Three Types of Encounters, Part 1: Skill Challenges
To keep things interesting, to give variation to play, and to keep characters from getting too awful strong in any one category (imbalance), DMs want to make sure that different types of encounters are placed into their campaigns. The primary encounters are categorized into three broad spectrums: Skill Challenges, Puzzles, and Combat. It is important that all of them are included in your campaign. Doing so, and rewarding appropriately, will ensure that the characters use the widest range of skills available to them.
During a campaign, players are given broad scope in what they can do. This is made evident by the Skills that Wizards of the Coast have seen fit to have players keep track of: there many situations that a character needs to see if they are able to perform a some kind of feat.
These Skills are meant to be used. A common mistake a DM makes while designing their campaign is to create too many combat-oriented encounters. When players choose the skills they are trained in, they base this information on the challenges they may face. They want bonuses in the skills they are most likely to use. In 3rd Edition especially, this caused a major imbalance as players did not spend their Skill points in any of the more “useless” skills, instead putting their points in categories that would assist them in the types of encounters their DM would face them against. In 4th edition, the players choose what skills they wish to be trained in at the beginning, and choose further skills with feats as they progress.
A DM should make sure to provide balanced gameplay. This allows the player to truly grow their character in a way of their choosing. In combat-only situations, the number of skills and feats to take are limited, as there is no point in subscribing to a skill training or feat that does not assist you in battle. The more options a player has, the more unique their character can become.
Skill Challenges
Skill Challenges are just that: encounters where your skill checks are what determine its outcome, instead of battle. They are a part of the story, with varying degrees of importance; they are situations that require a series of different skill checks to navigate through the obstacles and arrive at their goal. The DM chooses a number of skills that will be helpful to the situation, and announces those selected skills as the encounter’s primary skill set. The PCs choose from amongst their skills and try to make successes against the difficulty class (DC) that is kept secret by the DM for each roll. The situation changes with each success and failure.
For example, to have a party need to successfully infiltrate an enemy fortress and steal a magic item, the DM may choose Stealth for moving quietly without alerting the guards, Thievery for making their way through various locked doors, Athletics for attempting to reach their item suspended in midair, and Insight to see if they can see their way through the various illusory fake walls blocking their path. As the story progresses, the DM sets the stage, letting the players choose what skill they will use for each situation. They may choose to pick the lock on a door, or find another way around. Whatever they decide to do, they check for success, and the DM has to stay on his toes and deliver the next piece of the story dependent on what the players intend to do.
PCs are also welcome to use other skills than the ones chosen by the DM, albeit at a higher DC. For example, one of the party members will decide to fast-talk a guard instead of sneaking around. The DM can allow it, letting them use their Bluff skill against a higher DC. It is a bigger risk: should they be successful, they may find their situation improved greatly, but should they fail, things could become disastrous.
The idea in the Skill Challenge is that they get a certain number of successes before they reach a certain number of failures. You’ll usually set this number in advance: if they get 6 successes before 3 failures, they win. Keep the players entertained and strung along with the story, but once they make their final successful check, they win, and win the goal they were seeking.
Skill challenges are fun because the story is more closely crafted by their own actions. Their successes and their failures determine what will happen next, suspense hinging on the roll of the dice. And since there are no battle rules in play, they have no idea what to expect from a crafty Dungeon Master. A tip from the Dungeon Master Guide: do not let failures give the players a “Game Over.” If they fail, fine. Let the story continue, but let their failure force them to come up with a much harder way to solve their dilemma. Example: failure to infiltrate said keep may lead to a separate Skill Challenge involving their escape, and should they pass that challenge, now must siege the fortress to get the item in question. A whole new session of gameplay awaits!
The Dungeon Master Guide gives several examples of this; there’s an entire section dedicated to it. Skill Challenges can include simple tasks such as scaling a wall, or getting information from a merchant, to the intricate tasks of tracking deadly assassins through a barren wasteland, and negotiating the release of the Queen’s daughter. Make sure to utilize it in your campaigns. This is more than just a “make a check to see if you succeed.” It is a deliberate focus on utilizing skills only, to stress the importance of keeping in practice with all of their skills throughout your campaign..
Rewards for a Skill Challenge should rival those of a combat encounter. In my opinion, it should be greater. The Dungeon Master Guide breaks down the recommended way to reward success in a Skill Challenge. Myself, I tend to break it down in a way that really shows the value of their skills in the encounter: I tell them what they would have had to fight if they fought for their goal instead, and the give them the XP and loot for that as if they had fought it, because in the end, they truly beat them, just not in the traditional manner.
All in all, the goal is to keep balance on the character sheet by making the players think carefully about the types of challenges they’ve faced thus far, make them realize that balancing their Skills is just as important (and profitable) as increasing their battle ability, and reduce their tendencies to focus on battle-only skill sets. They will see that investing their precious level-up choices into various skills and skill-improving feats can pay off with added wealth, experience, and story opportunities. Most of all, they will feel truly as part of the story, as the campaign shifts around their successes and failures.
Tags: D&D, DM, Encounters, Skill Challenge