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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Piratecat" data-source="post: 4767798" data-attributes="member: 2">I like cinematic cut scenes. I was considering several non-intrusive options -- a pool of standing water reflecting what was happening in the world, a crystal ball filled with mist that periodically (ie when I wanted it to) showed a scene somewhere else. As it turned out, I finally said "screw it," and asked the players if I could tell them something out of game. "Your characters don't know this," I said, "although youi'll find out when you get back to Floodford. But it'll be more fun if you as players know right now." Then I described the scene. It was a little awkward, but their looks as they realized how they affected the battle probably made up for it. I'll ask them: hey, players! Would it have been better to save that news until your characters returned to town next game?1. Most people hit by the weeds had a 30% chance to be immobilized (a 1-3 on a d10.) The characters marked by Sklar - anyone with a divine power source and anyone who venerated Demis - had a 70% chance. 2. The DCs are straight from the DMG for easy, medium and hard skill checks for 1st-3rd lvl PCs.As evidenced by the fact that the first challenge was completed with no failures (albeit with two PCs bloodied), the easy skill checks were too easy.  Several PCs could auto-make them each round. I should have raised those to medium or at least made the easiest ones a little bit harder (DC 10 --> DC 12.)  Next time I do this I'm likely to describe them as "easy," "moderate," etc. instead of giving actual numbers.The second skill challenge was fantastic. Real tension and difficult choices, including some mandatory combat. Aid the wizard? Attack the weeds? The fact that the six weeds a round were cumulative -- ignore them and you'd have 12 next round, all attacking the same person! -- meant that the group had to dedicate some people to handle them. One of Stron's skill checks missed by 1, meaning that one more person aiding would have made it succeed. It was a very near thing, and it brought out superb teamwork in the players. I leveled them to 4th level at the end of the game; they deserved it.One secret to skill challenges is to just hand them out a sheet detailing all of it, and give the players a chance to tackle the problem however they see best; this seems to work better than my previous slapdash approach. The second is to be systematic about going around the table. Finally, I think you should never give the PCs a skill challenge that you can't afford to let them lose. Something awful would have happened if they had lost, but it was fun-for-the-game awful (as opposed to kills-all-the-PCs awful.) I was prepared no matter what happened.Magical items found were a +2 robe of scintillation (that changed to straps when put on the warforged; apparently it had been made with warforged in mind?) and +2 scale armor of whatever-it's-called, the one that can look like normal clothing. I also dumped all of the level's remaining treasure parcels into this game: antique jewelry, gold and jeweled buttons on the clothes, rare perfumes, the sapphires around the cup holding the Tide of Sklar. The group is almost back to where they should be treasure-wise, even though they're still missing some belongings.I had several options for combat. For instance, at least one invisible guardian creature was hiding up on the ceiling behind the silk sheets. It was ordered to attack any stranger trying to leave the hut, though (or at least that's how it interpreted its instructions. It wasn't what you'd call a willing guardian), and by the time the PCs left it had been freed from its unwilling servitude.</blockquote>

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