Tag: Skills

Categories
Player Resources Skill Challenges

Knowledge Is Power

I was looking over the pre-generated characters Wizards provided for Worldwide D&D Game Day on May 23. Something interesting about the Eldarin Wizard, Althaea caught my eye. This character is trained in four knowledge skills. This seemed unusual to me as I find there is a tendency to be one dimensional when training skills. Physical characters take physical skills, charismatic characters take social skills and everyone ignores the knowledge skills. But the more I thought about it the more I realized that ignoring the knowledge skills is often a fatal decision made during character creation.

Continue reading “Knowledge Is Power”
Categories
DM Resources Skill Challenges

Skill Challenge: Kidnap and Ransom (Part 2)

This is the second part of the skill challenge presented yesterday. It involves a mixture of skill checks and combat. The number of combatants is directly related to how the PCs fared in the Skill Challenge: Kidnap and Ransom (part 1).

Background

A nobleman’s son has wracked up gambling debts with a loan shark named Keddy Grujo. If the debt is not settled by sundown today, the boy will be killed. The parents cannot afford to make the payment as the father recently purchased a new sailing ship. Desperate, the father hires the PCs to rescue the boy. Grujo will be in the presence of reputable people all day. He expects the parents to pay, but wants an alibi just in case. Grujo’s men have orders to kill the boy if the ransom is no paid by sundown.

  • This skill challenge is broken into two parts. The successes and failures incurred in part 1 do not carry over into part 2
  • If the DM chooses to make this one large skill challenge the PCs need to earn a total of 12 successes between parts 1 and 2 combined. In this case, failures incurred during part 1 will carry over into part 2.
Continue reading “Skill Challenge: Kidnap and Ransom (Part 2)”
Categories
DM Resources Skill Challenges

Skill Challenge: Kidnap and Ransom (Part 1)

This skill challenge is broken into two parts. Part 1 (presented below) has the PCs working under a very tight time lines and allows them to adjust DCs depending on what they consider to be acceptable risk. The objective is for the PCs to find out where the kidnap victim is being held captive. Part 2 (presented tomorrow) outlines how the PCs may go about rescuing the kidnap victim before he is harmed or even killed.

Background

A nobleman’s son has wracked up gambling debts with a loan shark named Keddy Grujo. If the debt is not settled by sundown today, the boy will be killed. The parents cannot afford to make the payment as the father recently purchased a new sailing ship. Desperate, the father hires the PCs to rescue the boy. Grujo will be in the presence of reputable people all day. He expects the parents to pay, but wants an alibi just in case. Grujo’s men have orders to kill the boy if the ransom is no paid by sundown. If Grujo’s agents learn that a rescue is afoot they will increase the number of men guarding the boy.

  • This skill challenge is broken into two parts. The successes and failures incurred in part 1 do not carry over into part 2
  • If the DM chooses to make this one large skill challenge the PCs need to earn a total of 12 successes between parts 1 and 2 combined. In this case, failures incurred during part 1 will carry over into part 2.
Continue reading “Skill Challenge: Kidnap and Ransom (Part 1)”