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<blockquote data-quote="Lizard" data-source="post: 4674700" data-attributes="member: 1054">The SC system sits &quot;outside&quot; the rest of the rules. The DC are determined by the level of the challenge, not by the nature of the beings (if any) involved -- in other words, if the challenge is &quot;Win a riddle contest with a dragon&quot;, it can be given to a level 1 party or a level 20 party, and the dragons bluff, insight, or whatever score don't play into it. (It's strongly recommended that SCs not be opposed checks). Now, you can choose to ignore this, or to set the DCs based on the dragon's attributes, but the default, as I read it, is not to.There are no feats or utility powers which specifically address &quot;skill use within a challenge&quot;. For example, there's nothing which might let you substitute one skill for another even if it's not supposed to be part of the challenge -- for example, &quot;You may always use Acrobatics instead of Athletics in a skill challenge, at the same DC&quot;. The fact a skill challenge, no matter how long it takes, is considered to be a single &quot;encounter&quot; interacts poorly with &quot;encounter powers recharge after a short rest&quot;. To use a real-world example, my ranger has Crucial Advice (or as I call it, &quot;You're doing it wrong.&quot;) In a skill challenge where each &quot;round&quot; represents an hour or more of time, and we're not physically stressed, he should (by the &quot;five minutes&quot; rule) be able to use that power once per round, since he would have had more than enough time to recharge it. However, since the SC is a single &quot;encounter&quot;, he can only use it once. Ditto the various other reroll/luck type powers. (We could also discuss why a high dexterity gives you a bonus to going first during a debate... )It's a good system, and if you make sure that there's roleplaying involved as well as skill checks, it provides a good balance between player skill and character skill, but it has a &quot;bolted on&quot; feeling to me, as if it were developed apart from the main rules.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Lizard, post: 4674700, member: 1054"] The SC system sits "outside" the rest of the rules. The DC are determined by the level of the challenge, not by the nature of the beings (if any) involved -- in other words, if the challenge is "Win a riddle contest with a dragon", it can be given to a level 1 party or a level 20 party, and the dragons bluff, insight, or whatever score don't play into it. (It's strongly recommended that SCs not be opposed checks). Now, you can choose to ignore this, or to set the DCs based on the dragon's attributes, but the default, as I read it, is not to. There are no feats or utility powers which specifically address "skill use within a challenge". For example, there's nothing which might let you substitute one skill for another even if it's not supposed to be part of the challenge -- for example, "You may always use Acrobatics instead of Athletics in a skill challenge, at the same DC". The fact a skill challenge, no matter how long it takes, is considered to be a single "encounter" interacts poorly with "encounter powers recharge after a short rest". To use a real-world example, my ranger has Crucial Advice (or as I call it, "You're doing it wrong.") In a skill challenge where each "round" represents an hour or more of time, and we're not physically stressed, he should (by the "five minutes" rule) be able to use that power once per round, since he would have had more than enough time to recharge it. However, since the SC is a single "encounter", he can only use it once. Ditto the various other reroll/luck type powers. (We could also discuss why a high dexterity gives you a bonus to going first during a debate... ) It's a good system, and if you make sure that there's roleplaying involved as well as skill checks, it provides a good balance between player skill and character skill, but it has a "bolted on" feeling to me, as if it were developed apart from the main rules. [/QUOTE]

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