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<blockquote data-quote="wedgeski" data-source="post: 4762049" data-attributes="member: 16212">That is the business of any game designer, is it not? In fact, if you're not doing this, I doubt you're doing your best work.Debatable, but not really the subject of this thread.When it comes to non-combat encounters, I personally find Skill checks to be wholly up to the task, if not the actual selection of skills that 4E provides (one of my few gripes with the system). If one of my players suggests an inventive way to apply one of his powers and improve his roll, I'll almost always allow it. Entire sessions can pass by with only the lonely clatter of one or two checks being rolled, and the game doesn't seem any less for it. I can see where people are coming from when they say, &quot;Nothing in the game supports my concept of.. master spy... ladies man...&quot; and so-on, and there's no denying that what separates one class from another in 4E is the power selection, and powers are (for the most part) combat-focused. Not all of them, though.Still, there's nothing stopping a power being used out of combat if it makes sense to do so, and nothing stopping 3PP's or Wizards themselves creating a class whose powers vastly reduce its viability in combat but give it an exciting array of options for improving checks outside of the game grid. In a &quot;standard&quot; game of D&amp;D (as imagined by me based on my experience) a player with such a class could expect to feel pretty limited about two-thirds of the time, but should expect to steal the show the rest of the time.Ultimately though, while classes remain the backbone of the system (and long may they rule!), this problem is never going to go away.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="wedgeski, post: 4762049, member: 16212"] That is the business of any game designer, is it not? In fact, if you're not doing this, I doubt you're doing your best work. Debatable, but not really the subject of this thread. When it comes to non-combat encounters, I personally find Skill checks to be wholly up to the task, if not the actual selection of skills that 4E provides (one of my few gripes with the system). If one of my players suggests an inventive way to apply one of his powers and improve his roll, I'll almost always allow it. Entire sessions can pass by with only the lonely clatter of one or two checks being rolled, and the game doesn't seem any less for it. I can see where people are coming from when they say, "Nothing in the game supports my concept of.. master spy... ladies man..." and so-on, and there's no denying that what separates one class from another in 4E is the power selection, and powers are (for the most part) combat-focused. Not all of them, though. Still, there's nothing stopping a power being used out of combat if it makes sense to do so, and nothing stopping 3PP's or Wizards themselves creating a class whose powers vastly reduce its viability in combat but give it an exciting array of options for improving checks outside of the game grid. In a "standard" game of D&D (as imagined by me based on my experience) a player with such a class could expect to feel pretty limited about two-thirds of the time, but should expect to steal the show the rest of the time. Ultimately though, while classes remain the backbone of the system (and long may they rule!), this problem is never going to go away. [/QUOTE]

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