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Message: <blockquote data-quote="slobo777" data-source="post: 6006422" data-attributes="member: 6694877">4E's skill checks are just as static as 3E. As well as easy/medium/hrad, you also select the level of the challenge. This is always the same number. Edit: So scaling the Slimy Cliffs might be a Level 6 Hard Athletics check. It's always that, same as if in a 3E adventure, the Slimy Cliffs were presented as needing a DC 23 Climb check to scale. If DCs for "standard scenarios" presented in the skill sections of 4E were presented this way, it may of helped (well, helped with comprehension, but overall I suppose not, since it would require players to cross-reference to a table).What 4E does (badly IMO) is short-circuit DM design skills of picking appropriate challenges. It also lacks descriptions for what the DCs represent.So in 3E you might look through a list of defined and described things with assigned DCs and decide which would be appropriate for, say, an area to explore with 8th-level characters.The same thing in 4E is done by assuming the challenges are appropriate for 8th level, and using the DCs directly (edit: and just as with monsters, you can use skill DCs from +- levels when it seems appropriate). Then, afterwards, you come up with the description of why they are particularly difficult. This is supposed to result in a game with a meaningful chance of success or failure, without forcing the DM to e.g. have all the locks made of steel by dwarves (because the Dwarven Steel Lock is the only lock in the book with a DC that challenges an 8th-level rogue).  But the DCs are inherently static - the exact same challenge appearing again in the game should have the same DC.However, most people's initial reaction to 4E's skill chart is "that's silly - stuff just gets harder when I go up a level?" It kind of misses the point, but I think the DMG was too quick to present the results and not show the workings.</blockquote>

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