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Wouldn't even fire resistant creatures turtle? Of course. There is no one way to enjoy the game. But, I do not think that PCs should know anything about the mechanics, just about cause and effect in the game world. It just seems extremely repetitive to explain the fireball as "jumped out of...

My players do not necessarily think that. It was an example. Experienced veteran adventurers, or experienced veteran players? In our game on Saturday, the enemy leader was about 80 feet away from my PC (the closest) in a semi-dismal cavern. He cast a spell and got away. In our game, any...

How does one dodge out of the way of a Fireball if one is in the dead center point of it? Do all magical spells have little gaps in them for PCs to hide in? That's a narrative attempt to explain why the mechanics work the way they do. Just as good of a narrative explanation would be willpower...

I thought you using argumentum ad populum was done to make you feel better. :lol: I'm ambivalent to those types of arguments.

True. On the other hand, a foe might not take much damage from a Fireball due to having a high Dex save bonus, or due to having Fire Resistance. Should the PCs necessarily know why the foe doesn't take much damage? Should player knowledge drill down to those mechanics level of details? Does...

argumentum ad populum ;) Players at my table might start wondering without that information when 3 solid hits have not even bloodied a foe. Just as enjoyable, at least based on the amount of laughter at my table. I guess.

No, it's not necessarily the DM's job to do that. That's a play style assumption on your part. Seramus basically got it correct. Just like the PCs do not know about hit points and the players do not know how many hit points the monster has, the PCs do not know truly know about damage...

Hit points are an abstraction. Or, at least that is what many people here on the forums have been saying for over a decade. Some have called it luck, skill, grit, willpower, actual wounds, a bit of all of these. But when damage resistance comes into play, every narrative example talks solely...

Do they? So, in the "CR 5 monster with 80 hits points and no damage resistance vs. a CR 5 monster with 40 hits points and damage resistance" case, what exactly do the PCs know? As a DM, what information do you change between the one example and the other? Is there really a difference here when...

Telling the players this type of information sounds like really playing the numbers to me. How do the PCs (let alone the players) know the difference between a CR 5 monster with 80 hits points and no damage resistance vs. a CR 5 monster with 40 hits points and damage resistance? From the...

You're welcome. I always think of these types of things AFTER I already screwed up the encounter as a DM. :hmm:

You might want to consider having her stay in Storm Giant form until she is almost down to zero hit points and THEN she changes back to Dragon form. That could be a real shocker. :erm: If you run her Shape Change like the Shapechange spell, she will be throwing Lightning Bolts as a Storm Giant...

My group of (6 or 7) 9th level PCs (plus Harshnag) sent Iymrith packing. In the scenario where she invades the temple, I even gave her a 9th level mage riding on her back to assist. I even had her summon in creatures. I even had her polymorph into a storm giant when she was lower on hit points...

Yes. Yes it was a pushover. Even when brought closer to the party initially. :lol: Monk stun, Remorrhaz 0.

Maybe. I just changed the adventure so that the PCs eventually HAVE to go to every major setting in the book if they want to finish the adventure. It gave me a lot more material as a DM and it allowed the players to explore and adventure more.

In Storm King's Thunder, it's an adventure for levels 1 to 10 and the PCs are not even expected to go to 4 of the 10 major locations. It's ludicrous. Why set up those great settings and then set up the adventure to not go to them? smh

Probably. In 5E, my first PC died by via a Lightning Bolt. Failed the first death saving throw, was too far back for the healers to get to him (or for anyone to give a healing potion), double failed the second death saving throw (rolled a 1). Nobody else died. But, I think that this is an...

One of the main reasons classic D&D was so deadly was due to the swinginess of combat. A 1st level Fighter had maybe 6 or 8 hit points. A D6 weapon could seriously hurt him. Very few PCs had any type of damage mitigation or healing at low levels. So, one way to emulate this is merely to add the...

With rules that allow for one basically harmless spell to supersede another harmful spell completely, yes, it's kind of shenanigans. I don't think that the intent of the Combining Magical Effects rule is to replace harmful spells with extremely less harmful versions of the same spell. That to...

What would you equate old-school Rolemaster to? It took hours to create a PC who could then die even faster than one could in D&D?