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DM advice: How do you NOT kill your party?
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<blockquote data-quote="Enkhidu" data-source="post: 7397291" data-attributes="member: 351"><p>As a DM, I try to avoid "fixing" fights, but have done so on rare occasions, because I am a total PC fanboy and secretly root for them to win the entire time - even when I am controlling the dragon that is in the middle of eating the cleric.</p><p></p><p>Three ideas, when things are going sideways:</p><p></p><p>* Invest in a DM Screen, and be willing to fudge a roll or two - there's no way that Big Evil Bad Guy crit the cleric twice in one round!</p><p></p><p>* Don't advertise max hit points for the monsters. Some DMs like to "count down" hit point damage for the villains, to give players a meta idea of how well they are doing (mathematical short hand for reinforcing that the villain is in bad shape or might just need one more hit to defeat). While I like the idea of the running tally from a meta-perspective, I find it better to count up than down - that way the upper limit (hit point total) can be changed if you need to fudge it.</p><p></p><p>* Telegraph "dramatic opportunities" early in the encounter - Example: if the Big Evil has minions (say, calling for reinforcements that are charging through a narrow tunnel), make sure the PCs have an obvious way to deal with them (like making sure the PCs know that the tunnel is easily collapsed by removing/destroying a keystone), turning a certain defeat into a probable victory.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Enkhidu, post: 7397291, member: 351"] As a DM, I try to avoid "fixing" fights, but have done so on rare occasions, because I am a total PC fanboy and secretly root for them to win the entire time - even when I am controlling the dragon that is in the middle of eating the cleric. Three ideas, when things are going sideways: * Invest in a DM Screen, and be willing to fudge a roll or two - there's no way that Big Evil Bad Guy crit the cleric twice in one round! * Don't advertise max hit points for the monsters. Some DMs like to "count down" hit point damage for the villains, to give players a meta idea of how well they are doing (mathematical short hand for reinforcing that the villain is in bad shape or might just need one more hit to defeat). While I like the idea of the running tally from a meta-perspective, I find it better to count up than down - that way the upper limit (hit point total) can be changed if you need to fudge it. * Telegraph "dramatic opportunities" early in the encounter - Example: if the Big Evil has minions (say, calling for reinforcements that are charging through a narrow tunnel), make sure the PCs have an obvious way to deal with them (like making sure the PCs know that the tunnel is easily collapsed by removing/destroying a keystone), turning a certain defeat into a probable victory. [/QUOTE]
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DM advice: How do you NOT kill your party?
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