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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tony Vargas" data-source="post: 5875440" data-attributes="member: 996">Since a Bog Hag is a standard monster, I'd consider combining the skill challenge with the battle, the SC would take the place of one or more additional monsters.Now, since the Hag is 10th level, 4 above the party, one option is to convert her to a 6th level Elite (exact same experience value).  That would make things work more smoothly mechanically, without impacting the encounter budget.  You'd have to give her an extra power or two, maybe some action-preservation or the Leader secondary role.So, whatever budget you set for the encounter, the Hag (10th standard or 6th elite) is 500.  My impulse would be to make the Skill Challenge the same level as she is (6th or 10th), with a complexity that fits the budget.  At 6th complexity 2, it's worth as much as the Hag, herself, which seems fitting to me.That's 6 successes before 3 failures, 5 moderate, 1 hard, and no advantages needed (Rules Compendium p159).  Obvious primary skills would be Nature (tracking) and Endurance (slogging through her prefered habitat).  Since she's Fey she might have some sort of glamour/illusion hiding her lair, which Arcana or Insight (candidates for the Hard success) could pierce.  You could also point out that using an encounter power might generate a success.Failures could expose the PCs to dangers of the swamp, inflicting damage.  Typically in a Skill Challenge you just take away surges, but as this one is part of an encounter, you might want to have it do actual damage, using up surge-triggers as well as surges to heal, as the party won't get a short rest before facing the Hag.Success or failure, then, is just about how hurt/exhausted the PCs are before they stagger into her lair.  Each failure inflicts some damage, 3 inflicts the maximum amount, and you stop worrying about successes and just describe blundering through an illusion and into her lair or something like that - possibly even giving the Hag surprise.Success might let the party gain surprise.  Complete success leaves them reasonably fresh (except for any powers they expended to get successes), since no failures means no damage.</blockquote>

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