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Message: <blockquote data-quote="BobTheNob" data-source="post: 4956464" data-attributes="member: 82425">Yes and no. It is important to encourage creative solutions in players, and indeed rewarding them for doing so is a good approach. Creative thinking is the core of this game. The difficult line you have to walk as a DM here is to not invalidate challenge. One thing I have found is that players can find ways of justifying any old wacky skill use. The problem becomes that not having a skill that is appropriate is not an issue (if the DM is TOO generous about it) there is always a way to circumvent. In time, the entire skill system becomes irrelevent, as you can always solve the issue through enough negotiation with the DM. My take is this is an Intimidate challenge. So how do I ensure that initimidate is the skill that is used, yet allow the players to creatively apply other skills (i.e. in this case endurance)?Seperate the endurance check into a seperate skill challenge that, if successful, would reduce the difficulty on the Intimidate (i.e. Your iron will breaks his down a little). At the same time, say that to FAIL the endurance challenge results in the intimidate becoming harder (i.e. "He laughs at your attempt to break him and stiffens his resolve") emphasisng that these skill caveats can move you closer to a solution, or further way. So you can use "indirect" skills to influence the situation, but at the end of the day, the utter absense of the appropriate skill within the party cant be pushed to one side. In this way we reward players for creative skill application (use of endurance) at the same time as emphasising that the skill challenge is still based on the most appropriate skill (Intimidation). I adopted this approach a couple of months ago and since then skill challenges have become a much larger part of the game, and my players have even commented off the bat how much more they are enjoying this aspect of the game. Hell, they have even started picking feats on the basis of skill advantage.</blockquote>

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