Thanks for going over things.
No problem. Just going to address a few of these.
And taking ten is just reliably mediocrity ie a 10 when that is a typical roll anyway just doesn't seem that valuable the healing surge might well worth more.
Let me preface one thing right quick. The way I run 4e, I use Healing Surges as an open descriptor resource for the PCs that represents all manner of things; mental stress, physical fatigue, ailment, morale setback, superficial injury, wind knocked out of you, momentum, etc. It is not "a chunk of meat stowed away for later use" or anything even close. It is very open descriptor and a narrative tool used to facilitate all manner of things. Secondly, in my Skill Challenges, a micro-failure almost universally means the loss of a healing surge, and a loss in the aggregate will cost all of the PCs 1 (sometimes 1) healing surges. With that said:
Consider the following level 10 character with Dex/Str as secondary attribute at + 3. This character has no training, theme, background, feat investment into Acrobatics/Athletics. However, he does have the Reliable Balance/Uncanny Strength Martial Practice. That is an automatic 18, the Medium DC for a level 10 Skill Challenge. Given how widely applicable Acrobatics/Athletics is, in a considerable number of Skill Challenges, this character will have already afforded his group 1 of the required (4, 5, 6, 7, or 8) Medium DC successes for the "win condition" to be met. Without it, deployment of that resource would have a 45 % chance of failure. Worth a surge? I'd say so.
Consider the following level 10 character with Dex/Str as primary attribute at + 5. This character has training, and either theme or background bonus investment into Acrobatics/Athletics. Like the above character, he also has the Reliable Balance/Uncanny Strength Martial Practice. That is an automatic 27, or 1 more than the High DC for a level 10 Skill Challenge. Given how widely applicable Acrobatics/Athletics is, in a considerable number of Skill Challenges, this character will have already afforded his group 1 of the required (1, 2, 3, 4) Hard DC successes for the "win condition" to be met. Assuming there will be potential for a secondary usage as the narrative evolves, the character can also contribute 1 of the (4, 5, 6, 7, or 8) Medium DC successes (now turned into Hard DC due to the prior success). That is a considerable 2 automatic success (or 50, 33, 25, 20, or 17 % of the total required success to meet the "win condition"). Without it, deployment of that resource would have a 40 % chance of failure at the high DC. Worth a surge? I'd say so.
Again, especially so if healing surges are the cost of failures in Skill Challenges.
Peerless exploration because of it enabling something which is thematically right feeling the scouting ahead safely when the mechanics really don't otherwise accomplish it gets a thumbs up from me.
Easily my groups' (and the Bladesinger's) favorite.
When you employ what skill is most of the time somewhat flexible for me anyway a feature I feel was opened up by SC and when X is the most likely skill the DCs do adjust a bit depending on the plausibility of the skill in that circumstance. Is the idea to allow less plausible applications to be full on value... ie a friend of mine said that a spell like that one can't possibly have more than a 24 hour duration without something nasty like human sacrifice and because of this skill that friend is quite an Arcana savvy source them-self. Street contacts and the ability to recognize which are providing valuable info and which are not ... seems a normal feature of streetwise - doesnt it?
A good chunk gets down to that I think how much do you allow to work with a normal skill use.[/QUOTE]
My usage of skills is exrarordinarily broad descriptor. Its not full open descriptor but it is as close to it as it can get. My players are fiction-first so they are not irresponsible with this. Further, I frame tightly and overtly enough (using lots of props including what is tantamount to scene-tags/aspects/distinctions that evolve as the narrative emerges) that any one decision-point couldn't yield open-descriptor even if it wanted to. So that isn't a problem at our table.
However. Something like outright subbing a Skill for another Skill without authority of the ruleset? That is in discord with the ruleset as there is a contingent of very specific resources (typically Encounter powers) that allow for the sub of one skill for another; eg the various Wizard "sub Arcana for x" line "Chameleon's Mask" (Stealth), "Spook" (Intimidate), "Suggestion" (Diplomacy).