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Help me design a skill challenge
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<blockquote data-quote="Keenath" data-source="post: 4423589" data-attributes="member: 59792"><p>Sounds okay if you also allow 'partial success' where the 2 mercs simply give up and leave instead of actually switching sides.</p><p></p><p>Partial success is the most obvious one. If you're using the errata'd rules (and you should, as they changed both the complexity and DC charts), a complexity 2 challenge at 2nd level would be starting at DC 10 and require 6 successes before 3 failures. I'd say 3 successes would grant partial success.</p><p></p><p>Beyond that, skill-wise, it's kind of up to you. Easy checks are DC 5, hard ones are DC 15. It depends on the personality of the guys you're looking at. Does their courage quail under intimidation or do they just get madder? (That may depend on the merc leaders' style. If they're used to knuckling under in the face of threats, they'll be easier to intimidate than if they trust their leaders.) Diplomacy should certainly work, and bluff should probably vary depending on the nature of the bluff.</p><p></p><p>One idea would be that Intimidate works only early on, to that partial success tier. Once the PCs have 3 successes, Intimidate becomes automatic failure (thus convincing the two guys to leave sooner rather than later). You can intimidate them to convince them to leave, but you can't intimidate them into helping.</p><p></p><p>Insight could help out by letting you figure out what they want. I mean, consider what money will bring into this. If the guys are really in it for cash, the PCs should be able to buy them off. Perhaps after an insight check, they determine that these two are just in it for money, and at that point they can make a better offer (figure out what -- 50 G each sounds about right to me) to gain an automatic success. Or possibly that option will only work after they have 3 successes already, so offering cash might make them hang around and help fight their previous allies, but won't help convince them to go away. Or you could do both, with a lower money value to buy them off and a higher to retain their services. (Say 25 each to go away, and 50 each to help. Or whatever. Figure the numbers how you want to use.) The "go away" money doesn't have to be higher than their pay; a merc is always risking his life to make money, so free money for NOT risking ones' life is a good deal. Pointing that out (diplomacy) might even lower the cost to buy them off, though not to retain their services.</p><p></p><p>A show of strength with a str check DC 15 might boost the next intimidate check, or count as an intimidate success.</p><p></p><p>A History check might reveal something about that particular merc band that could be helpful, and Streetwise could tell you something about them too, or reveal something about one guy's history that helps out. For example, you might recognize a tattoo as a gang symbol from back home and use that as leverage to drop future diplomacy checks to Easy.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>I think the best advice I can give you is this: Have your information in front of you (as far as Hard, Moderate, and Easy DCs and such), and stay flexible. Don't try to write hard rules about skill challenges; you want the players to be inventive. If one of them thinks he can pick a guy's pocket and use it to bluff that the leaders plan to kill off the new guys (more profit!) then go with it. Have fun.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Keenath, post: 4423589, member: 59792"] Sounds okay if you also allow 'partial success' where the 2 mercs simply give up and leave instead of actually switching sides. Partial success is the most obvious one. If you're using the errata'd rules (and you should, as they changed both the complexity and DC charts), a complexity 2 challenge at 2nd level would be starting at DC 10 and require 6 successes before 3 failures. I'd say 3 successes would grant partial success. Beyond that, skill-wise, it's kind of up to you. Easy checks are DC 5, hard ones are DC 15. It depends on the personality of the guys you're looking at. Does their courage quail under intimidation or do they just get madder? (That may depend on the merc leaders' style. If they're used to knuckling under in the face of threats, they'll be easier to intimidate than if they trust their leaders.) Diplomacy should certainly work, and bluff should probably vary depending on the nature of the bluff. One idea would be that Intimidate works only early on, to that partial success tier. Once the PCs have 3 successes, Intimidate becomes automatic failure (thus convincing the two guys to leave sooner rather than later). You can intimidate them to convince them to leave, but you can't intimidate them into helping. Insight could help out by letting you figure out what they want. I mean, consider what money will bring into this. If the guys are really in it for cash, the PCs should be able to buy them off. Perhaps after an insight check, they determine that these two are just in it for money, and at that point they can make a better offer (figure out what -- 50 G each sounds about right to me) to gain an automatic success. Or possibly that option will only work after they have 3 successes already, so offering cash might make them hang around and help fight their previous allies, but won't help convince them to go away. Or you could do both, with a lower money value to buy them off and a higher to retain their services. (Say 25 each to go away, and 50 each to help. Or whatever. Figure the numbers how you want to use.) The "go away" money doesn't have to be higher than their pay; a merc is always risking his life to make money, so free money for NOT risking ones' life is a good deal. Pointing that out (diplomacy) might even lower the cost to buy them off, though not to retain their services. A show of strength with a str check DC 15 might boost the next intimidate check, or count as an intimidate success. A History check might reveal something about that particular merc band that could be helpful, and Streetwise could tell you something about them too, or reveal something about one guy's history that helps out. For example, you might recognize a tattoo as a gang symbol from back home and use that as leverage to drop future diplomacy checks to Easy. I think the best advice I can give you is this: Have your information in front of you (as far as Hard, Moderate, and Easy DCs and such), and stay flexible. Don't try to write hard rules about skill challenges; you want the players to be inventive. If one of them thinks he can pick a guy's pocket and use it to bluff that the leaders plan to kill off the new guys (more profit!) then go with it. Have fun. [/QUOTE]
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