jgsugden
Legend
One anecdote does not disprove something generally being true. However, in this instance, my example proves his statement wrong. Read his argument....Your one anecdotal example does not prove a general principal. Neither do mine, so the issue remains open for exploration...
We're all open to express our opinions (within the constraints of the message boards). However, that does not mean that a factually false statement should be respected as if it were valid.
A statement that a non-deadly encounter is GOING to be a TEDIOUS SLOG and WILL NOT MATTER (which he stated and then restated) is proven false if anyone can show one example of it not being true - and I can point to a plethora of counter examples from games I've run, games I've played in, games I've observed, Critical Role, Dimension 20, and other situations. Even if you were to say he was just generalizing - it doesn't hold up as it isn't generally true that non-deadly encounters are both tedious slogs and do not matter. Calling them tedious slogs is kind of odd all by itself as these tend to end faster than deadly combats given the relative power advantage ofthe PCs. And if you look at his argument, he openly expresses that he does not understand why you'd have non-deadly encounters (supposing that it is merely to meet a number of combats per day requirement) despite explanations that provide options and merits to different non-deadly encounter options in the posts to which he is responding.
And if you want to go there, I can point to published adventures from Morrus and Enworld that use non-deadly encounters to advance the story and provide alternative challenges other than surviving a threat to life - and do so in a very engaging way.