# Lord Faeryl's Rules for 5e Skill Challenges

### By Mike Harvey, inspired by Lord Kensington's Rules for Skill Challenges by Rodrigo D. Lopez
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> A dynamic type of encounter that plays out in the style of a montage, where players work together toward a specific narrative goal to resolve a scene. The pacing of a skill challenge is determined by the scene in question, and time is treated as being more fluid than in a combat/chase which typically track time in six-second rounds. The intention of a skill challenge is to present a conflict to the players and give them more control of the narrative to overcome it.  
- As the skill challenge progresses, the DM introduces aspects and complications to the scene that the party must deal with. Some of these events will naturally arise as the result of a scene playing out, while others may be created by the actions of the player characters. The odds and stakes can change at a moment's notice, and the DM should describe the action to reflect how well or poorly the situation is going.

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At the beginning of the skill challenge, the DM describes the scene unfolding before the player characters. The DM then tells the players what their narrative goals are for this encounter, what is at stake, and the target number of successful checks to reach before the terminal number of failures (typically 3). Secretly the DM determines an appropriate target DC for ability checks in this encounter.
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Players roll initiative to determine the order in which they act. Each player describes what their character will do to further the party's efforts to overcome the conflict, and says which ability check (with relevant skill or tool proficiency) they want to roll to accomplish that. With DM approval they can roll the check (at DM's discretion, adjustments may need to be made to description, or a different combination of ability/proficiency supplied).  
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***Restrictions:*** On a player's turn, they cannot select a skill or a tool proficiency to use if that skill/tool proficiency was used during the previous player's turn, or if the current player used that proficiency on their turn last round. This requires players to think outside of their main strengths to steer the narrative. 
A player is also unable to cast a spell in place of making an ability check to directly resolve a conflict. They may still describe spell-like abilities when rolling a relevant skill (eg Arcana for arcane spellcasters, Nature for primal, Religion for divine etc), without expending spell slots in the process.   
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***Options:*** 
- **Once before rolling:** Cast a spell or utilize a feature that takes no longer than 1 action to cast/use that can bolster their own abilities or an ally's (eg Bless, Guidance, Bardic Inspiration, etc). 
- **Roll a check** to try to advance the party's success track. **OR:**
- **Roll a check to aid another** (lower DC than the skill challenge target DC). The player still describes how they utilize their abilities to assist the PC next in the turn order. On a success, the next player gains advantage on their roll. On a failure, the next player gains disadvantage on their roll. 
- When rolling a failure: **Lean on Another (once per skill challenge).** A player can choose to reroll one failure on their turn, describing how they involve the next player character in initiative for support. In doing so, the target DC increases somewhat for the next player's turn, and their roll must be to advance the party's goals (cannot aid another). Each player has one use of **Lean on Another** to expend during a skill challenge.

***Additional Notes:*** 
- When a player rolls a natural 20 on their check, the check is an automatic success (note that the attempted check must have been DM-approved, so no world-breaking crits *should* occur), and at DM's discretion, may be a great success with an additional aspect. Likewise, when a player rolls a natural 1 on their check, the check is an automatic failure, and at DM's discretion, may be catastrophic failure with an additional complication.
- The DM may decide that because of a situational advantage or aspect, the party may have an expendable resource available to them (eg the scholar they're escorting provides one free reroll on a History check, etc).

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When the party accrues the target number of successes, they succeed in the skill challenge. If the party accrues the terminal number of failures first, they fail the skill challenge. The outcomes of these encounters will be determined by the DM, typically with some combination of narrative and mechanical consequences.