I also am not fond of teh skill challenge mechanic. It feels forced, and too cut-and-paste. I think the main reason for the system was to give DM's who weren't good at resolving RP situations a way of resolving them like combat. More to the point, cut and dry. But I think it restricts clever, out-side-the-box thinking. No matter how brilliant your idea might be, it's only going to count as 1 success, maybe two if it was consiered a difficult roll. And you need X successes. Why have an X? If a player has some revolutionary idea to resolve the istuation in a way the DM had not thought of, and succeeds on his roll (which would probally have a higher DC than a "difficult" skill check) Than the situation should be resolved regardless of whether or not the players had X successes. I like it as a base mechanic, but common sense and creative thinking shuld override it.