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For those who haven't heard, folks who pre-ordered the Core books from BUY.com received them early (as in, today). If you're one of them, could you please "raise" a hand so we can start asking our questions as we patiently wait for our copies?
Here's my question: Can other PCs provide an assist during a Skill Challenge?
You can assist in skill challenges, as sometimes only one character is the "leading man". In this way, it works like 3rd Edition in which a DC 10 check grants a +2 bonus to the skill check (capped at +8).
Other skill challenges allow a wide array of skills, allowing more characters to actively contribute to the success of the skill challenge (this was the negotiation template shown awhile back).
Not all skill challenges have failures. For example, while navigating a jungle, characters might have to make Endurance checks. If they fail, they lose a healing surge until the end of the encounter, but dont get lost.
Sample Skill Challenges
The Negotiation (see on the Wizards.com site)
The Dead Witness: After using the Speak With Dead ritual, the characters have to pry info out of an unwilling corpse.
Urban Chase: Good for running someone down, or escaping.
Interrogation
Lost in the Wilderness
Discovering Secret Lore: Research local libraries and get information from sages/scholars to find out stuff for whatever reason.
Combat Encounter: Used for dealing with traps that you roll into a normal combat encounter.
Ok antioch since it seems that you have received your copies I would like to know how many monsters a typical encounter usually has and whether the books are completely generic or they favor a particular setting. Also if you have KotS is there any link between it and fallcrest?
There are mentions about the implied setting here and there. For example, under the galeb duhr lore entry it talks about how they escaped slavery from the giants and titans. The new cosmology gets plenty of mentioned, as well. Mostly it focuses on individual elements and not really an actual setting as a whole.
Like, I feel that I could change some names to fit it wherever.
Winterhaven is on the sample map along with Fallcrest. Its a good distance to the west, meaning that if you run Keep on the Shadowfell, Fallcrest a logical origin for your party, or the next logical step on their adventures. At least, thats where I'm going with it. :-)
Finally, encounters are built with the XP budget that was mentioned awhile ago. The budget is in turn based on the number of people in your party (for example, a 1st-level encounter has basically 100 XP per character). You use this budget to "buy" monsters in whatever manner you feel best, though at least one mob per character is ideal. You can go above this amount to make an encounter harder: 1-2 levels above is a good safety region.
Four minions equal a normal monster, and its okay to mix in solos with other monsters so long as the solo baddie is a level or two less than the party. I think every monster in the MM has at least one encounter setup included (2 carrion crawlers and 3 otyughs, for example, make a great 7th-level encounter), so it gives you a pretty good idea of what to expect and build.
I know a guy who has the books. I'd be willing to answer questions but I won't have them available while at work (natch) and am out of town from tomorrow 'till Monday or so.
So, I guess I'm not much help at all! :P
Still, I'm interested to see what questions you guys ask.
Cheers! :)
For those who haven't heard, folks who pre-ordered the Core books from BUY.com received them early (as in, today)...You know, they do that all the frackin' time! I don't know why I never buy from buy.com...
You know, I was thinking this morning about the last time there was a big release for some book or another (maybe 3.5? my memory is hazy on specifics) and I remember buy.com releasing a week or two early then too.
I REALLY wish I had remembered myself before pre-ordering with Amazon. C'est la vie! (But since I signed up for the Amazon Visa, my books are nearly gratis, so I ain't complainin too hard!)
Cheers! :)