Hey y'all, so currently in my campaign the group has defeated a group of Cultist's trying to bring Graz'zt through to the Prime Material Realm. The ritual to bring him back involved burning the whole village, where this part of the campaign is set, as a sacrifice.
Long story short they killed the Lead cultist, but not before he began the ritual and flames began to consume the village.
I want to do a skill challenge for my players that results in either the village being rescued or burned down completely.
I'm thinking 4 successes before 4 failures is a fine target to reach but I am struggling to think of what Skills/Ability checks would be useful here. So far I have Nature Check - using knowledge of how fire burns and spreads to curb its growth and Athletics - to carry many buckets of water too and from the well to the village in a short amount of time
Any inspiration is most welcome as I don't just want all my players making Nature and Athletics checks!
Animal handling - Save the animals! Acrobatics - Duck into burning buildings try to rescue villagers and get everyone out quickly Arcana - Athletics - Carry water from the well to throw on the fires Deception - Make the arsonists think they have been ordered to fall back and retreat History - Insight - Intimidation - Scare away the arsonists Investigation - Figure out how the arsonists are setting the fires so that they can be more effectively put out Medicine - Help the injured Nature - Perception - Search the houses to determine which may have people trapped inside Performance - Persuasion - Religion - Identify the cult to understand your enemies Sleight of Hand - Stealth - Survival - Where did the arsonists arrive from?
Don't tell them what skills they should use. Ask them how they want to contribute and let THEM tell YOU what skill they're going to use. As long as it makes sense (not "I use History to pour water on the fire), let them do it.
My first thought is that physically putting out the fire as part of a water bucket line would be a basic Strength check, not sure if Athletics would apply. If someone wanted to guide the brigade's efforts, a Survival check could be used to determine the best parts of the fire to go after, granting Advantage on the Strength checks for that round. If there was a stable and they wanted to get the animals to safety and keep them from gettting loose & stampeding, Animal Handling checks would be appropriate. Maybe on a failure they'd cause Disadvantage on the water brigade's checks for a round. Maybe there are other single-round events that would need to be tackled, with success or failure affecting the rolls for the water brigade(either because of interference from something like stampeding horses, or just a morale boost from success on that one-off event like saving a family from a burning building).
I would also be open to the players' ideas on this one too. Leave room for them to come up with other ideas to help. If you have someone with the Control Flames cantrip, maybe they can use it to keep the fire from spreading too fast so the water brigade can douse it in time. Maybe the Cleric wants to cast Create Food And Water and dump a bunch of water on a part of the fire to quickly put it out. Or maybe the Druid wants to do something similar with Tidal Wave or Sleet Storm. Maybe someone has the Inspiring Leader feat and wants to try and rally the townsfolk, that could be worth a bonus to the rolls for a round with a decent Persuasion check. Whatever framework you set up for the challenge, just make sure it's flexible enough to let the players get creative.
My party was new to skills challenges so I provided them a cheat sheet with a few very general ideas. Then when they found one they liked (generally the one with the best bonus on their character sheet) I asked them to describe how they used that skill in order to help the situation. Then I had them roll the skill check.
If you want to REALLY make this matter in the larger scheme of things, let the number of successes affect the big showdown battle that I assume will happen once the blaze is put out. Also, if someone really slam dunks a skill check, like they make it by 5-10 points or more, give them a little extra perk for being such a badass. Maybe it counts as two successes. Maybe it lowers the DC of the next skill check by 1 or 2. Maybe they go into the fight with advantage in the first round of combat. Lots of good options.
Nice! Some awesome ideas here, thanks very much! The fire was magically produced by a ritual the BBEG of this chapter summoned so sadly no arsonists to scare away :P
In that case perhaps Arcana checks might partially undo the ritual.
Describe some of the townsfolk as paralyzed with fear or just in shock. Someone skillful with people (Persuasion/Insight) may be able to rally them to help fight the flames.
I agree with the general idea of letting the party come up with how they want to help, but anticipating skill applications can be useful. Someone good at persuasion may not assume there is anyone there to persuade until you describe those people.
Also based on the terminology, I'm assuming you're adapting the 4th edition framework. I've found that in 5e, the line between skills and features/spells is quite a bit more blurred. Be ready to field uses of spells like Shape Water or Create Water. I generally count these as auto-successes because they use resources, whether represented by spell slots or character choices that are often not geared towards combat (so they should have a chance to shine elsewhere).
Hey y'all, so currently in my campaign the group has defeated a group of Cultist's trying to bring Graz'zt through to the Prime Material Realm. The ritual to bring him back involved burning the whole village, where this part of the campaign is set, as a sacrifice.
Long story short they killed the Lead cultist, but not before he began the ritual and flames began to consume the village.
