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<blockquote data-quote="Chzbro" data-source="post: 5057389" data-attributes="member: 83964">I've been kicking around some ideas to &quot;improve upon&quot; the existing skill challenge system and am interested in feedback from the good people of the ENWorld community.The goal here is to give players in a skill challenge &quot;tactical&quot; options beyond just rolling the die (or choosing not to roll at all). I'd like for skill challenges to feel more like combat in that the players have options available to them beyond just whether or not to roll. At the same time, I'd like to keep it relatively simple.Here's what I have so far. The following options will be available to each player in&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; every skill challenge (unless otherwise specified):<ul>
<li data-xf-list-type="ul"><ul>
<li data-xf-list-type="ul">Action&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; Points – A player may spend an action point during any skill&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; challenge to take an additional standard action.</li>
<li data-xf-list-type="ul">Critical&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; Success – Rolling a natural 20 on any skill check for a skill&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; challenge success or failure (not an Assist Another action) results in 1&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; additional skill challenge success.</li>
<li data-xf-list-type="ul">Mitigating&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; Failure – As a standard action, a character may remove a skill&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; challenge failure by expending healing surges. The first failure removed&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; in this way in any given challenge costs 1 surge, the second costs 2, and so on.</li>
<li data-xf-list-type="ul">Skill&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; DCs – All skill check DCs (classified as Easy, Median, and Hard) will&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; be individually determined on a case-by-case basis, but as a rule of&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; thumb, Easy DCs will be 5 lower than Median and Hard will be 5 higher.&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; Typically, each roll for a skill challenge success will be made at Median&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; difficulty.</li>
<li data-xf-list-type="ul">Assist&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; Another – As a standard action, a character may make an Easy skill&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; check in an attempt to aid an ally on his/her next skill roll. Any skill&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; can be used in this attempt, but the player must explain how the skill&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; will aid the other character to the DM’s satisfaction. A successful check&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; grants the next player to roll (and only the next player) a +2 bonus on&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; his/her next check. A failed check results in a skill challenge failure.</li>
<li data-xf-list-type="ul">Extra&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; Effort – As a standard action, a character may spend a healing surge&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; in order to treat the DC of his/her next roll as Easy rather than Median.&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; If the check succeeds, he/she is awarded a skill challenge success, but a&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; failed roll results in 2 skill challenge failures. (I'm thinking I might add that only 1 character may attempt this in any given round, but if it does get overused, that's a lot of healing surges...)</li>
<li data-xf-list-type="ul">[FONT=&amp;quot]Desperate Measures[/FONT] – As a standard action, a character may spend a healing surge in order to treat the DC of his/her next roll as Hard rather than Median. If the check succeeds, he/she is awarded with 2 skill challenge successes (this will stack with a critical success for 3 total successes), but a failed roll will only result in a single failure.</li>
</ul> </li>
</ul>[FONT=&amp;quot] It should be noted that the median DCs in a system like this will have to be a bit higher than those currently suggested in the DMG. I'm supposing that a baseline Median DC for a level 1 character should be around 15-16. This system also clearly better favors longer skill challenges than shorter ones, but I think it can work for either. (Also, I am a big fan of having various &quot;external&quot; time limits on my skill challenges, so I would like to think those help keep the tension high even if the PCs do have the option of removing failures.)Hopefully, this system would encourage a more diverse set of actions from my players (and also encourage resource expenditures in skill challenges). But does any of this leap out as a bad idea? Anyone tried anything like this already? All thoughts are appreciated. [/FONT]</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Chzbro, post: 5057389, member: 83964"] I've been kicking around some ideas to "improve upon" the existing skill challenge system and am interested in feedback from the good people of the ENWorld community. The goal here is to give players in a skill challenge "tactical" options beyond just rolling the die (or choosing not to roll at all). I'd like for skill challenges to feel more like combat in that the players have options available to them beyond just whether or not to roll. At the same time, I'd like to keep it relatively simple. Here's what I have so far. The following options will be available to each player in every skill challenge (unless otherwise specified): [LIST] [*] [LIST] [*][U]Action Points[/U] – A player may spend an action point during any skill challenge to take an additional standard action. [*][U]Critical Success[/U] – Rolling a natural 20 on any skill check for a skill challenge success or failure (not an Assist Another action) results in 1 additional skill challenge success. [*][U]Mitigating Failure[/U] – As a standard action, a character may remove a skill challenge failure by expending healing surges. The first failure removed in this way in any given challenge costs 1 surge, the second costs 2, and so on. [*][U]Skill DCs[/U] – All skill check DCs (classified as Easy, Median, and Hard) will be individually determined on a case-by-case basis, but as a rule of thumb, Easy DCs will be 5 lower than Median and Hard will be 5 higher. Typically, each roll for a skill challenge success will be made at Median difficulty. [*][U]Assist Another[/U] – As a standard action, a character may make an Easy skill check in an attempt to aid an ally on his/her next skill roll. Any skill can be used in this attempt, but the player must explain how the skill will aid the other character to the DM’s satisfaction. A successful check grants the next player to roll (and only the next player) a +2 bonus on his/her next check. A failed check results in a skill challenge failure. [*][U]Extra Effort[/U] – As a standard action, a character may spend a healing surge in order to treat the DC of his/her next roll as Easy rather than Median. If the check succeeds, he/she is awarded a skill challenge success, but a failed roll results in 2 skill challenge failures. (I'm thinking I might add that only 1 character may attempt this in any given round, but if it does get overused, that's a lot of healing surges...) [*][U][FONT=&quot]Desperate Measures[/FONT][/U] – As a standard action, a character may spend a healing surge in order to treat the DC of his/her next roll as Hard rather than Median. If the check succeeds, he/she is awarded with 2 skill challenge successes (this will stack with a critical success for 3 total successes), but a failed roll will only result in a single failure. [/LIST] [/LIST] [FONT=&quot] [FONT=Verdana]It should be noted that the median DCs in a system like this will have to be a bit higher than those currently suggested in the DMG. I'm supposing that a baseline Median DC for a level 1 character should be around 15-16. This system also clearly better favors longer skill challenges than shorter ones, but I think it can work for either. (Also, I am a big fan of having various "external" time limits on my skill challenges, so I would like to think those help keep the tension high even if the PCs do have the option of removing failures.) Hopefully, this system would encourage a more diverse set of actions from my players (and also encourage resource expenditures in skill challenges). But does any of this leap out as a bad idea? Anyone tried anything like this already? All thoughts are appreciated.[/FONT] [/FONT] [/QUOTE]

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