Skill check CR

[DanMcS]

What's the guideline for assigning CRs to skill checks? IE a DC 15 check should be rewarded as a CR x encounter if you beat it. Don't have my books handy and can't think where to look it up.

 

[Zephalon]

Well, to be honest, skill checks don't earn you XP. Thats a bad thing, because it doesn't reward less combat-oriented characters. It's all about bashing monsters in D&D, isn't it?

The argumentation is that every PC contributes to the parties success with all of his abilities. Thats why XP for challenges are nearly evenly cashed out to every member of the party.

Example 1: After a fight, all contributing party members get XP for overcoming the foes CR. It doesn't matter, who did most damage or if one of them just did nothing except being there.

Example 2: The party rogue disarms a trap. All party members gain XP for overcoming the trap (traps are assigned CR, see DMG)

The trap part is sort of XP for skill checks, so you could tweak it for other skill challenges, such as climbing a cliff, jumping over a chasm and so on... Remember, the skill check must be needed to overcome a challenge, that is a situation dangerous to the PC.

 

[whatisitgoodfor]

In general, the only way to handle giving XP for skill checks and the like requires looking at how much of the parties resources will be consumed on a successful result and how much on a failure.

Combat, which is what the CR system is designed around assumes that failure will consume 100% of the parties resources. Success against a CR equal to the party's average character level should consume around 15% of thier resources.

CR= APL+1 is IIRC around 25%
CR= APL+2 is about 45%
CR= APL+3 is around 75%
CR= APL+4 is supposedly around 95%

That should give you some small guideline.

 

[DanMcS]

Ah, darn, I thought there had been a Dragon article published on this sort of thing, but apparently I'm off my gourd.

 

[Saeviomagy]

d20 modern has exactly what you want. CR's for difficult skill checks (and a whole bunch more on experience awards besides).

Unfortunately, I can't remember the numbers, and they're not in the SRD.