You bring up a good point. For instance, I'm not a big fan of the Aribella stand off dialogue. There is literally only a skill check for her life and nothing else can save her but your skill check. The whole instance just makes it something ridiculous that you can't even make a dexterity check to catch the snake or jump in front of the snake to take the hit. Or give you the option to give her a potion or antidote. Or cast a spell to save her life. You get tons of checks to get Us (intellect deviourer), but a tiefling girl gets only one skill check to save her life. Don't get me wrong I don't mind there being checks that determine such things, but you literally get only one line of dialogue to determine the DC to it. I mean Nettie poisons you (possibly) and yet you still can save your life by convincing her or even fighting her. There are so many options, but Aribella literally has live or die by one skill check. Seems just a tad extreme and doesn't allow for many options to deal with the problem. Perhaps that will change as EA progresses. I am just not a fan of social skills literally determining even an NPCs life to just one check. Even the Illithid gives you plenty of chances to escape certain death.
