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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Runestar" data-source="post: 4628971" data-attributes="member: 72317">How so? Even at 1st lv, a cleric can already automatically succeed at any passive perception check as delineated in the PHB. Feats are a dime a dozen in 4e, and so watered down that even skill focus isn't really any inferior by comparison. Elf isn't that unusual a race either. A cleric has every incentive to pump wisdom. And the DMG suggests that PCs should get gear suited to them anyways.Just imagine if each PC had been designated a few skills he was in charge of maxing (eg: the dragonborn paladin focuses on intimidate). The end result is that between all the players in the party, they can easily succeed at any single skill check expected of them (save for skill checks which involve the entire party, such as athletics). Which means that they should be able to readily take on most skill challenges. You can argue about roleplaying and all that, but at the end of the day, your party is still going to want to succeed at where it matters most - the die rolls, because even the most beautifully roleplaying still can't make you roll better (barring house-rules where the DM substitutes roleplaying for checks). Are those sources expensive? Maybe. But depending on how badly a party wants/needs to succeed at skill challenges, it may well be worth the investment. Look at the final skill challenge in H1 for instance (the part about closing the portal successfully). I can't see anyone succeeding on it but the most optimized of PCs.Especially since skill challenges now allow the PCs to voluntarily excuse themselves if they believe they will be more of a hindrance than help (if aid another is not an option for some reason), the stark reality is that only those with good checks are going to participate. Perhaps Meals intended skill challenges to be so much more, but apparently, something got lost in the final translation. Maybe a few "get it", but for the rest, they are stuck with the few lackluster examples illustrated in the DMG.</blockquote>

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