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<blockquote data-quote="Tony Vargas" data-source="post: 6042015" data-attributes="member: 996">Well, a dice-rolling fest by one person is what D&amp;D's limited skill systems aspired to before skill challenges.&nbsp; A Skill Challenge at least theoretically involved everyone, not just the one character with the best check in one skill.&nbsp; SCs use multiple skills so more characters can be involved...Simply having everyone roll before the same character can make another roll gets that started.&nbsp; The biggest problem is keeping everyone relevant.&nbsp; While 4e did a great job making every class contributing in combat, it didn't put the same effort into SCs.&nbsp; Classes still tended to have out-of-combat areas of expertise, as if they were supposed to be taking turns 'shining' instead of working as a team.&nbsp; So the Ranger stands by while the wizard figures out a portal and the wizard stands by while the Ranger tracks and they both stand by while the Rogue finds &amp; disarms a trap, and the fighter just stands by.&nbsp; The SC attempt to change that was balked by the classes not being designed to change it.Of course, the Skill Challenge is a 4e idea, so including it in 5e is problematic at best.&nbsp; The idea of keeping everyone engaged also got pushed in 4e, even if it was only in combat and with AEDU, so 5e is pendulum-swinging back towards taking turns being bored out of (or perhaps even in) combat, rather than engaging the whole party.&nbsp; It'll be an uphill battle to get anything decent for Exploration as far as group involvement goes.&nbsp; More likely, Exploration will be the time for the Rogue or Ranger to 'shine' by making a few skill checks (or being boned), or for a caster to shine by having the right spell on tap at the right time (and automatically succeeding).&nbsp; To have a shot, WotC would have to take a development philosophy of balancing classes &quot;within&quot; each 'pillar.'&nbsp; So every class would have to be contributing in Exploration.&nbsp; Meaning, at a minimum, more skills for skill-poor classes, and probably, to work well, also new exploration-related class features, 'silo'd' from other features (not just a few spells added to the list that either don't get taken in favor of combat spells, for instance).</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Tony Vargas, post: 6042015, member: 996"] Well, a dice-rolling fest by one person is what D&D's limited skill systems aspired to before skill challenges. A Skill Challenge at least theoretically involved everyone, not just the one character with the best check in one skill. SCs use multiple skills so more characters can be involved... Simply having everyone roll before the same character can make another roll gets that started. The biggest problem is keeping everyone relevant. While 4e did a great job making every class contributing in combat, it didn't put the same effort into SCs. Classes still tended to have out-of-combat areas of expertise, as if they were supposed to be taking turns 'shining' instead of working as a team. So the Ranger stands by while the wizard figures out a portal and the wizard stands by while the Ranger tracks and they both stand by while the Rogue finds & disarms a trap, and the fighter just stands by. The SC attempt to change that was balked by the classes not being designed to change it. Of course, the Skill Challenge is a 4e idea, so including it in 5e is problematic at best. The idea of keeping everyone engaged also got pushed in 4e, even if it was only in combat and with AEDU, so 5e is pendulum-swinging back towards taking turns being bored out of (or perhaps even in) combat, rather than engaging the whole party. It'll be an uphill battle to get anything decent for Exploration as far as group involvement goes. More likely, Exploration will be the time for the Rogue or Ranger to 'shine' by making a few skill checks (or being boned), or for a caster to shine by having the right spell on tap at the right time (and automatically succeeding). To have a shot, WotC would have to take a development philosophy of balancing classes "within" each 'pillar.' So every class would have to be contributing in Exploration. Meaning, at a minimum, more skills for skill-poor classes, and probably, to work well, also new exploration-related class features, 'silo'd' from other features (not just a few spells added to the list that either don't get taken in favor of combat spells, for instance). [/QUOTE]

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