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Skill Challenges: bad odds
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<blockquote data-quote="DM_Blake" data-source="post: 4425213" data-attributes="member: 57267"><p>So what you're saying boils down to skill challenges just being flavorful free XP for the PC group?</p><p> </p><p>Yikes!</p><p> </p><p>Shouldn't they be at least a little challenging?</p><p> </p><p>If I recall, the original early info on skill challenges, long before the books were released, said the concept was to get everyone involved. I seem to remember remarks about eliminating the concept of the party standing around, waiting for the rogue to pick a lock or ranger to find the needle in a haystack. I seem to recall comments about enhancing the contribution of the other player characters beyond simply aiding another.</p><p> </p><p>With all that, I'm very disappointed that aiding another is even allowed in skill challenges.</p><p> </p><p>Heck, in many situations, aiding another seems to be outright impossible. In others, the leaps of logic people use to justify their aid seem more like fast-talk and thinly veiled rationalizaitions for manipulating the rules.</p><p> </p><p>Seems to me that Skill Challenges would be a whole lot more challenging if aiding another were off the table completely.</p><p> </p><p>At the very least, restricted to where the person aiding must be within a few skill points (with the same skill) of the person performing the task - no chance for a skill 10 PC to aid a Skill 15 PC to finish a task - just how much help can an amateur give to an expert, anyway?</p><p> </p><p>I think one of the big problems balancing the math of Skill Challenges is that when the numbers are balanced assuming 3 or 4 Aid-Another bonuses on EVERY roll, then any group not doing this is clobbered by every skill challenge they attempt. And when the math is balanced assuming no Aid-Another bonuses, or at least rare Aid-Another bonuses, then any group where the players are gung ho about aiding each other will breeze through all their skil challenges.</p><p> </p><p>Having a hard-coded, set-in-stone rule stating either "Aid Another cannot be used during skill challenges" or "When each person attemps his skill roll, he must first consult every other PC and get their Aid Another results before attemping his roll - failure to do so will result in having nearly zero chance of successfully resolving the skill challenge."</p><p> </p><p>One or the other.</p><p> </p><p>It should not be casually mentioned in the rules that skill challenges can be enhanced by using Aid Another if you so desire. This leaves it up to the players, and the mathematical imbalance cannot be resolved across the board this way.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="DM_Blake, post: 4425213, member: 57267"] So what you're saying boils down to skill challenges just being flavorful free XP for the PC group? Yikes! Shouldn't they be at least a little challenging? If I recall, the original early info on skill challenges, long before the books were released, said the concept was to get everyone involved. I seem to remember remarks about eliminating the concept of the party standing around, waiting for the rogue to pick a lock or ranger to find the needle in a haystack. I seem to recall comments about enhancing the contribution of the other player characters beyond simply aiding another. With all that, I'm very disappointed that aiding another is even allowed in skill challenges. Heck, in many situations, aiding another seems to be outright impossible. In others, the leaps of logic people use to justify their aid seem more like fast-talk and thinly veiled rationalizaitions for manipulating the rules. Seems to me that Skill Challenges would be a whole lot more challenging if aiding another were off the table completely. At the very least, restricted to where the person aiding must be within a few skill points (with the same skill) of the person performing the task - no chance for a skill 10 PC to aid a Skill 15 PC to finish a task - just how much help can an amateur give to an expert, anyway? I think one of the big problems balancing the math of Skill Challenges is that when the numbers are balanced assuming 3 or 4 Aid-Another bonuses on EVERY roll, then any group not doing this is clobbered by every skill challenge they attempt. And when the math is balanced assuming no Aid-Another bonuses, or at least rare Aid-Another bonuses, then any group where the players are gung ho about aiding each other will breeze through all their skil challenges. Having a hard-coded, set-in-stone rule stating either "Aid Another cannot be used during skill challenges" or "When each person attemps his skill roll, he must first consult every other PC and get their Aid Another results before attemping his roll - failure to do so will result in having nearly zero chance of successfully resolving the skill challenge." One or the other. It should not be casually mentioned in the rules that skill challenges can be enhanced by using Aid Another if you so desire. This leaves it up to the players, and the mathematical imbalance cannot be resolved across the board this way. [/QUOTE]
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Skill Challenges: bad odds
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