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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 5512761" data-attributes="member: 82106">I think it was always intended, though not really explicit in DMG1, that successes or other effects, could result from things other than skill checks. I recall granting successes for use of powers, rituals, and even gold in some of the early SCs I ran. It seems to me part of the problem with SC presentation is that the devs apparently assumed DMs would understand that the SC mechanics were intended to supplement and reinforce a narrative, not replace it with mechanics. Apparently this was an unwarranted assumption, as evidenced by the vast number of "it is nothing but a few die rolls that the players can just spam their best skill on" threads. All of those evidence a complete failure of the concept to be communicated properly, and a peculiar tendency of gamers to assume that where there is a rule that rule is the last word on a subject. Anyway, it always seemed obvious to me that, while skill checks are usually the backbone of SC resolution, the narrative is the framework within which everything is set and if a ritual will move the party towards the goal then it is worth successes. My rule of thumb has always been that using a daily resource is at least worth a success or should provide some significant ongoing benefit, and an encounter resource is generally worth a decent bonus or some kind of advantage. Players can potentially use at-will type resources as well in some situations but they're simply going to sub for a skill check when they make sense.In terms of other dimensions, characters with appropriate relationships and backgrounds can certainly find the challenge to be shifted in their favor. If you know an excellent apothecary then enlisting him to help you with the "save the king from the poison" skill challenge can shift it to "find the antidote", while being an expert ritualist might shift it to "find the proper ritual magic to cure him". Other things work to a lesser degree, having a background in studying the undead might simply provide a +2 skill bonus to a check to identify the necrotic properties of the poison or to the antidote making checks (thus maybe favoring that approach to solving the challenge).Obviously a lot of fairly simple SCs aren't going to engage a lot of different aspects of the participants beyond raw skill, but any challenge can potentially do that. My feeling is that a lot of the example SCs published in books are simply too lacking in context to really illustrate this well. We don't know background information about the PCs or the world or the NPCs they interact with. One thing that would concern me about a lot more official mechanical infrastructure being added to SCs would be that it would make the job of composing it all together successfully into a working challenge might be a lot harder. The more knobs and levers there are, the more they can be used inappropriately. DMs will also apparently glom onto any example and assume it is the one and only canonical use for that mechanic.</blockquote>

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