I want to do a skill challenge for my players that results in either the village being rescued or burned down completely.
I'm thinking 4 successes before 4 failures is a fine target to reach but I am struggling to think of what Skills/Ability checks would be useful here. So far I have Nature Check - using knowledge of how fire burns and spreads to curb its growth and Athletics - to carry many buckets of water too and from the well to the village in a short amount of time
Any inspiration is most welcome as I don't just want all my players making Nature and Athletics checks!
Cheers!
Just off the top of my head...
Animal handling - Save the animals!
Acrobatics - Duck into burning buildings try to rescue villagers and get everyone out quickly
Arcana -
Athletics - Carry water from the well to throw on the fires
Deception - Make the arsonists think they have been ordered to fall back and retreat
History -
Insight -
Intimidation - Scare away the arsonists
Investigation - Figure out how the arsonists are setting the fires so that they can be more effectively put out
Medicine - Help the injured
Nature -
Perception - Search the houses to determine which may have people trapped inside
Performance -
Persuasion -
Religion - Identify the cult to understand your enemies
Sleight of Hand -
Stealth -
Survival - Where did the arsonists arrive from?
"Not all those who wander are lost"
Don't tell them what skills they should use. Ask them how they want to contribute and let THEM tell YOU what skill they're going to use. As long as it makes sense (not "I use History to pour water on the fire), let them do it.
My first thought is that physically putting out the fire as part of a water bucket line would be a basic Strength check, not sure if Athletics would apply. If someone wanted to guide the brigade's efforts, a Survival check could be used to determine the best parts of the fire to go after, granting Advantage on the Strength checks for that round. If there was a stable and they wanted to get the animals to safety and keep them from gettting loose & stampeding, Animal Handling checks would be appropriate. Maybe on a failure they'd cause Disadvantage on the water brigade's checks for a round. Maybe there are other single-round events that would need to be tackled, with success or failure affecting the rolls for the water brigade(either because of interference from something like stampeding horses, or just a morale boost from success on that one-off event like saving a family from a burning building).
I would also be open to the players' ideas on this one too. Leave room for them to come up with other ideas to help. If you have someone with the Control Flames cantrip, maybe they can use it to keep the fire from spreading too fast so the water brigade can douse it in time. Maybe the Cleric wants to cast Create Food And Water and dump a bunch of water on a part of the fire to quickly put it out. Or maybe the Druid wants to do something similar with Tidal Wave or Sleet Storm. Maybe someone has the Inspiring Leader feat and wants to try and rally the townsfolk, that could be worth a bonus to the rolls for a round with a decent Persuasion check. Whatever framework you set up for the challenge, just make sure it's flexible enough to let the players get creative.
My party was new to skills challenges so I provided them a cheat sheet with a few very general ideas. Then when they found one they liked (generally the one with the best bonus on their character sheet) I asked them to describe how they used that skill in order to help the situation. Then I had them roll the skill check.
If you want to REALLY make this matter in the larger scheme of things, let the number of successes affect the big showdown battle that I assume will happen once the blaze is put out. Also, if someone really slam dunks a skill check, like they make it by 5-10 points or more, give them a little extra perk for being such a badass. Maybe it counts as two successes. Maybe it lowers the DC of the next skill check by 1 or 2. Maybe they go into the fight with advantage in the first round of combat. Lots of good options.
"Not all those who wander are lost"
Nice! Some awesome ideas here, thanks very much!
The fire was magically produced by a ritual the BBEG of this chapter summoned so sadly no arsonists to scare away :P
In that case perhaps Arcana checks might partially undo the ritual.
Describe some of the townsfolk as paralyzed with fear or just in shock. Someone skillful with people (Persuasion/Insight) may be able to rally them to help fight the flames.
I agree with the general idea of letting the party come up with how they want to help, but anticipating skill applications can be useful. Someone good at persuasion may not assume there is anyone there to persuade until you describe those people.
Also based on the terminology, I'm assuming you're adapting the 4th edition framework. I've found that in 5e, the line between skills and features/spells is quite a bit more blurred. Be ready to field uses of spells like Shape Water or Create Water. I generally count these as auto-successes because they use resources, whether represented by spell slots or character choices that are often not geared towards combat (so they should have a chance to shine elsewhere).
My homebrew subclasses (full list here)
(Artificer) Swordmage | Glasswright | (Barbarian) Path of the Savage Embrace
(Bard) College of Dance | (Fighter) Warlord | Cannoneer
(Monk) Way of the Elements | (Ranger) Blade Dancer
(Rogue) DaggerMaster | Inquisitor | (Sorcerer) Riftwalker | Spellfist
(Warlock) The Swarm