Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="bardolph" data-source="post: 4321165" data-attributes="member: 2304">Heh, you've certainly been keeping yourself busy, Stalker0!&nbsp; I'll check it out.A high likelihood of success is desirable.&nbsp; After all, PCs win combat encounters virtually 100% of the time.&nbsp; However, I see what you're saying.&nbsp; It's a tough problem to solve.The fundamental difference between combat and skill challenges is that combat doesn't have a direct penalty for missing a roll.&nbsp; Rather, it functions more like a race: can the PC's deal X damage before the enemy deals Y damage?&nbsp; Because enemy creatures are expected to accomplish a certain amount of progress each round, it behooves the party to accumulate as many successes (hits) as possible per round.&nbsp; This encourages an active role from each member of the party.Skill Challenges are the opposite: the goal is to limit the number of failures, since the number of failures is what sets the end of the challenge.&nbsp; This encourages caution, since everyone except the highest roller should bow out.I can see how Guiding Light addresses this issue, since it forces positions 2-4 (in a 5-person party) to roll regardless of their skill.&nbsp; In a sense, this creates a situation where players 1 (Skilly McAwesome) and 5 (The Guiding Light) are racing to accumulate the needed number of successes before the rest of the party accumulates enough failures to end the challenge.My concern is that Healing Surges are the recommend penalty for failure in the DMG.&nbsp; If Healing Surges are also the price for success, then the party is placed into a &quot;damned if you do, damned if you don't&quot; situation.I disagree that using BR early would be an increase in power.&nbsp; If BR is a &quot;hard&quot; roll, it really would only make sense to use it to prevent the final failure, since the penalty for missing the BR (an additional failure) is so much more punishing at any other point in the challenge.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="bardolph, post: 4321165, member: 2304"] Heh, you've certainly been keeping yourself busy, Stalker0! I'll check it out. A high likelihood of success is desirable. After all, PCs win combat encounters virtually 100% of the time. However, I see what you're saying. It's a tough problem to solve. The fundamental difference between combat and skill challenges is that combat doesn't have a direct penalty for missing a roll. Rather, it functions more like a race: can the PC's deal X damage before the enemy deals Y damage? Because enemy creatures are expected to accomplish a certain amount of progress each round, it behooves the party to accumulate as many successes (hits) as possible per round. This encourages an active role from each member of the party. Skill Challenges are the opposite: the goal is to limit the number of failures, since the number of failures is what sets the end of the challenge. This encourages caution, since everyone except the highest roller should bow out. I can see how Guiding Light addresses this issue, since it forces positions 2-4 (in a 5-person party) to roll regardless of their skill. In a sense, this creates a situation where players 1 (Skilly McAwesome) and 5 (The Guiding Light) are racing to accumulate the needed number of successes before the rest of the party accumulates enough failures to end the challenge. My concern is that Healing Surges are the recommend penalty for failure in the DMG. If Healing Surges are also the price for success, then the party is placed into a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation. I disagree that using BR early would be an increase in power. If BR is a "hard" roll, it really would only make sense to use it to prevent the final failure, since the penalty for missing the BR (an additional failure) is so much more punishing at any other point in the challenge. [/QUOTE]

Verification