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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tervin" data-source="post: 4284139" data-attributes="member: 66491">I like that more complex skill challenges award a lot more XP. And I agree that they don't necessarily need to be a lot harder to succeed in order to award more XP. What I do feel is that it is important that good, creative players feel that they coming up with clever ideas is what tips the balance, and makes the complex skill challenge a success. Because if that happens, the players really have fun. If it ends up being too easy, or something that only works if you are really lucky - then the fun is lost.For that reason it seems that the skill challenge system needs a very gentle hand from the DM, making sure that the difficulties are set just right - because when looking at the math it is clear that the window isn't that big, and cheating with the numbers in the middle of the encounter is not as easy as when a combat has turned bad.The system as written can be used, but the instructions and examples are unfortunate, and I feel that the DM needs to check so that the players will end up needing 6-9 on their rolls, depending on how easy you want it to be, and how many special bonuses are likely to show up in play.On another note, I wrote the following in the sister thread, but it seems needed to write it here as well:I really, really like 4th Edition D&D. If I put all this effort into going on and on about the bad bits of a part of the new system, it is because I want it to be as good as it can be, instead of that smudge in the corner of that painting you love that you fight to ignore every time you look at it. Also, I love the concept of skill challenges. There are other parts in the new D&D that I think are weaker points in the design, but I can simply ignore those because they are not part of what I want to do with the game. But because I love the concept of skill challenges I also want to be able to love them in play. And I am not able to do that if they seem like they are based on some unfortunate math, and come with bad instructions.</blockquote>

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