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Solik wrote:

This is a pretty exciting system and something I've been looking forward to playing with quite awhile. 3E was never satisfying with regards to skills (except those usable in combat), so this could be a lot of fun.

However, I worry about scenarios where the character with the biggest bonus reuses an allowed reusable skill until the number of required successes is met (since this character has the lowest likelihood of failure).

Anyone know of any mechanics within the system to prevent this (beyond the return of the "Aid Another" style activities)? I know it's been advertised as a system that would encourage all players to interact, but I don't see anything here that rewards multiple characters participating. I'm aware that the DM can force this, but I'm hoping the system has this built-in so that doesn't become necessary.

I would have the NPC "turn their attention" to another PC. Essentially, ask a question from another PC to "force" a skill check attempt.

Ludanto wrote:

Well, as the example showed, sometimes Intimidation (for example) just won't work. Also, the consequences for failure (and success) between Intimidate, Bluff and Diplomacy are quite different.

They also help differentiate different styles of social interaction

---Big burly fighter or barbarian can use intimidate (and use str instead of chr) to frighten an opponent (has both combat and social applications)
---The slick thief can lie his way out of a situation
---The noble knight or paladin can use tact and poise to smoothly work out a conversation.

By keeping them separate, someone skilled in multiple can have different tactics. Sure you could lump them all under Speaking, but most feel the differences are obvious enough that they could be separate. With skill interaction won getting it own combat system (skill challenge) it is good to keep them separate. I mean what if combat only had one facet - melee. No weapon accounted for? I mean they all are tools of war used to inflict damage... what's the difference? Shouldn't we just say melee and ranged and skip the pages of weapon charts?

Solik wrote:

However, I worry about scenarios where the character with the biggest bonus reuses an allowed reusable skill until the number of required successes is met (since this character has the lowest likelihood of failure).

Yeah, the idea of reusable skills seems like a bad one. There should at least be an increasing penalty for using the same skill twice and some penalty for one character trying to hog the spotlight.

The skill challenge system seems a bit raw and unrefined, and unless there's more to it, it seems like it'll just be a matter of finding the guy with the biggest skill check and using him over and over again.

Archtyrant Terevoth wrote:

Yeah, the idea of reusable skills seems like a bad one. There should at least be an increasing penalty for using the same skill twice and some penalty for one character trying to hog the spotlight.

The skill challenge system seems a bit raw and unrefined, and unless there's more to it, it seems like it'll just be a matter of finding the guy with the biggest skill check and using him over and over again.

It's only a problem if it's a problem. If you're trying to get away from the city guards, "just plain runnin'" (Athletics) is going to be a valid choice every time. Not especially interesting, but valid. It not only makes sense, but it says something about that character. Similarly, Diplomacy is what people do when they're being diplomatic. Lying and threats might have no place in the conversation. The player shouldn't (IMO) be penalized for doing what he does best, though a bonus for "mixing it up a bit" might be in order.

That said, there may be some penalty for overuse of skills or reward for skill variety or some other means to encourage interesting choices in a conflict. If there aren't, I don't know that it will be game breaking. And if there are, I'm sure they will be interesting.

In other words, I can see where you're coming from, but I don't think it'll be a big deal either way.

It's a bigger potential problem than reusing the same skill over and over. Some characters can (presumably?) focus on being skillmonkeys (classes with extra skills + feat expenditures). When Skill Challenge time rolls around, everyone but Skillmonkey sits on their hands while Skillmonkey makes most of or all of the roles, going for that magic success number.

Given that the goal of this system was to create something as fun as combat that involved everyone, I seriously cannot accept the idea that there's nothing built into the mechanics of the system to prevent this. I'm aware of various tricks the DM can use (forcing rolls, ad-hoc penalties, etc), but that seems inelegant and a potential point of contention to me.

I believe there's more to this that we haven't been told from this excerpt. I was mostly wondering if anyone was privy to some information we didn't get from it (such as, for example, from the recent marketing events where the books have been on display, or from a dev post somewhere). Otherwise, it looks like an attempt to market a bland and unfinished system feature.