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Message: <blockquote data-quote="James McMurray" data-source="post: 4320109" data-attributes="member: 743">This is the second session of our paragon campaign. The first session can be found <a href="http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=399926" target="_blank">on RPG.net</a>. I forgot to post it here, but if you want to talk about part 1, this thread is cool for that too. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />.The characters are: Dragonborn Paladin / Champion of Order, Human Wizard / Blood Mage, Halfling Rogue / Daggermaster, Dwarven Paladin / Radiant Servant, and Human Paladin / Justiciar (NPC, played in combat by me).Unlike last session, which was almost completely combat, this one only had one fight. It was a big and nasty fight, but we played for ~8 hours and the fight was less than 1/4 that time (if my messed up time sense is trustable). While I don't provide direct quotes, it's only because note-taking is easier when I can write "the thief bluffs him" instead of copying down the paragraph he actually said. The following is the underlying mechanics of the in character interactions.The session started where we'd left off, in the inn getting comfortable for the night, and about to talk to Ismark the Lesser, son of the recently deceased burgermeister. We were hoping to get some information out of him about what's going on, and it turned into our first skill challenge. We needed 8 successes before we got 5 failures, and the base DC for most things was 26. The primary skills were Diplomacy, Bluff, and Insight. We got our asses kicked.The suggested DC for our level (26) was very high compared to our skills in those areas. Our best users of those skills needed 13+ to succeed. You can use other skills in a skill challenge if you can explain how it helps, but even then our highest skills only hav a 50/50 chance. And usually those secondary skills won't count as a success, but instead give someone else +2 to their next check. There are some skill challenges where the DC is only 10 for the "Aid Another"-like action, but this wasn't one of them. Here's how it played out:The cleric used insight to try to give himself +2 to his next check on Diplomacy. I think he wasn't clear on how this worked, because Insight was a primary skill and the success he got would have counted for an actual success (and prevented us from being skunked <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> ). He may have been trying to avoid a failure and gotten lucky. I don't know what his Insight check is.Next the fighter moves up and stands menacingly next to me, impressing upon the noble that he might want to listen to me (and giving me +2 to my next roll). The thief used bluff to try to convince Ismark that he cares about eh area's plight and failed (despite having a high skill and being given +2 to the roll by the GM). I use History to try to give myself a +2 to my next check by learning something of interest about the guy's past, and fail.The cleric tries to use kindness and Insight, but fails. The fighter tries to assess the man's health to see if there's anything we can help him with, but fails. The thief uses acrobatics to lighten the mood in the inn and succeeds, giving several +2s and ingratiating himself with the Vistani. I fail again at Insight, racking up our 4th failure and ending the challenge with 0 successes, 4 failures. Needless to say, we got no useful info or XP.We sleep the night, with the cleric sleeping alone outside and waking to a halfling Vistani woman poking at him. Those inside take watches to avoid being bothered by the gypsies we don't trust. In the morning both myself and the cleric notice that wounds around some of our bites aren't healing, and are instead necrotizing. He uses his Heal skill to fix the disease, which we assume will turn us into zombies in true horror movie fashion.We set out to find Madame Eva to learn about the whereabouts of the sunsword, and decide to sneak out of the city rather than fight. Another Skill challenge! The complexity on this is lower, and it involves skills more of us have plus the ability to actuall Aid Another instead of pseudo-Aid Another with a 22+ DC. The primary skills are Stealth, Atheltics, and Acrobatics. We win, but barely.The rogue takes point and finds us a path (+1), while the fighter sprints from cover to cover (-1). The priest uses Perception to give the Rogue +2 by acting as a zombie spotter and I use Religion to figure out behavioral patterns of zombies to determine where they're most likely to be. I succeed, giving the rogue another +2 to his next roll, and also opening up Bluff as a primary skill, usable to distract the zombies who we learn react primarily and single-mindedly to sight and sound. The halfing uses this knowledge to break a window far from us, and gets us our second success (+2).The fighter tries to climb to a rooftop and fails (-2). The cleric uses insight for +2 and I fail my perception check to spot zombies(not a true failure, just not +2. The thief neaks us to a new spot (+3). The fighter succeeds on a perception roll (+4) and the cleric succeeds on a Nature roll to check the wind direction in case the zombies have good noses (+5). The thief, in the 5-to-2 make or break roll uses Stealth to successfully pull us to the edge of the town where our horses wait, still safe.With two Skill Challenges under our belt, I have to say that if it'sa challenge where you can't just use DC 10 for Aid Another, we're very likely to fail. Our skills are laid out so that we've got everything covered, but there isn't a ton of overlap. This means that a social challenge has one guy with 50/50 on the primary, and the others with 25/75. We're better overall at physical skills, but not by much. If the Aid Another with a secondary skill is only DC 10 we're probably good to go. You've got to think of a way your skill could apply to the situation, but we seemed to be pretty good at that.More in a little while. There's still a fight and a skill-less RPing encounter to go.</blockquote>

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