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How to make an encounter with falling great distances interesting and dangerous, but not deadly?
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<blockquote data-quote="MNblockhead" data-source="post: 7532763" data-attributes="member: 6796661"><p>This. I never played 4e, but Matt Coleville put out an excellent video discussing using 4e skill challenges in 5e and I used his advice to in my Curse of Strahd campaign when for the travel up the frozen winter pass to the Amber temple. How I handle it is I ask each player to explain how their character is contributing to the challenge. In this case, it would be getting the entire party safely up the cliff. It needs to be reasonable, or at least cool enough to let all reason go to the wind. Then each player makes a skill check relevant to the how they explained their character was contributing. Based on how well or how poorly they role, complications, encounters, or cool finds may result. </p><p></p><p>I try to come up with complications and successes that are more interesting than "you fall" or "you scale the cliff in half the time". Complications could be:</p><p></p><p>Player says he is looking for hazards, safe footholds, and just finding and easier way up. But he rolls poorly on his Wisdom (Perception) check. </p><p></p><p>So he didn't notice the be hive, which the party has no distrubed. They need to fight off a swarm of bees while making Dex (Acrobatics) or Strength (Athletics) checks to keep hold of the ropes/handholds.</p><p></p><p>But a great roll on perception could be that they find some pitons left in the cliff by a past adventuring party, but they better make an investigation check because maybe one of them has become loose... Or they find a hidden cache of loot. The loot should be cool enough that they will want it, but perhaps cumbersome and they'll need to figure out how to safely bring it up the cliff. </p><p></p><p>If you don't mind a beer & pretzle approach, it can be fun to throw in some silly encounters. You could re-enact Spock surprising Kirk while he was climbing El Capitan in Star Trek V. While the party is climbing, perhaps a curious Aarakocra hovers around them trying to engage in conversation. First, if they are surprise, that have to make a check to hold on. Two, perhaps they have disadvantage on perception checks making it more likely that they'll miss the bee hive. Third, if they roll poorly on a check to persuade the bird man to go away, or if they rely on intimidation, maybe they will offend him and Aarakocra will be less hospitable to the players and they won't get the food and rest they need when they get to the top.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="MNblockhead, post: 7532763, member: 6796661"] This. I never played 4e, but Matt Coleville put out an excellent video discussing using 4e skill challenges in 5e and I used his advice to in my Curse of Strahd campaign when for the travel up the frozen winter pass to the Amber temple. How I handle it is I ask each player to explain how their character is contributing to the challenge. In this case, it would be getting the entire party safely up the cliff. It needs to be reasonable, or at least cool enough to let all reason go to the wind. Then each player makes a skill check relevant to the how they explained their character was contributing. Based on how well or how poorly they role, complications, encounters, or cool finds may result. I try to come up with complications and successes that are more interesting than "you fall" or "you scale the cliff in half the time". Complications could be: Player says he is looking for hazards, safe footholds, and just finding and easier way up. But he rolls poorly on his Wisdom (Perception) check. So he didn't notice the be hive, which the party has no distrubed. They need to fight off a swarm of bees while making Dex (Acrobatics) or Strength (Athletics) checks to keep hold of the ropes/handholds. But a great roll on perception could be that they find some pitons left in the cliff by a past adventuring party, but they better make an investigation check because maybe one of them has become loose... Or they find a hidden cache of loot. The loot should be cool enough that they will want it, but perhaps cumbersome and they'll need to figure out how to safely bring it up the cliff. If you don't mind a beer & pretzle approach, it can be fun to throw in some silly encounters. You could re-enact Spock surprising Kirk while he was climbing El Capitan in Star Trek V. While the party is climbing, perhaps a curious Aarakocra hovers around them trying to engage in conversation. First, if they are surprise, that have to make a check to hold on. Two, perhaps they have disadvantage on perception checks making it more likely that they'll miss the bee hive. Third, if they roll poorly on a check to persuade the bird man to go away, or if they rely on intimidation, maybe they will offend him and Aarakocra will be less hospitable to the players and they won't get the food and rest they need when they get to the top. [/QUOTE]
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