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If you wanted a skill challenge involving the characters travelling down an underground magma river, you are in the right place. I ran this multi-level skill challenge for my players recently over two sessions. It was the only way forward to stop a devil by the name of Daryl Van Horn from draining fairies and pixies of their magic. Personally I'd change or chop out anything that the players find boring. I made two small origami paper boats and put the players miniature in the boats and place everything on a battle map of a magma river. That turned out to be very helpful for the players and me. If you want to know how to make the boats, check out the youtube video below,

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wmd4AfKK-TY



I also allowed utility and attack powers to be used by players, and any other equipment

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So I was wondering if anyone out there could help me out with some more creative ideas for skill challenges in the underdark. So far I have come up with chasms, very tight claustrophobic caves to get through, hazardess fungi caverns, lack of oxygen, caves underwater, and more but right now I am drawing blanks (working nights, lack of sleep) Could anybody help me out by giving me some more ideas for skill challenges I can run in the underdark? I want them to be a big part of travelling far in the place, and I don't want them to feel stale everytime they go out on a big journey... Please, any ideas, even if they seem silly, would be appreciated. Thanks a ton.

I built this skill challenge for my War of the Titans Campaign as a follow up to a battle with a Storm Titan. Ranis the Storm Titan has taken his wraith out on the small village of Delwin. Ranis has grown arrogant and has command the township of Delwin to worship him with their blood. He’s also imposed fishing restrictions on the coastal town, which the townsfolk have ignored. The real reason for the Titan’s rage is a war that has been brewing with the other Titan’s. The Titan’s of the sky region have declared war on the earth bound Titan’s. As a way of declaring territorial rights the mortals of the world are being forced to worship the Titan’s and not the God’s.

Skill Challenge 

Read the following paragraph to the players.

The

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I wrote this skill challenge for my players in the D&D adventure “The Lord of the White Fields”. The 'Ghoul Country' skill challenge was just boring to run over and over again. I hope you as a DM find it useful.



Skill Challenge

Read the following paragraph slowly and ask the players what they want to do.

The streets of Hampstead are teaming with hordes of flesh eating ghouls, but as you cross the town a dark shadow falls upon you. The bellow from a monstrous winged beast echoes through the fog filled ruins, chilling you to the bone. You can hear a grizzly voice above your heads bark commands. “Find them, kill them. I want the flesh-bags. This world will be mine!”  

This skill challenge involves the PCs travelling through the township of Hampstead and avoiding

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The Dungeontech blog series offers advice and mechanics to Dungeon Masters who want to introduce advanced technology into the heroic fantasy campaigns typical of a Fourth Edition Dungeons & Dragons campaign.  This article presents some Skill Challenges for use in a Tech campaign.

The expanded use of traditional skills allows for the expansion of skill challenges.  Skill challenges should be utilized where a group of adventurers can work cooperatively to accomplish a task in a manner that does not primarily involve combat.  Following are some skill challenges carefully tailored for characters in a tech campaign.

Sabotage a Siege Engine                                  

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So, I THE ACOLYTE HU LI, have finally figured out how to handle Skill Challenges.

This is probably incorrect.  However, it works, so therefore it is correct. 

SO SAYETH HU LI!!!!

First, you run it like an encounter.

Second, you slap Jeremy and stop everyone from running around like headless chickens.

Third, slap Jeremy again (just for fun) and have everyone act on either the "Marching Order" or roll initiative, whatever you want to do.

Fourth, use either 8 Successes over 4 Fails, 6 over 3, 4 over 2, or 2 over 1 depending on how difficult you want to make it.

Fifth, people get to roll dice now.  There are primary skills that people must be trained in to use and then they have secondary skills.  Each skill challenge will have certain primary skills they can roll

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Last week's blog (found here) on "Fixing Skills" proved quite popular, receiving quite a few reads and more than its share of comments. I don't write this blog planning to be read by as many people as possible or purposely inflammatory or for response numbers, and am not going to drop my planned forthcoming blogs just for numbers. But, the comments raised a number of solid points that I felt needed to be addressed.

First, a link to Wrecan's blogs on skills can be found here and here. While I haven't read those blogs in some time, he did it first and credit where credit is due. Oh, and kilpatds also recently did a blog on skills that’s solid, so here’s a link to that too.

Other Options

In the comments there were a few alternatives or revisions to the systems I suggested.

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Let's break the ice with some wild hyperbole. Skills in 4e are broken. Skills are the most broken part of the edition. When they're selling 5e in 1-3 years they will be mocking skills like they mocked grappling and THAC0. Skills were only given a half-assed update between editions and not subjected to the same rigorous balancing or "hard math" they subjected on the combat system.

Backblog

Before I start (attempting) to justify that statement, this isn't my first blog on skills. I've mostly focused on Skill Challenges in prior blogs, so those have received the bulk of my attention.

I wrote about Secondary Skills, Non-Combat Skill Systems, new rules for Skill Challenges, Failure in Skill Challenges, and most importantly for this discussion my Problems with Skill Challenges. I'll reiterate

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“Beware the setting sun. Something comes from the forest. The monks’ wards are…”

The dark stain of the corpse’s lifeblood has, unfortunately, blotted out the rest of the message. Grasped in his right hand is clutched a piece of chalk; in the left is a small, leather-bound tome, propped open to a certain page by his decomposed thumb.

The rest of the monastery has been ransacked and vandalized. An overturned table has been crushed by a massive bookshelf. Altars lie empty of idols or holy symbols. Shutters wave open in the wind, revealing an orange orb just beginning to touch the western horizon.

If there is information to be gained, it must be done quickly… 

What Lurks Outside

A glance at the tome grants the reader Arcana, Nature, and Religion

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