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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ExploderWizard" data-source="post: 5199079" data-attributes="member: 66434">Really? Some situations are handled regularly without rolling dice at all in my(4E) campaign. The fact that the rules call for a dice fest when anything of substance happens doesn't stop us from ignoring that and just playing it out.    My major issue with skill challenges isn't that the PC's cannot approach the challenge in different ways or that the nature of the challenge doesn't change in response to actions taken. The rules actually cover thisquite well. My issue stems from the fact that setting up such a challenge pre-supposes what the PC's need to do in the first place.  For example, lets say I construct a skill challenge. The PC's have found out that one of the Baron's most trusted allies is in fact, a villan. The challenge involves convincing the Baron of this fact with circumstancial evidence and persuasion.So I start outlining the useful skills, set complexity and DC's, and make notes about how successes and failures influence later parts of the challenge. That's a lot of work. What if the PC's don't care what the Baron believes? What if they are not sure if the Baron is a villan so they decide not to tip their hand with the info they have?  Here I have wasted valuable prep time for a scripted encounter that will never happen. Unlike combat stats which are generally useful and can be recycled with ease, the effort spent on the skill challenge is wasted.  I could only see the value in skill challenges if I were running a game wherein I dictated to the players what encounters they were going to have and the nature of those encounters.</blockquote>

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