Multiple Locked Door Skill Challange

[Mesh Hong]

The following is a skill challenge I used recently for my group of 6 level 16 characters (note: at this point in the adventure they had lost all their magical items and had fought a series of encounters without them, their stolen magical items are behind the door)

The Gate of Anguish (inside the Ziggurat of Kurrel)
(Rated as above standard difficulty - 9600 xp - equivalent to level 17 encounter for this group)

Trapped and multiple locked door skill challenge

The PCs approach a massive set of metal doors, as they move in a solid wall of shadow moves in behind them, trapping them in a ten foot by forty foot area. Their only option is to open the ominous looking doors, and as they draw nearer they hear multiple grinding and clicking sounds. Four sections of the door start to rotate, fill with liquid, glow, hum or have strange pictograms on metal plates spin into position. It looks like if they don’t act quickly something bad is going to happen….

The set of doors is separated into four quarters each with its own set of puzzles or tasks to perform, and each has its own name plaque attached.

Lock 1: The 3 Keyholes
Lock 2: The Path of Kurrel
Lock 3: The Resolve of the Master Thief
Lock 4: The Mind of a Killer

Every 4 rounds, each active lock generates an attack from the door:

Lock 1: Burst of needles; attacks each PC;
Attack +21 vs. Reflex; 2d6+7 damage; on hit target takes 10 ongoing poison damage (save ends)

Lock 2: Searing Light; attacks each PC;
Attack +20 vs. Fortitude; 3d6+7 radiant damage

Lock 3: Spectral Assault; shadowy figure appears and strikes each PC
Attack +21 vs. AC; 2d10+7 necrotic damage; on hit target loses a healing surge

Lock 4: Mind Bomb; psychic assault on the brain of each PC
Attack +17 vs. Will; 2d6+6 psychic damage; on hit target takes a -2 penalty to their next skill check.

Once all the locks have been defeated the door opens revealing the room beyond.

Lock 1: The Three Keyholes


Level 16; standard DC 27; 4 successes required, resets to 0 successes on 3 failures

A series of 3 key holes, each slightly more elaborate than the last. These are rotating and vibrating making them more difficult to pick. If 3 fails are reached before 4 successes everyone hears the demoralising sound of all the locks clicking back to their locked positions as the door section resets.

Primary (each required)
Thievery DC25; First keyhole, one success required; 1 success or 1 fail
Thievery DC26; Second keyhole, one success required; 1 success or 1 fail
Thievery DC28; Third keyhole, two successes required; 1 success or 1 fail

Secondary
Athletics DC 24; hold a lock steady as it rotates to grant an ally a +2 bonus to their next thievery check for that lock; +2 bonus or 1 fail
Arcana DC 25; Magically weaken a lock to grant an ally a +1 bonus to their next thievery check for that lock; +1 bonus or -2 penalty

Lock 2: The Path of Kurrel


Level 16; standard DC 27; 4 successes required, resets to 0 successes on 3 failures

A strange series of pictogram based puzzles that are hard to decipher. Once understood they appear to be based around the Kurrel tenants of Jealousy, Theft and Revenge but it will still take some keen insight to understand their correct order. If 3 fails are reached before 4 successes then everyone sees the puzzle pieces magically change to a new and different set as the door section resets.

Required
Insight or Religion DC 20; required to understand the pictograms on the puzzle lock, allows a character to attempt to solve the lock on subsequent turns; success required before other skills may be used

Primary
Religion DC 27; select the next correct puzzle section; 1 success or 1 fail
Insight DC 28; select the next correct puzzle section; 1 success or 1 fail

Secondary
Diplomacy or Intimidate DC 20; Explain the workings of the lock to an ally to grant them a bonus to their required Insight or Religion check; +2 bonus or no effect
History DC 24; Grant an ally a +2 bonus to an Insight or Religion check for solving the puzzle; +2 bonus or -2 penalty
Thievery DC 24; Examine the lock to grant an ally a +1 bonus to an Insight or Religion check for solving the lock; +1 bonus or 1 fail

Lock 3: The Resolve of the Master Thief

Level 16; standard DC 27; 4 successes required, resets to 0 successes on 3 failures

A set of physical tasks to be performed, there is a heavy lever to be pulled down requiring strength, a metal ring to be negotiated around a curved metal wire without the two touching requiring dexterity, a spiked rod to pull out and hold requiring endurance and a small handle inside a deep hole to pull requiring stealth. If 3 fails are reached before 4 successes each part of the mechanism resets requiring each task to be performed again.

