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DM advice: How do you NOT kill your party?
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<blockquote data-quote="TheSword" data-source="post: 7397506" data-attributes="member: 6879661"><p>This is the exact opposite of advice I would give to any DM, new or old.</p><p></p><p>“Know thy party” is the first and most important maxim a DM can follow to make sure everyone is having a good time. If the Party is made up of fighters, rogues and barbarians and the DM keeps throwing challenges at them that can only be overcome by magic or grants rewards that can only be used by spellcasters then they are failing at their basic responsibility to make the game engaging and rewarding. If a DM wants to play this way they should make it very clear what classes and races the party should should be made up of. To each their own, but this smacks of a very top down gaming style.</p><p></p><p>The DM has total control. They decide monsters, rewards, setting, actions etc. the DM is essentially god. They have a huge amount of responsibility to make the game fair, enjoyable and possible. They are a story teller and when that story ends at level 1 with a TPK (that isn’t the result of mass stupidity) then I really do think they have failed to find the right balance. Creating new characters takes effort, creativity and a fair amount of time to do it properly. When players put that effort in they have a reasonable expectation to get a chance to use that PC. There is nothing wrong with the odd unwinnable challenge but throwing liches at players because they took the wrong path smacks of bad design to me.</p><p></p><p>If you have a party rogue, make sure they get chance to do some stealthy stuff or trap finding etc. If you have a party bard then make sure a few fights have opportunities for dialogue and negotiation. If you have a party wizard they need to find the odd scroll or staff to keep relevant. If your party fighter uses an axe and only ever finds magic long swords then you’re doing it wrong in my honest opinion.</p><p></p><p>With great power comes great responsibility. You can be fair without going easy on characters.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="TheSword, post: 7397506, member: 6879661"] This is the exact opposite of advice I would give to any DM, new or old. “Know thy party” is the first and most important maxim a DM can follow to make sure everyone is having a good time. If the Party is made up of fighters, rogues and barbarians and the DM keeps throwing challenges at them that can only be overcome by magic or grants rewards that can only be used by spellcasters then they are failing at their basic responsibility to make the game engaging and rewarding. If a DM wants to play this way they should make it very clear what classes and races the party should should be made up of. To each their own, but this smacks of a very top down gaming style. The DM has total control. They decide monsters, rewards, setting, actions etc. the DM is essentially god. They have a huge amount of responsibility to make the game fair, enjoyable and possible. They are a story teller and when that story ends at level 1 with a TPK (that isn’t the result of mass stupidity) then I really do think they have failed to find the right balance. Creating new characters takes effort, creativity and a fair amount of time to do it properly. When players put that effort in they have a reasonable expectation to get a chance to use that PC. There is nothing wrong with the odd unwinnable challenge but throwing liches at players because they took the wrong path smacks of bad design to me. If you have a party rogue, make sure they get chance to do some stealthy stuff or trap finding etc. If you have a party bard then make sure a few fights have opportunities for dialogue and negotiation. If you have a party wizard they need to find the odd scroll or staff to keep relevant. If your party fighter uses an axe and only ever finds magic long swords then you’re doing it wrong in my honest opinion. With great power comes great responsibility. You can be fair without going easy on characters. [/QUOTE]
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