Kid Charlemagne
I am the Very Model of a Modern Moderator
I thought it would be a neat thought experiment to create a Skill Challenge in 3.5 for my PC's for my next session.
Backstory: The PC's are 12th level, and are in the town of Ambergate. They've found a Mockery Queen (modified, and referred to hereafter as the Dark Queen) and killed her, and one Mockery Drone (modified to make it smarter and better suited to being a spy).
The PC's Goal: Track down the 5 remaining Mockery Drones in the town of Ambergate.
PC's main applicable skills: Gather Info, Diplomacy, Clerical Divination magic, one PC is an Urban Ranger, Spot, etc.
The Challenge:
Complexity 3 (8 successes before 3 failures; the Drones are INT 10, and a little scared since the Dark Queen is dead.)
Level 12: Easy 22, Moderate 27, Hard 32
Primary Skills: Diplomacy, Track, Gather Info
Gather Info: Moderate - The Urban Rangers Gather Info checks will count as Easy, others will count as Moderate. Also, anyone searching with him will get a +2 to any roll after he succeeds once.
Spot: Hard - Just looking for the right folks would be hard; this would be noticing the identifiable ticks that the Drones exhibit (think Vincent D'Onofrio in Men In Black, but toned down).
Diplomacy: Moderate - the PC's have the names of the Drones (or to more precise, the people the Drones are impersonating) and could talk to people who might know them.
Track: Moderate - none of the PC's have track, however.
Magic: There are probably a handful of spells the PCs could cast that I would give them an automatic success for using, or bonuses to subsequent rolls.
Success: the PC's identify the location that the Drones are meeting in to discuss their predicament, and can choose to act at any point; waiting for everyone to show up, trying to pick Drones off one at a time, etc. The Drones will be confused and not well-coordinated in their actions.
Failure: They find the meeting location as the Drones make up their mind what to do, and are faced with all of them, and they've implemented their back up plan and know what they want to do next.
Thoughts, suggestions? What other skills might a group use to investigate a group of ne'er-do-wells?
Backstory: The PC's are 12th level, and are in the town of Ambergate. They've found a Mockery Queen (modified, and referred to hereafter as the Dark Queen) and killed her, and one Mockery Drone (modified to make it smarter and better suited to being a spy).
The PC's Goal: Track down the 5 remaining Mockery Drones in the town of Ambergate.
PC's main applicable skills: Gather Info, Diplomacy, Clerical Divination magic, one PC is an Urban Ranger, Spot, etc.
The Challenge:
Complexity 3 (8 successes before 3 failures; the Drones are INT 10, and a little scared since the Dark Queen is dead.)
Level 12: Easy 22, Moderate 27, Hard 32
Primary Skills: Diplomacy, Track, Gather Info
Gather Info: Moderate - The Urban Rangers Gather Info checks will count as Easy, others will count as Moderate. Also, anyone searching with him will get a +2 to any roll after he succeeds once.
Spot: Hard - Just looking for the right folks would be hard; this would be noticing the identifiable ticks that the Drones exhibit (think Vincent D'Onofrio in Men In Black, but toned down).
Diplomacy: Moderate - the PC's have the names of the Drones (or to more precise, the people the Drones are impersonating) and could talk to people who might know them.
Track: Moderate - none of the PC's have track, however.
Magic: There are probably a handful of spells the PCs could cast that I would give them an automatic success for using, or bonuses to subsequent rolls.
Success: the PC's identify the location that the Drones are meeting in to discuss their predicament, and can choose to act at any point; waiting for everyone to show up, trying to pick Drones off one at a time, etc. The Drones will be confused and not well-coordinated in their actions.
Failure: They find the meeting location as the Drones make up their mind what to do, and are faced with all of them, and they've implemented their back up plan and know what they want to do next.
Thoughts, suggestions? What other skills might a group use to investigate a group of ne'er-do-wells?
