42
So a level one skill challenge with a complexity of 1 and DCs set to 15 would award 150xp.

Page 42. I really must imprint that on the inside of my skull so I don't keep forgetting about it.

 

[Mr. Teapot]

The only one I think I'm right on are the most basic ones, i.e. a level 1 skill challenge that awards 100xp should be of complexity 1 and use DC's of 10. A level 1 skill challenge that is set at a complexity of 5 would award 500xp.

A skill challenge's XP value is the same as the XP value of a number of equal level monsters times the challenge's compelxity. A complexity 5 challenge is worth the same as a normal combat encounter of that level, whereas a complexity 3 challenge could be combined with two monsters for a normal encounter of the standard level.

They sort of assume this but never spell it out in the DMG, as far as I can tell.


If all your DCs are set to high, you're really running a higher level challenge. The level of a challenge is basically determined by the average or typical DC for checks in the challenge. If you use all low DCs, then it's really a lower level challenge. All high, and the PCs deserve more XP for completing it.

 

[Neuroglyph]

A skill challenge's XP value is the same as the XP value of a number of equal level monsters times the challenge's compelxity. A complexity 5 challenge is worth the same as a normal combat encounter of that level, whereas a complexity 3 challenge could be combined with two monsters for a normal encounter of the standard level.

They sort of assume this but never spell it out in the DMG, as far as I can tell.


If all your DCs are set to high, you're really running a higher level challenge. The level of a challenge is basically determined by the average or typical DC for checks in the challenge. If you use all low DCs, then it's really a lower level challenge. All high, and the PCs deserve more XP for completing it.

From my understanding a Level 1 Complexity 1 Skill Challenge using Moderate DCs is worth 100xp - using easy DCs (ie 10) would reduce the Level by 1 - whereas high DCs (ie 20) would make it a Level 2.

 

[ForbidenMaster]

Page 42. I really must imprint that on the inside of my skull so I don't keep forgetting about it.

The rules quote is on page 73. I wrote 42 for some reason, but the actual rule is on page 73. My above post has been edited to reflect that.

 

[Mr. Teapot]

From my understanding a Level 1 Complexity 1 Skill Challenge using Moderate DCs is worth 100xp - using easy DCs (ie 10) would reduce the Level by 1 - whereas high DCs (ie 20) would make it a Level 2.

A skill challenge with an average DC of 20 would be well above 2nd level. DC 20 is the average DC of a 9th or 10th level challenge (or a 17th level challenge according to the DMG2).

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

From my understanding a Level 1 Complexity 1 Skill Challenge using Moderate DCs is worth 100xp - using easy DCs (ie 10) would reduce the Level by 1 - whereas high DCs (ie 20) would make it a Level 2.

Well, yes, the rules do SAY this, but actually its kind of nonsensical. Hard DC level 1 is just slightly harder than a Medium DC level 9. So how come the level 9 challenge nets the party 3.5x more XP when mathematically they are virtually identical? Its a mystery...

Of course a level 9 challenge might well be more difficult in less tangible ways in practice, but mechanically that whole DC adjustment paragraph makes no sense and in fact I notice now that paragraph was striken in the SC errata.