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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ovinomancer" data-source="post: 7086630" data-attributes="member: 16814">I don't follow. Combat encounters don't have fixed outcomes, but skill challenges do.  A combat encounter can end with one side defeated, one side injured, one side running away, one side surrendering, one side being captured against their will -- pick multiples.  Combat encounters have fixed entry points (usually), but not fixed exit points.  Skill challenges, on the other hand, usually have both fixed entry and exit points -- the exit points are success at the challenge or failure at the challenge.  So, to predefine a combat encounter, I just have to set where it is and what it is, but I don't have to set how it ends.  With a skill challenge I also need to set how it ends, and this means I must know what the challenge is about.  As I noted, things like environmental challenges are easy to guess -- you need to travel across this dangerous terrain -- but social challenges aren't possible to predict as they're very dependant on the immediate goals of the players.  Unless you're railroading, of course, and will force a particular challenge with set parameters at that particular place.Again, skill challenges are just more suited to being reactionary events to stated player intentions.  They do not work very well being pre-scripted in a sandbox style.All skill systems in D&D that have been tied to the d20 core mechanic have been kludges, and many of them have not worked well.  The swinginess of the d20 does a decent job of making combat exciting, and, since combats usually involved multiple rolls and are often a focus of D&D games, the swinginess averages out so players cans still make reasonable estimations of risk.  But the skill systems don't do well with the swingyness of the d20, and so various kludges have come up to smooth out expectations and provide players with a reasonable estimation of success.  5e's incarnation is bounded accuracy and objective DCs.  I'm meh on this as a resolution mechanic for skills, but then I've been meh on skill resolution for some time in D&D.  It's not a huge hurdle for me, else I'd find a different system, and I've grown to dislike extensive house rules.  My current set of house rules can fit on an index card and doesn't require small font.</blockquote>

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