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Message: <blockquote data-quote="DM_Blake" data-source="post: 4304668" data-attributes="member: 57267">This idea breaks down somewhat when you take published adventures into consideration.Those of us who like to buy modules, like H1, or who like to run adventures from Dungeon magazine (whatever its current incarnation may be), or who even download adventures from various websites.In those cases, we can't just comfortably play the skill challenges as written - we will have to modify most of them to accomodate our party.Which defeats the intent, a little, of using pre-made adventures.******************************On a different note, consider the improvisational style some DMs like. Making things up on the fly. Allowing the party to decide where they go and what they do. No railroads, no pre-written material (or very little, anyway).Playing this way, certain situations that arise will lend themselves very well to a skill challenge. When one of those situations presents itself, the DM should feel comfortable with using a skill challenge to resolve the situation.But not all situations automagically make sense to use only the party's best set of skills.What happens when a situation comes up, everyone (including the players) thinks it is a perfect situation for a skill challenge, and yet the situation calls for using a bunch of skill that the party is weak in?Either the DM allows really weird stuff (oh, look, the Baron is really impressed by the fighter standing on his head, so he agrees to finance your expedition) or the DM has to modify the system (e.g. using lower DCs because he knows the party lacks the appropriate skills), or the DM has to assume the party will fail and must sculpt the challenge so that failure still gets the desired results, albeit with consequences.None of which is ideal.******************************And back to the original question of the OP.Even if the DM assigns a suitable set of skills to a challenge, so that the party has the skills needed, there is always a chance that at least one character in the party doesn't have any of those skills at a reasonably high level. The party is well-suited, but this character, in this challenge, is a weak-link.How will that player feel knowing that when he rolls the die, is is very likely to make things worse rather than better?How will that player feel when the party has had its last allowed failure, and now he has to roll, knowing he will most likely fail, and that if he does, the whole skill challenge is failed?Me, as a player, I wouldn't want to be put in this spot.</blockquote>

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