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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Oofta" data-source="post: 9527500" data-attributes="member: 6801845">Not really outside of adding or subtracting a +2 bonus or -2 penalty.  For example I remember reminding the NPC of something critical (that should have bypassed the entire challenge) and it had no impact on the fact that I needed to make a skill check and we still needed X successes before Y failures.  That may have been bad DMing to some, but the DM was running it by the book.[SPOILER="From the 4E DMG"]... Running the challenge itself is not all that different from running a combat encounter (see Chapter 3). You describe the environment, listen to the players’ responses, let them make their skill checks, and narrate the results. Roll initiative ... every player character must make skill checks to contribute to the success or failure of the encounter. Characters must make a check on their turn using one of the identified primary skills (usually with a moderate DC) or they must use a different skill, if they can come up with a way to use it to contribute to the challenge (with a hard DC). A secondary skill can be used only once by a single character in any given skill challenge. ...... You can also make use of the “DM’s best friend” rule to reward particularly creative uses of skills (or penalize the opposite) by giving a character a +2 bonus or –2 penalty to the check[/SPOILER]I didn't have an issue with the basic idea, it was just overused by some DMs and modules.</blockquote>

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