Borrowing Obsidian's Partial Successes

[Nytmare]

I love the Obsidian Skill Challenge system for a host of reasons, but I think my favorite is the idea that, even when the dice go bad, things should still be moving forward.

What I'm thinking of doing is combining the easy/medium/hard framework of 4th Edition, and the DCs from Obsidian, and giving each set of DCs a partial and complete success break point.

I'm not entirely sold on the numbers yet, but here's what I'm thinking.

LVL  EASY    MOD     HARD
1    8/16    9/18    10/20
2    9/17    10/19   11/21
3    9/17    10/19   11/21
4    9/18    10/20   11/22
5    9/18    10/20   11/22
6    10/19   11/21   12/23
7    10/19   11/21   12/23
8    11/21   12/23   13/25
9    11/21   12/23   13/25
10   11/22   12/24   13/26
11   11/22   12/24   13/26
12   12/23   13/25   14/27
13   12/23   13/25   14/27
14   12/24   13/26   14/28
15   12/24   13/26   14/28
16   13/25   14/27   15/29
17   13/25   14/27   15/29
18   13/26   14/28   15/30
19   13/26   14/28   15/30
20   14/27   15/29   16/31
21   14/28   15/30   16/32
22   15/29   16/31   17/33
23   15/29   16/31   17/33
24   15/30   16/32   17/34
25   15/30   16/32   17/34
26   16/31   17/33   18/35
27   16/31   17/33   18/35
28   16/32   17/34   18/36
29   16/32   17/34   18/36
30   17/33   18/35   19/37

With a normal skill check, let's pretend a first level athletics check to climb a tree to get away from a guard dog, the DM decides that the difficulty is "moderate" (9/18) and the player rolls.

If they get at least an 18 or better, they make it up the tree no problem. If they roll less than a 9, they fail outright. But if they roll somewhere in the realm of 9-17, they make it up the tree buuuuuut something bad happens in the process.

Maybe the dog gets a bite in as they're climbing. Maybe they drop the magic whozit they were trying to steal from the castle. Maybe they get up the tree fine, but the dog's barking attracts a guard.

In a Skill Challenge, as per the normal Obsidian rules, the only roll that would count as a "victory" was if you beat the full success DC.