Challenges for skilly characters

[DonEsteban]

Hi, I'm currently DMing a game with three rather similar characters (currently Level 3):

• a bard/rogue
• a factotum
• a cloistered cleric

We're playing the Freeport campaign (3.5 if that matters at all) and I think that will suit them rather well. But I was wondering what kinds of encounters I should emphasize or what kind of additional encounters I should use to make it interesting for them. Also, can you think of situations where a bard would shine, but a factotum not so easily (and vice versa)?

Edit: This is not about 4e skill challenges.

[valadil]

I vote for open ended social encounters. Give the players a challenge. Let them figure out which skills they'll use to deal with it.

Recently I had my PCs do something like this. They had to rig a bear baiting so that the dogs won in round three. Most of the skill checks were social. They opted for replacing one of the bear wranglers with a PC and one of the dogs with a shape shifted druid. Most, if not all of their social skills came up. There was also a bit of nature/perception/heal going on to evaluate the dogs going up against the bear. They ended up swapping dogs around so that their round was loaded, but wasn't obviously weighted against the bear. The other PCs ended up in the crowd watching for other cheaters. They could have snuck their way in without a variety of stealth, thievery, and athletics but thought that that was too risky.

At the end of the night I tallied up the skills they'd used and looked up what sorted of skill challenge that would have been. This worked out pretty well and I'll be doing it again in the future. The players in this group definitely liked getting to choose which skills they'd apply to handle the situation.

Oh and I suggested social skills because I think that's where your bard will shine over the factotum. I expect the factotum to be a capable talker, but the bard should have better charisma.

[DonEsteban]

Note: I've just realized a possible source of confusion here: The question is not about 4e skill challenges (I have no idea what a 4e skill challenge is, anyway).

valadil: This still sounds like an interesting thing to do. I might use something similar (though entirely different ;

Oh and I suggested social skills because I think that's where your bard will shine over the factotum. I expect the factotum to be a capable talker, but the bard should have better charisma.

Uhm, yeah. This particular one hasn't. I tried to talk him out of it, but the player insisted.

[Eldariel]

Skilled characters do great in subterfuge; arranging people away from prison, solving some larger mysteries (murder or otherwise), generating civil unrest, unmasking other manipulators in the game, etc. They have the skills to be where they aren't supposed to be (Hide/Move Silently/Open Lock/Diplomacy/Bluff/Intimidate), make things that aren't supposed to happen to happen (Sleight of Hand, Forgery, Diplo/Bluff/Intimidate), to gather information (Knowledges, Appraise, Gather Info, Diplo/Bluff/Intimidate/Sense Motive, Spot/Listen/Search) and so on so they can try almost anything and have a decent shot at getting something done.

As for Bard vs. Factotum, Bard has Bardic Music and more spells, particularly mind-affecting ones, so things that involve dealing with people, especially on a longer stream of checks and more people to deal with; Factotum, on the other hand, especially shines on physical skills (thanks to Brains over Brawn) and any singular difficult checks (thanks to Cunning Knowledge). Note that Bard has Bardic Knowledge, which means he has access to some knowledge the Factotum does not (unless the Bard switched it for Bardic Knack in which case his expertise of "everything" should be obvious).


If you're interested, we've been using our skills quite a bit in the campaign I'm writing a journal on right now; it's in my signature.