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Message: <blockquote data-quote="FireLance" data-source="post: 5024145" data-attributes="member: 3424">I think it's more accurate to say that you don't have to use skill challenges if you don't want to. However, there are players and DMs who prefer the more structured approach provided by a skill challenge to the more free-form approach to tackling non-combat challenges used in previous editions. And when you think about it, skill challenges are actually more flexible than the standard prescriptive approach to tasks such as opening locks, noticing secret doors, finding and removing traps, and following tracks. Skill challenges simply strike a middle ground between the two. All this is mentioned in my OP, by the way.A skill challenge is no more a railroad than needing to make a Thievery (or Open Locks) check to get past a locked door is a railroad. A poor DM could turn it into a railroad if there is no other way past the door (can't chop it down, can't use the knock ritual or spell, etc.) but that is a problem with the DM, not the skill challenge mechanic (or the Open Locks skill).Not necessarily. You can write up a skill challenge that awards successes (even automatic successes) for the use of powers and, as mentioned, the DM can always approve creative ideas and/or award enough successes to end a skill challenge quickly if he chooses to. If he doesn't, well, he should probably read my OP, right?Right. And that's the beauty of skill challenges. They are an extra tool. You don't need to use them if you don't want to, but they are there for when you have a use for them. Frankly, I generally find complaining about additional approaches or extra options to be ... bizzare.In the same vein, you could argue that combat is just making an attack roll that beats AC, or finding a trap is just making a Perception (or Search) check that beats the set DC, and disarming it is just another Thievery (or Disable Device) check. Rolling dice plus modifiers vs.  target numbers is just the mechanics. The effort you put into describing it and the complications that the DM puts into the challenge are what distinguishes it from a simple dice-rolling exercise. This is true regardless of whether you are talking about combat, traps or skill challenges in general.Seriously, if you feel that your skill challenges are railroads, or you don't know how to use skill challenges in an RPG, or you would like alternative approaches to WotC's "three failures" model, you should read my OP.</blockquote>

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