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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Rel" data-source="post: 4653473" data-attributes="member: 99">I can't recall who it was here at ENW that posed it this way but I ran the first session of my new 4e campaign on Monday night and I explained it to the players like this:  "Skill challenges are where you trick me into letting you use your best skills to solve the problem at hand by coming up with creative ways to apply them."Admittedly I did have to turn down a couple of rather weak suggestions but overall it got their minds working to think outside the box a bit.In practice the challenge went like this:The bridge they were on collapsed (thanks to some help by the bad guys) and they plunged a pretty long distance into a raging river below.  First I had them make two Athletics or Acrobatics rolls (whichever they wanted) with failure of either resulting in the loss of a Healing Surge.Then they had to try and stay afloat in the rapids as they were swept rapidly downstream.  One thing I made sure of here was to explain that this was not a "round by round" thing.  Each check represented several minutes of them being swept through this canyon.  Most simply made Athletics checks but one or two also made some Nature rolls to try and "read the river".The Paladin nearly drowned due to his armor check penalty in plate so he finally cut it away (this was a skill roll based on his basic melee attack with a dagger to cut the straps).  He had an easier time swimming after that.The Cleric managed some Perception rolls to locate the others and found an NPC struggling not to get bitten by their pack-lizard.  She managed to calm it down (Nature) help him free the laquered wooden urn from its back to use as a floatation device (Strength check) and eventually was able to use the lizard as a sort of slow mount in the water (Nature again).Meanwhile the Warlock and Ranger were doing relatively well but the accumulated failures in the challenge triggered a combat.  I'd decided that multiple failures signified that they were all skinned up from banging off of rocks and the blood in the water drew the Dire Pirhannas.  These were a Needlefang Drake swarm that I'd reskinned and their "Drag Down" power seemed perfect for the occasion.  This nearly killed both the Ranger and Warlock (Ranger was 1 death save away from dead) but the Paladin and Cleric got there at the buzzer thanks to some more Athletics (now unencumbered by armor) checks by the Paladin and Nature rolls by the Cleric to ride the lizard.That concluded the challenge and they washed up in some shallows very far from where they started, the whole thing having take a half hour or so.</blockquote>

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