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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Paul Strack" data-source="post: 4633661" data-attributes="member: 71340">That would be an example of a poorly designed skill challenge, violating the golden rule of skill challenges:"If the characters fail the challenge, the story still has to move forward, but in a different direction and possibly by a longer, more dangerous route."A better challenge would have let the PCs move into the burrow even with a failure, but with some kind of penalty, such as one of the following:1) Each failed checks results in some damage suffered (from falls, crumbling ceilings, whatever).2) A lost challenges means the players make too much noise or take too much time, so that the monsters they meet inside of the burrow have had time to set up an ambush and achieve surprise in the next combat.3) The PCs have to a take a more dangerous route into the caverns, such as climbing down a long hole and risking falling damage.If you combine the above with allowing player creativity to give small +2 situational bonuses to the checks or to allow creative skill use (as per "Reward Clever Ideas" on DMG 75), then challenges can be an opportunity for some interesting creativity and role-playing.</blockquote>