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What do you do when your players refuse to succeed?
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<blockquote data-quote="mmu1" data-source="post: 4019298" data-attributes="member: 319"><p>I'm at the end of my rope, here. I've been running a campaign for a while, and it had been going pretty well, until four sessions ago, when all luck seems to have abandoned the characters (and the players).</p><p></p><p>In order, it went something like this:</p><p></p><p>1. The party nearly suffered a TPK because of a combination of bad tactics and bad rolls. </p><p></p><p>2. The party was re-formed and the surviving characters set out to rescue a PC that had gotten captured during the near-TPK. During what should have been a standard encounter with some orc dire-wolf riders (I was hoping to give them a fight against relatively tough enemies they could beat handily to help them shake off the recent loss) the dwarven barbarian got tripped to death because he failed something like 11 out of 12 opposed strength checks - his die rolls would not break 10. (despite the fact I started to fudge my rolls in their favor towards the end of it)</p><p></p><p>3. They replaced the dead PC, and headed back into the dungeon. They were more careful this time, but when they attacked the area where their friend was held prisoner, everything damn near fell apart again. They failed <em>lterally</em> 90% of the saving throws they had to make. They couldn't hit the broad side of the barn. When they did hit, they rolled so badly for damage that one of the characters was unsuccessful in delivering a <em>coup de grace</em> <strong>with a freakin' greatsword</strong>! </p><p></p><p>Then, for the encore, the same player cast area Dispel Magic three or four times in a row trying to remove the <em>Slow</em> and <em>Web</em> spell effects which were plaguing the party, and failed all of the resulting 15-20 caster level checks despite the fact he was higher level than the enemy caster. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite3" alt=":(" title="Frown :(" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":(" /> </p><p></p><p>It was a miracle that they managed to scrape on by in the end.</p><p></p><p>4. It's the next session, and I'm praying for a fresh start. I throw at them a combat vs. a trio of mining constructs designed to be easy to hit but able to last a while, (a little DR, a little SR, some elemental resistances, but only mediocre AC and average HP) and which <em>really</em> don't dish out a lot of damage vs. a 7th level party. They nearly cause a TPK again. One of the players rolls (unadjusted) a total of 11 on 4 attack rolls. The guy running a halfling caster with 18 Dex can't hit a ranged touch attack to save his life. The rest of them have trouble rolling over 10. In the end, they win, but one of the characters is at -8 when he's stabilized...</p><p></p><p>I've tried making the encounters easier, adjusting the enemies so that they do less damage as well as a bit of creative fudging - all to no avail. The one thing I can't affect is what my players roll, and I have never seen a bad streak this long. Probability says it's extremely unlikely to continue, but that's what I was telling myself after two sessions of this... I draw the line at sacrificing chickens to the dice gods, even thought the idea is starting to get tempting - right now, it seems like it's only a matter of time until they all die unless I fall back on having them fight CR 1 or 2 monsters that don't have any nasty abilities.... (like the Ghoul with its fearsome DC 13 paralysis - that's almost guaranteed to take out a couple of my players' PCs if I tried it)</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="mmu1, post: 4019298, member: 319"] I'm at the end of my rope, here. I've been running a campaign for a while, and it had been going pretty well, until four sessions ago, when all luck seems to have abandoned the characters (and the players). In order, it went something like this: 1. The party nearly suffered a TPK because of a combination of bad tactics and bad rolls. 2. The party was re-formed and the surviving characters set out to rescue a PC that had gotten captured during the near-TPK. During what should have been a standard encounter with some orc dire-wolf riders (I was hoping to give them a fight against relatively tough enemies they could beat handily to help them shake off the recent loss) the dwarven barbarian got tripped to death because he failed something like 11 out of 12 opposed strength checks - his die rolls would not break 10. (despite the fact I started to fudge my rolls in their favor towards the end of it) 3. They replaced the dead PC, and headed back into the dungeon. They were more careful this time, but when they attacked the area where their friend was held prisoner, everything damn near fell apart again. They failed [i]lterally[/i] 90% of the saving throws they had to make. They couldn't hit the broad side of the barn. When they did hit, they rolled so badly for damage that one of the characters was unsuccessful in delivering a [i]coup de grace[/i] [b]with a freakin' greatsword[/b]! Then, for the encore, the same player cast area Dispel Magic three or four times in a row trying to remove the [i]Slow[/i] and [i]Web[/i] spell effects which were plaguing the party, and failed all of the resulting 15-20 caster level checks despite the fact he was higher level than the enemy caster. :( It was a miracle that they managed to scrape on by in the end. 4. It's the next session, and I'm praying for a fresh start. I throw at them a combat vs. a trio of mining constructs designed to be easy to hit but able to last a while, (a little DR, a little SR, some elemental resistances, but only mediocre AC and average HP) and which [i]really[/i] don't dish out a lot of damage vs. a 7th level party. They nearly cause a TPK again. One of the players rolls (unadjusted) a total of 11 on 4 attack rolls. The guy running a halfling caster with 18 Dex can't hit a ranged touch attack to save his life. The rest of them have trouble rolling over 10. In the end, they win, but one of the characters is at -8 when he's stabilized... I've tried making the encounters easier, adjusting the enemies so that they do less damage as well as a bit of creative fudging - all to no avail. The one thing I can't affect is what my players roll, and I have never seen a bad streak this long. Probability says it's extremely unlikely to continue, but that's what I was telling myself after two sessions of this... I draw the line at sacrificing chickens to the dice gods, even thought the idea is starting to get tempting - right now, it seems like it's only a matter of time until they all die unless I fall back on having them fight CR 1 or 2 monsters that don't have any nasty abilities.... (like the Ghoul with its fearsome DC 13 paralysis - that's almost guaranteed to take out a couple of my players' PCs if I tried it) [/QUOTE]
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