D&D 5E FAMOUS LAST WORDS: "It wouldn't be here if we weren't supposed to fight it."

[hawkeyefan]

My approach is very similar to [MENTION=6799753]lowkey13[/MENTION]'s....I make sure to include a variety of difficulty levels in my encounters. I find this greatly reduces predictability, and keeps my players on their toes. In our most recent campaign, began when 5E launched, I've really made a strong attempt to break my players of the metagame thinking that every encounter is a fight, and I wouldn't throw a fight at them they couldn't win.

It's actually worked pretty well. They're thoughtful and consider just about every combat, and if there are ways to avoid fighting. I think it's a really effective way of preventing combats from becoming repetitive and your adventures from becoming predictable.

 

[Caliban]

In the past I've had 10th level characters encounter the Tarrasque, recently I had a group of 6th level characters encounter a beholder.

They were both "plot point" encounters and the PC's quickly figured out that a head on confrontation was not in their best interest.

 

[hawkeyefan]

Honestly, the more I think about this, the more I'd say if your PCs never have to run away, then the DM is doing something wrong.

 

[Schmoe]

Absolutely. My current group has full on dropped their stuff and fled in a panic twice in the last four sessions. It's glorious.

 

[KarinsDad]

Deadliest was when the party entered a tomb, that they know that once they enter it, after some time it will collapse.Inside is a 50ft tall statue of an ancient god of magic, it has a glowing horn in its head. Then all spell casters felt a chill on their spine, glowing wands became dim, they just shrugged it off. They proceeded to loot the tomb as much as they can given the limited time.

A huge monster was guarding the tomb - forgot what it was this was in 3.5. The encounter starts. Only then that they found out that the whole tomb has an anti-magic field. 90% of the party are classes that had access to spell casting. All of their spells fizzles and useless. They spent almost all battle fighting the monster with sticks, spears, daggers and relying on the fighter.

Eventually they got curious of the glowing horn which they suspected was the rune / source of the anti-magic field.

Yeah cause glowing magical horns SHOUT anti-magic field.

 

[jgsugden]

You have to be careful in how you do it, but I often have overpowered monsters in my game. Seeing a massive threat out there in the world for several years before the PCs finally defeat it gives it some real sense of achievement.

Note that there are some PCs that will go off to face evil no matter how overpowered they are. If I know a I have a PC like that, I try to find a way to keep these overpowered enemies far removed from the presence of the PC, but out there in the world somewhere...

 

[green_destiny]

I guess that's the question for me. To what extent is the GM responsible for emphasizing this sort of thing? From the story it seems pretty clear to me that the players just weren't paying attention. or do you leave the unobservant party to their fate?

Yes hints were dropped in a descriptive form. Yhey were initially curious why only the spell casters were affected.

They just focused on the loot and when they noticed something was disabling their spells they still proceeded in fighting it with their simple weapons. When they tried to investigate whats happening they run out of time.

 

[green_destiny]

Yeah cause glowing magical horns SHOUT anti-magic field.

No, the horn was not the only clue of the source and thats not the only thing that happened. They knew something was off, but still they did not investigate or do something about it (in time). It was all about getting all the loots quickly and killing the monster while they are heavily debuffed.

I'm giving hints but im not spoon feeding information.

 

[KarinsDad]

No, the horn was not the only clue of the source and thats not the only thing that happened. They knew something was off, but still they did not investigate or do something about it (in time). It was all about getting all the loots quickly and killing the monster while they are heavily debuffed.

I'm giving hints but im not spoon feeding information.

Smiley face. Joke. Humor. You must have missed that part.


Personally, I find your scenario totally ok and my PC in that situation would have probably tried to convince the other PCs to grab what they could and then move out of the area where spells could be cast again. Course, with a timed scenario, I suspect that they did not have time to investigate or figure out a way to do something about it anyway (something as DM that you should be aware of). Timed scenarios have this annoying habit of having the players just cut to the chase without figuring stuff out.

And, players make bad decisions all of the time. And because of that, some days you get the bear and some days the bear gets you.

 

[Jester David]

I put deadly fights in the path of the party at regular intervals.

It's not "it wouldn't be there if we weren't supposed to fight it", but is instead "it wouldn't be there if we weren't supposed to interact with it." And while fighting is an interaction, so is talking or running. Not every random encounter is a combat encounter, and a random trader or minstrel is still a random encounter.
It could even be phrased "it wouldn't be there if it wasn't going to impact the story", which includes stealth. Sometimes, the interaction is sneaking passed the sleeping giant.