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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Hussar" data-source="post: 5599780" data-attributes="member: 22779">Well, rolling this back to the original point about are they too easy, something to remember is that 4e (at least) has the idea of skill challenges.  If a hard check is going to fail 60% of the time, then a hard skill challenge is effectively impossible.  12 checks at 40% chance of success before 3 fails is not very bloody likely.And, really, that would solve a lot of our gate guard issue.  What is the goal here?  Not just getting past the guard, that's incidental, but, why exactly is the party trying to gain access to the castle?Let's say they want to gain access to the princess that is locked in the tower.  Trite, but it works for this example.Hard challenge, 12/3.  Make it a narrative challenge as well - each part of the challenge can possibly affect the next part.  They meet the guard at the door.  Succeed and they gain entrance.  Fail and they still gain entrance but all subsequent checks are made at -2 because the guards are a bit more active.Next, a patrol comes near the party.  The party has to avoid the patrol (or possibly talk their way past).  If they try to avoid, 5 checks (1 for each PC) to avoid, no aiding possible because of time constraints.  If they try to talk, have a couple of checks for talking their way past.Chuck in a few traps, maybe a second patrol, possibly a guard dog or something, maybe a wandering servant or two and you've got your twelve checks.  They fail, the alarm goes off and they have to get out of the castle (or not - perhaps slaughtering everyone is an option, or whatever, they might even be able to hide until the alarm dies down).In any case, now a 20% chance of failure makes sense.  That makes the hard skill challenge a dicey thing, although not impossible.  Any higher than 20% and you might as well not even bother - the odds are too long.  Even cutting it down to 10% still means a significant chance of failure.Thinking bigger and beyond just this specific instant makes the skill numbers work a lot better.</blockquote>

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