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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 8985973" data-attributes="member: 42582">Skills don't get "weaker" - what skills can achieve outside of combat is a matter of adjudication of the fiction, and 4e encourages that to be pretty gonzo.The issue is mathematical. Defences and attacks scale (more-or-less) on a +1 per level basis. There are a range of mechanisms on the PC build side that underpin this, including +half level, enhancement on armour and weapons (or inherent bonuses), the rate at which stat increases are gained, etc.The only guaranteed scaling for skill bonuses is +half level, +1 for the paragon and epic stat increases. Otherwise it depends on particular stat increases, magic items with bonuses to particular skills, particular build features, etc.At Heroic tier the issue doesn't show itself too much. But later on it becomes very obvious, in at least two ways:Monster/NPC attacks and defences remain more-or-less on par with PC ones, because the +1/level on their stat blocks roughly matches the PC scaling. But monster/NPC skill bonuses become anaemic, because they scale at +half level +stat, with no systemic device to mirror the various ad hoc bonuses from items and build features that PCs will have in their good skills.The target numbers in the DC-by-level chart, which closely reflect the ways in which PC skill bonuses can be expected to scale, do not correspond in any real way to defences. So (eg) the idea of an Intimidate check vs Will defence is mathematically not robust. Likewise, the idea (in a skill challenge, say) of an attack vs a medium DC on the DC-by-level chart is mathematically not robust.As [USER=82106]@AbdulAlhazred[/USER] and I have noted, fixing this maths issue is not possible while maintaining compatibility.</blockquote>

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