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Message: <blockquote data-quote="KarinsDad" data-source="post: 5465616" data-attributes="member: 2011">I never said to do away with skill checks. I never said to do away with skill challenges.I like skill checks at appropriate times. I think it is important to make some skill determinations via dice rolls.I'm not too keen on skill challenges. Most of the ones I've experienced have been fairly lame and have taken up a lot of time to accomplish something that I thought could be accomplished a lot easier and faster with just a few skill check rolls (or even with common sense and sometimes zero skill check rolls).I also think that skill challenges are sometimes ways for some DMs to try to force their players to come up with imaginative solutions. The players are rewarded if they come up with good ideas that the DM likes and penalized (one way or another) if they don't (as opposed to combat encounters which tend to be cut and dry unless the DM goes out of his way to fudge the scenario for or against the PCs mid-combat). Skill challenges feel more subjective ("hmmm, that's a good idea, +2 to your next Perception roll") whereas combat feels more objective.Not everyone's brains are geared towards imaginative solutions. That's not fun for every player. Some players don't want to try to figure out how to part the illusionary mists with their Arcana skill. They want to get to the darn island and cut to the chase. Some people like more tangible challenges and not abstract ones or ones that require more extreme out of the box thinking.Skill challenges are sometimes like puzzles. If your brain is geared towards puzzles, the DM throwing out a puzzle is enjoyable. If not, it might not be. One part of skill challenges that is not always enjoyable is that they are kind of like an encounter: they continue on until the PCs either succeed, partially succeed, or fail (typically). Sometimes when I am in the middle of one (considering that they are usually not life or death situations), I sometimes just want my PC to say "Screw it. This is too much of a pain in the butt to figure out. Let's just go back to the tavern and drink. The mayor can track down his own clues to rescuing his daughter and when he finds out where she is, he can come tell us.".</blockquote>

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