> Point taken about pass / fail being optional - and I think it's a good tool. I certainly don't have a problem with narrative factors determining or affecting resistance - but I would prefer the *nature* of things like creatures or challenges to be one of those narrative factors. So, Kero Fin should *generally* be harder to climb than a garden wall - that's not some simulationist decision, it's a narrative factor. If you're fighting a trollkin runt and a Zorak Zoran dark troll death lord, within the context of the narrative I'd expect the death lord to be generally tougher to *fight* (but not necessarily to chase, for example). Both resistances can be subject to pass / fail, but I wouldn't want them to always be exactly equal in a given context (such as combat). I think that differentiation is implicit in the critter writeup "Significant Ability" vs "Exceptional Ability" distinction anyway...
In general, if a certain critter, person, or thing should usually be an obstacle of some significance, I indicate that in the game book. Frex, Ubblag White-Eye, the Zorak Zoran warlord in Sartar Companion, is always Nearly Impossible to kill in combat.
Jeff