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<blockquote data-quote="babinro" data-source="post: 5630844" data-attributes="member: 67482">To be playing a campaign and having been thrown into a skill challenge suddenly after 10 levels where the consequence is death would be terrible design without any lead in.The reason being simply that characters don't focus on skill based powers or feats as a whole.&nbsp; Unless they know going into a campaign that these things will have equal weighing on their success in the game design to combat...they will be ill prepared to deal with that skill challenge unless the DC's themselves are very easy to achieve.I would sooner have the failure of a skill challenge lead to an encounter in which there is a very high possibility of death should the party refuse to flee.&nbsp; Likewise the comment that something grave is at stake like the life of an important NPC.I've personally run a skill challenge where the walls of a room were closing in such that they would TPK a party.&nbsp; The first time I did this was as a skill challenge where I incorporated combat mechanics for those who could not assist as well.&nbsp; The door to exit the room could be bashed open with enough damage.&nbsp; In epic tier, I took this concept one step further with the flooded room where monsters were distracting the combat focused party members while the appropriate skill based characters handled the skill challenge.&nbsp;&nbsp; I should note that in both cases, this 'challenge' was more of an illusion than a reality.&nbsp; Mechincally the walls would compress every round pass or fail.&nbsp; But the rounds to crush the party was something like 10...where the possibility to pass the challenge by round 5 was very likely.&nbsp; Statistically, it would have been a very low chance of actual death..but because the players didn't know that information, the experience remained fun and tense.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="babinro, post: 5630844, member: 67482"] To be playing a campaign and having been thrown into a skill challenge suddenly after 10 levels where the consequence is death would be terrible design without any lead in. The reason being simply that characters don't focus on skill based powers or feats as a whole. Unless they know going into a campaign that these things will have equal weighing on their success in the game design to combat...they will be ill prepared to deal with that skill challenge unless the DC's themselves are very easy to achieve. I would sooner have the failure of a skill challenge lead to an encounter in which there is a very high possibility of death should the party refuse to flee. Likewise the comment that something grave is at stake like the life of an important NPC. I've personally run a skill challenge where the walls of a room were closing in such that they would TPK a party. The first time I did this was as a skill challenge where I incorporated combat mechanics for those who could not assist as well. The door to exit the room could be bashed open with enough damage. In epic tier, I took this concept one step further with the flooded room where monsters were distracting the combat focused party members while the appropriate skill based characters handled the skill challenge. I should note that in both cases, this 'challenge' was more of an illusion than a reality. Mechincally the walls would compress every round pass or fail. But the rounds to crush the party was something like 10...where the possibility to pass the challenge by round 5 was very likely. Statistically, it would have been a very low chance of actual death..but because the players didn't know that information, the experience remained fun and tense. [/QUOTE]

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