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How To Build and Run Skill Challenges in D&D 5e - Flutes Loot
How To Build and Run Skill Challenges in D&D 5e - Flutes Loot
How To Build and Run Skill Challenges in D&D 5e - Flutes Loot
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As the dinosaur’s roars shake the jungle, a drow mage conjures a giant web across a cliff, allowing his companions
to climb to safety.
Beard dripping with saltwater, a dwarven carpenter patches a hole in the ship’s hull while a whirlpool threatens to
pull her crew beneath the waves.
As guards’ shouts ring across the crowded street, a rebel leader scans nearby storefronts for signs of shelter.
Skill challenges are con icts that go beyond combat or conversation. They demand creativity, teamwork, and
resourcefulness as characters come together in a high-stakes, heart-pounding action sequence.
As the name suggests, skill challenges are trials that the characters can overcome through the judicious use of skills
—from Athletics to Survival, carpenter’s tools, vehicle expertise, and more. By using class features, special Your email
equipment, racial attributes, or spells, the characters can boost their chances of overcoming dangerous
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complications that obstruct their path forward—or else fall into failure.
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Skill challenges were rst popularized in Dungeons & Dragons in 4th Edition. At the time, however, they often lacked
tension, urgency, or clear stakes, and were both too rigid to foster creativity and too abstract to create immersion.
Today, a renaissance in 4e nostalgia has inspired a surge of interest in skill challenges, but many DMs still lack a
clear mechanical framework for building or running them. Fortunately, skill challenges are easier to make than you
might expect—and it all starts with a scene.
0:00
As a general rule, try to avoid skill challenges in scenes that your players can trivialize with a single spell or feature.
It’s easier for a 10th-level druid who knows control water to escape a whirlpool than a 2nd-level ghter. While it’s
always good to give players a chance to shine, skill challenges, like combat, should only be used when your players
face a meaningful chance of failure.
Scenes are most engaging when they set clear stakes for victory and failure. Ask yourself: What goal are your PCs
pursuing in this skill challenge? What are they risking in the process? What might happen if they fail? Like a good
combat encounter, a good skill challenge shines when the consequences are clear.
Easy 3 3
Medium 5 3
Hard 7 3
Deadly 7 2
You can also alter this formula. Perhaps the PCs must cross the surface of a volcano, knowing that a single wrong
step—a single failure—means someone will die. Perhaps the challenge will automatically end after ve rounds, but
the degree of success varies. The decision is yours.
Each round of a skill challenge, a new complication arises, forcing the PCs to overcome it—or suffer the
consequences. Here are a few broad categories of complications that might appear:
The terrain changes in a dangerous way (e.g., a crevasse, a geyser eld, a bramble patch)
A dangerous event (e.g., a bolt of lightning, an explosive blast, a splatter of molten magma) strikes nearby
A third party (e.g., a beast, a rival, or a civilian) intervenes
A hazard appears in the PCs’ path (e.g., razorvine, brown mold, or unstable ground).
A new danger appears on the horizon (e.g., a hole in a ship’s hull or castle doors that begin to close)
Each complication has a DC that the PCs must beat to overcome it, calculated as follows:
For example, if the party is level 9, each PC has a +4 pro ciency bonus. The base DC for any complication they face
should be 10 + (2 x 4), or 18.
You’ll need a complication for each round of the challenge. Accordingly, the number of complications you’ll need to
prepare can be calculated with the following equation, where “Successes” is the number of successes your PCs
need to win and “Failures” is the maximum number of failures your PCs can earn before failing:
For example, if your skill challenge requires the PCs to make ve successes before three failures, you should plan
seven complications in advance. (This is because, if the party reaches four successes and two failures, the next round
—the seventh—is guaranteed to end the encounter).
If the Active PC agrees to use the suggested skill, they must make a skill check by rolling a twenty-sided die and
applying the appropriate modi ers. If the DM believes that the PC’s efforts during their turn would be reasonably
helpful or effective, the PC can add additional bonuses to the roll:
For each cantrip (e.g., shape water or thorn whip), in nite-use feature (e.g., countercharm), or piece of
equipment the PC used (e.g., a crowbar), the PC gains +2 to the roll.
If the PC used a low-level spell†, consumable item, or multiple-use feature (e.g., ki points or superiority dice),
the PC gains advantage on the roll.
If the PC used a high-level spell† or a feature that can only be used once per short or long rest (e.g., wild
shape), the PC automatically succeeds on the roll.
† The de nitions of “high-level” and “low-level” spells should change as the PCs level up and gain access to new
magic. For example, reball might be a high-level spell for a 5th-level wizard and a low-level spell for a 15th-level
wizard.
On a success, the party gains one success. On a failure, the party gains one failure, and all characters suffer the
complication’s penalty.
If the PCs have not yet reached the required number of successes or the maximum number of failures, the next
round begins!
Making it Work
Skill challenges, like combats, can have unpredictable endings. Perhaps success means that the PCs escape with
the stolen artifact, and failure means capture—or that a rival thief steals the artifact at the last minute.
Critically, try to avoid turning failures into “dead ends.” Instead, let your PCs “fail forward” by turning defeat into an
opportunity for redemption. Perhaps capture leads to a prison break, or a theft leads to a treasure hunt. Instead of
being the end of the story, defeat may simply be the beginning of a new one.
Above all, stay exible. Encourage your players to be creative, and let them negotiate to use skills in innovative ways.
If your players have a ash of genius and nd a way to defeat the encounter early, don’t panic! Let your players “beat”
you, keep the session moving, and remember it for next time.
When planned and executed well, skill challenges can be rich and exciting experiences that unleash your players’
creativity. Keep the encounter moving, and don’t be afraid to explore new ground. Above all else, have fun!
About the Author: DragnaCarta is a guest writer for FlutesLoot.com and a veteran DM with 12+ years of experience.
He is the author of the popular “Curse of Strahd: Reloaded” campaign guide, a moderator of /r/CurseOfStrahd, and
the Dungeon Master and director for the Curse of Strahd livestream “Twice Bitten.” You can get his D&D hot takes
and commentary by following his Twitter, or get personal RPG mentoring plus early access to projects by joining his
Patreon.
Cast Message in the comments section below to ask DragnaCarta about skill challenges.
Before you go, you may enjoy these other articles to help DMs improve their games:
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Considerations Three-Act Template TTRPGs
By Flutes / April 29, 2022 By DragnaCarta / April 26, 2022 By Opal / April 19, 2022
RUDY
DECEMBER 31, 2021 AT 5:59 AM
I wish there was an example skill challenge that I could see using this formula. I can’t nd a good example one
anywhere
Reply
FLUTES
DECEMBER 31, 2021 AT 4:13 PM
Hi rudy, I’ve often used the Chase rules starting on page 252 of the DMG for helping me get ideas for skill
challenges. I know it’s not the same as what DragnaCarta describes in this article, but it has been helpful for me.
I also nd it helpful to brainstorm with the natural hazards described in the DMG and Tasha’s Cauldron of
Everything; they often give me ideas for complications within skill challenges. If you grab some of those and
plug in Dragna’s method steps, you’ll do well.
Reply
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