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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pskought" data-source="post: 4191986" data-attributes="member: 54807">I actually tried a Skill Challenge in a 3.5 Eberron game over the weekend, based on what I'd read and heard so far.  Any feedback or suggestions would be appreciated.I had four players who were on an investigation that took them to a small town.  They found the village devoid of life and most of the standing structures had been gutted by fire, though the stone walls still stood.There was a bell tower at one end of town, a weak fountain in the town center, and a barely-scorched blacksmith’s shop near the fountain.  As they approached the stone tower, a virtual tidal wave of fire elementals came out of the forest, cutting a swath and coming right for them.I paused the game, as they expected to roll initiative and to see a map come out.  I made it clear this was not a fighting encounter, but a skills encounter, and proceeded to explain the general idea – you tell me how you’re using some skill or power to escape the wave of fire.I’d decided that they each needed 3 successes before 2 failures to stave off some sort of burn damage or possibly a fiery death.  Making death a consequence was apparently my first major mistake.The DC was set at 18 for 7th level characters, which is low but I wanted to introduce them to the concept.  For anyone who wants to read what happened, here is how the four PCs reacted...The WarlockFirst, he runs at top speed towards the tower, and jumps as high as he can to get a head start with Spider Climb.  (Success: Jump Check)  He starts the climb as fast as he can, but the soot is making it difficult to get a handhold.  I give him a Spider Climb bonus to his check, and he makes it.  (Success: Climb Check)  Next, he scuttles up the side and tries to hide.  Luck isn’t with him and an elemental spots him and breaks off from the wave, searching for him.  (Failure: Hide)  Finally, he goes for broke and scampers up to the top of the bell tower, moving quietly and tries to hide again; the elemental loses interest and rejoins the wave.  (Success: Move Silently, Extra Success: Hide)The WarbladeShe opens by trying to gauge the depth of the wave, because she has a plan.  She makes a Parkour run up the side of a building to a stone roof (Success: Jump) and tries to see if she can jump over the wave as it passes through her area. She determines it is only twenty feet deep.  (Success: Spot).  She lines up the jump, waits until the last second and makes an impressive 40-foot magically enhanced long jump (Success: Jump), then throws on a half twist to land safely with weapon in hand.  (Extra Success: Tumble)The BardShe can’t jump or climb that well, so she tries to run.  She remembers that the blacksmith shop was scorch-free, so she tries to recall the fastest route back. (Success: Knowledge-Local)  Her chosen path takes her through some tight squeezes, though, and she shimmies her way through a shortcut. (Success: Escape Artist).  Her next attempt at a shortcut isn’t as effective, though (Failure: Knowledge-Local), so as a last ditch effort she casts Swift Invisibility and contorts into the blacksmith’s chimney and lets the fire roar past her. (Success: Hide)The ArtificerWeirdest one, by far.  He backpedals and analyzes the oncoming wave for a weak spot while infusing his armor.  (Success: Knowledge-Planes)  He goes Ethereal, and leaps head-first into the wave, looking for a control source.  He ends up disoriented, though, and learns nothing.  (Failure: Knowledge-Arcana)  He quickly picks himself back up, focuses, and looks for a lingering spell effect.  He determines there isn’t one (Success: Spellcraft)  He takes one last look around for what might be affecting the wave, and determines they are following a prescribed path, giving him a clue to the overall mystery. (Success: Spot).From my side of the screen, this was arguably the fastest-paced and most interesting encounters we’ve played through in a while.  Everyone got to use one of their signature skills to outmaneuver the bad guys, and the whole encounter took less than thirty minutes to explain and adjudicate.  I really like that no battle map was needed, only a rough notion of the area without regard to square-by-square distance.</blockquote>

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