Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="ZetaStriker" data-source="post: 4192242" data-attributes="member: 64840">One thing Celebrim keeps bringing up that he's obviously misunderstanding is that he thinks DM's will say &quot;you can't use that skill&quot;. That's not the case at all, and flies in the face of everything a skill challenge represents. Any skill can be used, as long as the player can find a way for it to fit the situations. DM's judge this on a case by case basis; they wont just say &quot;Athletics is useless here&quot;. The point of the skill challenge is for players to use their skills in ways they wouldn't ordinarily, and to encourage creativity. And no, that isn't something that applies only to rp-lite groups; even a heavily rp focused group might not always think creatively when it comes to challenges such as these.For instance, say that the skill challenge consists of traveling to the summit of a small mountain of living flesh, the terrain of which is actively trying to prevent the PCs from ascending, and in the worst case, trying to kill them(no, that doesn't mean that it's death vs. success, but that failure might lead to the party finding themselves back at the base with some HP damage). You might ring up a list of likely skills the PCs could try, but some things, you might assume to be rather useless. You might discount Diplomacy, Intimidate and Bluff, for example. But then the party's rogue uses Bluff to feint at a tentacle, allowing him to pass by while its distracted, and the Fighter uses Intimidate to draw more of the grasping tentacles towards himself to make travel easier for the rest of the party? You'd be hard pressed to think of an idea for Diplomacy as well, but if a player thought up something that he could actually apply it to, would you really shoot him down just because it relies upon that skill?</blockquote>

[QUOTE="ZetaStriker, post: 4192242, member: 64840"] One thing Celebrim keeps bringing up that he's obviously misunderstanding is that he thinks DM's will say "you can't use that skill". That's not the case at all, and flies in the face of everything a skill challenge represents. [i]Any[/i] skill can be used, as long as the player can find a way for it to fit the situations. DM's judge this on a case by case basis; they wont just say "Athletics is useless here". The point of the skill challenge is for players to use their skills in ways they wouldn't ordinarily, and to encourage creativity. And no, that isn't something that applies only to rp-lite groups; even a heavily rp focused group might not always think creatively when it comes to challenges such as these. For instance, say that the skill challenge consists of traveling to the summit of a small mountain of living flesh, the terrain of which is actively trying to prevent the PCs from ascending, and in the worst case, trying to kill them(no, that doesn't mean that it's death vs. success, but that failure might lead to the party finding themselves back at the base with some HP damage). You might ring up a list of likely skills the PCs could try, but some things, you might assume to be rather useless. You might discount Diplomacy, Intimidate and Bluff, for example. But then the party's rogue uses Bluff to feint at a tentacle, allowing him to pass by while its distracted, and the Fighter uses Intimidate to draw more of the grasping tentacles towards himself to make travel easier for the rest of the party? You'd be hard pressed to think of an idea for Diplomacy as well, but if a player thought up something that he could actually apply it to, would you really shoot him down just because it relies upon that skill? [/QUOTE]

Verification