Knight's Challenges

[mmu1]

I feel completely opposite about skill checks. To me, part of the joy of running a mid to high level character is being able to just do things with no risk. I want to jump a 10 foot wall with no problem, run across a tightrope without blinking, be able to dechiper complex scripts in seconds, etc.

I more or less agree... I wouldn't say I want to be able to do things without risk, but I certainly don't want to have the risk of catastrophic or embarassing failure when doing trivial things. That way, if I do decide to take a risk, it'll be to accomplish something really exciting.

I also think that many people who feel that certain things are too easy don't understand statistics... As long as whatever the character is doing isn't so simple that it can be resolved with a single check, and the character can't automatically succeed on all, or most of the skill checks involved, then even if he's very good, he'll have a good chance of being tripped up by a bad roll at some point.

The trick is to make sure the character is forced to make enough checks to worry, without bogging things down or boring people...

 

[Greg K]

The 'challenge' could easily be "calling out" the enemy for a one-on-one while their respective armies watch (inciting the attack for reasons of honor and/or glory). Or maybe the 'challenge' could be insulting the opponent's honor or manhood (thus inciting the attack from rage or ego) or maybe it could be as easy as the Big Dumb Thug saying "Me big and strong. You big and strong. Let's fight!!" (thus inciting the attack from the desire to have fun or maybe even from boredom from the cr 1/4 adversaries).

*'talking' as in "communicating in some way, shape or form". You can easily Bluff by shrugging your sholders or Intimidate by unleashing a primal yell.

In which case, I would rather it be either a fighter and/or general feat or something that anyone can do rather than an ability of a specific class.

 

[Snapdragyn]

In which case, I would rather it be either a fighter and/or general feat....

You mean like the Goad feat? (I forget which book, but it already exists - albeit with a bit of a different mechanic.)

 

[Odhanan]

Then there goes the entire Enchantment school of magic.

Indeed. Narrativist DMs, DMs who hate "powergamers" and DMs who loathe the "videogamey" style of D&D they see (and these are often on the same side of debates, mind you) are from experience very often fudging saving throws on enchantments and compulsions, precisely for this reason. "If it serves the story" (meaning: the sole "vision" of the DM of what the game ought to be and not to be), that's fine, but "if it goes against the story", that will be fudged.

 

[Particle_Man]

I once played a dwarf fighter optimized for AC and tried to tank for the party. But the monsters quickly (sometimes just upon SEEING me, even when I got the glamoured armour and looked like I was wearing only clothes) would stop targeting me. Since I was optimized for AC instead of damage, I wasn't really contributing much to the party.

If only I had had the phb II then! I would have played a dwarf knight and would have FORCED the monsters to attack me.

Obviously, I am very much in favour of Knight's Challenge.