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High-Level Play: Nightmare for DMs?
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<blockquote data-quote="orangefruitbat" data-source="post: 1686791" data-attributes="member: 3013"><p>It seems to me that a DM should reward behaviours that he wants to encourage and punish behaviours that he wants to discourage. What the DM wants to punish is rote solutions that are boring and kill game fun. What the DM wants is innovation and excitement.</p><p></p><p>Example 1) the party learns to teleport. They begin to use the classic scry, buff and teleport gambit. DM gets annoyed. So the next stronghold they try this on isn't warded to prevent teleports - instead it redirects their teleport to a trapped area/really big monstrous pet. And they get hid by some quickened dimensional anchors to prevent a quick getaway. Assuming they survive, the party has to enter the stronghold the old-fashioned way - plus they've blown all their buff spells already. Weakened, they decide to disguise themselves and slip in as evil servants, and enjoy better success.</p><p></p><p>Example 2) the party ethereally jaunts/astrally projects/shadow walks and scouts out the lair, bypassing all the encounters. DM remembers that wandering encounters occur here too. A night hag/githanki raiding party/nightwing random encounter makes these planes much less safe than the material (this is probably a good idea in general - other planes should be more dangerous than the material). Back on the material plane, the fighter intimidates the hell out of a defeated minion and get the information they need to avoid the traps and get where they need to be.</p><p></p><p>Example 3) the party gates in a solar to do their dirty work. The next week, a wizard in the serivce of the same religion as the solar gates in a party member or members. Why not? What's good for the goose...The party uses its gate abilties with a lot more caution, plus they get a new adventure to boot.</p><p></p><p>Example 4) Shapechange/polymorph self,etc. have two problems. The first is that they can be so mechanically complicated as to bring the game to a halt. The solution is to houserule this so that you can't shapechange into anything unless you've prepared the stats in advance. Why should everyone wait while you flip thorugh the MM? The second problem is harder, because the shapechange is incredibly effective and has a rather long duration. To counter this is more specific, but the spell can always be dispelled. The caster may now have a poorer will save. Most of the time, they've just made themselves a bigger target...</p><p></p><p>Example 5) the wizard 'alpha' strikes the opponent (say a timestop plus three or four delayed fireballs). But what if the wizard hit only an illusion. Or perhaps only the first wave of enemies. In general wizards are stronger with against a few higher CR encoutners, but weaker against waves of lower CR encounters. Mobs of low level creatures with one level of sorcerer (for true strike) can be great equalizers</p><p></p><p>Example 6) a cleric has a permenant true seeing, negating all illusions and magical darknesses. But a high-level assasin with lots of ranks in disguise, bluff and hide can still be an incredible danger. And if the assasin is mind-blanked, he can, with time, possibly take out an entire party.</p><p></p><p>The important thing is that it's not about punishing the wizard, but getting ev eryone a chance to shine. Areas of wild or antimagic to give fighters and rogues. Monsters with high SR to Diplomatic challenges to give social characters a chance, etc. A good rule of thumb is to let anybody get away with something - once.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="orangefruitbat, post: 1686791, member: 3013"] It seems to me that a DM should reward behaviours that he wants to encourage and punish behaviours that he wants to discourage. What the DM wants to punish is rote solutions that are boring and kill game fun. What the DM wants is innovation and excitement. Example 1) the party learns to teleport. They begin to use the classic scry, buff and teleport gambit. DM gets annoyed. So the next stronghold they try this on isn't warded to prevent teleports - instead it redirects their teleport to a trapped area/really big monstrous pet. And they get hid by some quickened dimensional anchors to prevent a quick getaway. Assuming they survive, the party has to enter the stronghold the old-fashioned way - plus they've blown all their buff spells already. Weakened, they decide to disguise themselves and slip in as evil servants, and enjoy better success. Example 2) the party ethereally jaunts/astrally projects/shadow walks and scouts out the lair, bypassing all the encounters. DM remembers that wandering encounters occur here too. A night hag/githanki raiding party/nightwing random encounter makes these planes much less safe than the material (this is probably a good idea in general - other planes should be more dangerous than the material). Back on the material plane, the fighter intimidates the hell out of a defeated minion and get the information they need to avoid the traps and get where they need to be. Example 3) the party gates in a solar to do their dirty work. The next week, a wizard in the serivce of the same religion as the solar gates in a party member or members. Why not? What's good for the goose...The party uses its gate abilties with a lot more caution, plus they get a new adventure to boot. Example 4) Shapechange/polymorph self,etc. have two problems. The first is that they can be so mechanically complicated as to bring the game to a halt. The solution is to houserule this so that you can't shapechange into anything unless you've prepared the stats in advance. Why should everyone wait while you flip thorugh the MM? The second problem is harder, because the shapechange is incredibly effective and has a rather long duration. To counter this is more specific, but the spell can always be dispelled. The caster may now have a poorer will save. Most of the time, they've just made themselves a bigger target... Example 5) the wizard 'alpha' strikes the opponent (say a timestop plus three or four delayed fireballs). But what if the wizard hit only an illusion. Or perhaps only the first wave of enemies. In general wizards are stronger with against a few higher CR encoutners, but weaker against waves of lower CR encounters. Mobs of low level creatures with one level of sorcerer (for true strike) can be great equalizers Example 6) a cleric has a permenant true seeing, negating all illusions and magical darknesses. But a high-level assasin with lots of ranks in disguise, bluff and hide can still be an incredible danger. And if the assasin is mind-blanked, he can, with time, possibly take out an entire party. The important thing is that it's not about punishing the wizard, but getting ev eryone a chance to shine. Areas of wild or antimagic to give fighters and rogues. Monsters with high SR to Diplomatic challenges to give social characters a chance, etc. A good rule of thumb is to let anybody get away with something - once. [/QUOTE]
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