Glad to hear I'm not the only one making guidelines for this! I'm not crazy about minionizing guards just for the purpose of ganking -- I like monster caste to be the result of power and/or training, rather than moment-to-moment circumstance -- but these are some interesting ideas. Similarly, there's something about SCs that never clicked with me but kudos to those who make them work!
SCs take a bit of getting the hang of, IME, but they are well worth the effort, I think. There is, sadly, an awful lot that is hinted at in the 4e books but not really explored or explained. An example comes up below, in fact...
Bluffing a Guard: Rather than sneak, a PC might opt to bluff a guard. A bluffing PC must come up with some kind of pretense for approaching the guard. If the pretense makes no sense at all given the situation, the DM can decide that the Bluff attempt simply fails. Drawn weapons ruin any chance for bluffing in most situations, so a bluffing PC should keep his weapons sheathed.
I certainly allow Bluff to reduce Perception DCs - and also to flat-out by-pass the guard if used really well.
Skill Challenge actions (i.e. skill rolls, power or ritual use, and improvised actions as part of a skill challenge) to reduce effective DCs or give bonuses to other rolls is a definite part of skill challenges that is spelled out in the DMG but, IMO, underused. All characters that don't have a clearly useful skill should certainly get the chance to perform at least the equivalent of an "aid another" with some reasonably well thought out action. In addition, perception/knowledge rolls should be bonus/DC reducing rather than actual success/failure in the challenge in most cases, I think. I have even let fighters, during a research task in a library, use Athletics/Endurance to help out with fetching and carrying heavy books - it gives even characters unsuited to the current task things to do that help out a little. Likewise, wizards can keep an eye out for trouble while the lead climbers ascend a cliff.
@ Everyone: I've been meaning to ask how much time you give the PCs before an attacked guard calls for help. Until the guard can act during the first real round of combat, or just until the surprise round ends? Originally I had run my play test assuming that surprise lasts until the guard's initiative comes up during the first real round -- I was probably thinking of the rogue's First Strike, and generalizing it to everyone. But then I read the surprise rules, and technically surprise only lasts until the end of the surprise round. (In retrospect, that really should have been clear from the start...)
Generally things progress thus:
- When the surprise round starts most bonuses to skills from SC actions and rituals end (specifically, as initiative is rolled).
- When the surprise round ends enemies can perform free actions. If a shout will raise the alarm, that happens now, but often a single shout can be nullified with a good Bluff...
- On the guard's initiative/turn, any action may be taken.
