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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Umbran" data-source="post: 6787325" data-attributes="member: 177">I think I want to ask - who the heck is watching up at the top of the climb, that we need to use this construction?  Not to mean that we need to dig into this particular example, but that the devil is in the details, and sometimes exploring the details will give us a better answer.I suppose that your construction is as good as most others we'd find for the situation.  Fine for a quick and dirty way to keep things moving.  But it does have an edge-case flaw if made into a general table-rule policy.  Consider the following:A PC wants to make a hard climb like Everest.  The PC has a Dex bonus of 0 and a climb proficiency bonus of 2.  He has a Cha bonus of 4.  The player then realizes that they are better at "get to the top flashy" than they are at "just get to the top", which doesn't make a whole lot of sense - taking showy risks for the folks in the penny seats should not make the tough climb more likely to succeed!  The construction allows the player to substitute Charisma (or whatever happens to be a high stat for them) into just about anything to improve their chances, which isn't appropriate.  A clever player now tries to find ways for their fighter to apply Strength to crossword puzzles?  Probably not where this was intended to go.This is why I say the GM should also have some say in the stakes - editorial or veto power, if you will, to keep the efforts sensible.  In the Fail Forward scenario that spawned this... it is kind of overkill to go to such lengths.  If the player really doesn't want certain consequences, I'd just allow them to make a check.  Don't want to lose the Wand of Pudding Location on the way up?  Make a Survival check before you start.  If you make that check then, on the way up, if you fail a climb, I won't impose a "dropped the wand" consequence.  I'll think of something else, instead, that is consistent with the preparations the players took.  Because, really, the players won't be able to think of *everything* - there's always a consequence the GM can add.</blockquote>

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