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Message: <blockquote data-quote="jbear" data-source="post: 5630795" data-attributes="member: 75065">I don't have time right at the moment to go into what I think is a very interesting topic, but I will say that I think skill challenges can and should be potentially lethal.In short i follow this rule of thumb when  I'm resolving a Skill Challenge:Any minor or major failure causes a potentially dangerous or lethal change in the situation that must be immeadiately resolved before the party can continue working on the challenge.For example: In a particularly lethal challenge I made when the party were crossing  a notoriously dangerous and deadly swamp at one point in the challenge the PCs were crossing trees above an army of red ants they had stumbled upon. For me, in this situation it's no good that only one PC should face this challenge because they are good at climbing; everyone is climbing so everyone faces the challenge. So a group roll is required where the overall tallies determines the degree of success. Initially I allow one PC to lead the challenge: the best climber sets the path showing the others where and how to climb. This I make a hard DC. If achieved depending on the degree of success,  either provide a +2 bonus to the rest of the group or entirely lower the difficulty of the challenge for the others. If a leader fails, depending on the degree of failure he can either cause a penalty or make the rest of the party face  a  hard DC.But even if the group achieves an overall success, what about the one PC that fluffed it? Saying 'It doesn't matter 4/5 is good enough for me, one overall success'. 4/5 will be an overall success if and when the group rescues their mate who just fell down amongst the swarming Red Ants.That situation gets run in a descriptive fashion, the players expected to use their nouse to resolve it, but the fallen player will be being attacked by the Army of Ants and taking real damage like  a PC would from  any hazard in  a combat situation,  so death is a possibility. As  situation after situation like this occurs, and as the entire challenge  is considered an 'encounter' healing resources dwindle fast and it can get gritty.My group's dwarven cleric got through bloodied and out of surges with no resources left to heal. it was tense, but exciting and fun. Which in  my opinion was the goal. The players respect 'The Bog'!</blockquote>

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