Primary (each required)
Athletics DC 27; Apply enough force to pull down a lever, one success required; 1 success or 1 fail
Acrobatics DC 27; Manoeuvre a metal ring around a twisting track without touching the sides, one success required; 1 success or 1 fail
Endurance DC 27; Pull out and hold a jagged metal rod that is rotating painfully in your grip, one success required; 1 success or 1 fail and 10 damage
Stealth DC 27; Carefully reach into a dark hole and pull a handle, one success required; 1 success or 1 fail and lose a healing surge

Lock 4: The Mind of a Killer

Level 13; standard DC 25; 4 successes required, resets to 0 successes on 3 failures

A series of tasks requiring knowledge, you must identify; 3 kill points on a humanoid body, the creature a particular poison gland comes from, the weakness of a particular aberration and the attack strengths of a particular magical beast. If 3 fails are reached before 4 successes then everyone sees the puzzle pieces magically change as the section of the door resets.

Primary (each required)
Heal DC 25; Correctly identify 3 kill points on a humanoid body; 1 success or 1 fail
Nature DC 25; Correctly identify from what creature a particular poison gland is from; 1 success or 1 fail
Dungeoneering DC 25; Correctly identify the weakness of a particular aberration; 1 success or 1 fail
Arcana DC 25; Correctly identify the attack strengths of a particular magical beast; 1 success or 1 fail

Secondary
Perception DC 28; Grant an ally a +1 bonus to their next Heal, Nature, Dungeoneering or Arcana check; +1 bonus or -2 penalty
Insight DC 28; Grant an ally a +1 bonus to their next Heal, Nature, Dungeoneering or Arcana check; +1 bonus or -2 penalty



I was pretty happy with this skill challenge, it was varied and quite exciting due to the obvious (and damaging) time restraints.

 

[the Jester]

This looks like a good, fun skill challenge. Yoink!

 

[timbannock]

I like it except for the full-on reset. It seems like if the PCs have a bad dice night, they might end up getting into a pretty monotonous damage spiral.

Two ways I can think of to change this up:
- Have only certain parts reset
- Divorce some of the damaging effects from the door itself and have them be "remote controlled" traps, which force the players to focus on something other than the door. Combat-y PCs could wander off and whack the crossbow turret, for instance, while the other players stay focused on the door's puzzles.

Alternately, have the different door sections target different areas of the room.

Or, have an encounter and make the skill challenge a part of that.

Overall, I think it's very cool, but it seems too much like a Solo monster: looks cool, but could become monotonous. You want to break up the "grind" of focusing on one target and add other elements.

 

[Mesh Hong]

I like it except for the full-on reset. It seems like if the PCs have a bad dice night, they might end up getting into a pretty monotonous damage spiral.

True, when I ran it there was one door section that they failed three times. I don't think the actual damage from the (by then) single trap was the real problem though. The damage ends up being pretty trivial relative to the characters level.

Two ways I can think of to change this up:
- Have only certain parts reset

Possible, but wouldn't that pose themeatic problems. All the parts resetting is consistant and fitted the theme of that part of the adventure. If only two locks reset on failure then it might cause confusion as to why, or the players might not notice it depending on what locks they disarmed first.

- Divorce some of the damaging effects from the door itself and have them be "remote controlled" traps, which force the players to focus on something other than the door. Combat-y PCs could wander off and whack the crossbow turret, for instance, while the other players stay focused on the door's puzzles.

Yes this is might be a good idea, one of the problems I have with skill challanges is trying to make them appropriate for all the characters. Giving something to do for any character who didn't want to participate in the main challange is a good idea.

I think I might have a slight problem with splitting the group into 2 teams though, I think part of the fun of a skill challange should be the application of thought, skills and teamwork. For some reason I have it in my head that a skill challange shouldn't need to resort to "hitting it with a big hammer" or the martial characters relying on their combat skills. What is the point of a puzzle or complicated trap if it can be defeated by a couple of rounds of "Combat", if the characters are going to do this then wouldn't you be better off with an actual combat encounter in the first place?

To take it to it's natural extreme (warning: devils advocate ) it would be like the characters not bothering to use social skills or roleplaying and just attacking NPCs until they told them what they wanted to know. Its an extreme but possible parrallel, the players choosing to use their much broader attack options rather than their much more limited social skills.

Alternately, have the different door sections target different areas of the room.

Or, have an encounter and make the skill challenge a part of that.

I really wanted to encourage all the characters to work as a team and all get involved, my thinking was that they would all share in the success (open door, xp from challange, getting there magical kit back) so they should all share in the pain (damage from failures).

I really didn't think this challange was appropriate for an in combat skill challange. It was far too complicated (what I really wanted to encourage was different characters attempting different sections of the doors at the same time), and both myself and my group havn't had a lot of experience with skill challanges so I wanted to keep it seperate so that I could get a proper assessment of how successful it was.

Overall, I think it's very cool, but it seems too much like a Solo monster: looks cool, but could become monotonous. You want to break up the "grind" of focusing on one target and add other elements.

Thanks for taking the time to help me out. This is probably only the fifth proper skill challange I have used in 16 levels, I love the concept of skill challanges but find it very difficult to actually slide them in to the game in a reasonable way. Most of what you can achieve with a skill challange we deal with better by actual roleplaying and a formal skill challange can get in the way of that.