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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Reynard" data-source="post: 4449992" data-attributes="member: 467">It doesn't lower the number of choices, though: it' a different decision point.  "Oh, crap, a bodak! If I fail a save when that thing gazes me, I'm dead!" Now the decision point is before or at the beginning of the encounter. Run? (Yes, fleeing is a viable option -- a fact that seems to get forgotten a lot.) Fight blind or eyes averted and take the penalty? Have the cleric burn their best healing spell to do as much damage to the thing as possible? It's the same thing with the great sword wielding fire giant, who can smear almost any character with a successful crit.  How do you engage such an enemy while minimizing the chance that it'll be able to do so?I honestly think part of the issue is a difference in general playstyle attitude. It seems to me that it's a relatively recent development that "schtick building" has become prominent among players and there's less room for players to adapt their play behavior to changing circumstances, plus an attitude that not being able to use their schtick is considered not fun.  Perhaps it is due to the ability (in 3E) or the near-requirement (in 4E) to hyper-focus a character so they are good at one thing in particular and very poor at other things.  Sure, your 1E and 2E fighter could specialize, but by and large tht specialization gave limited benefits.  The long sword pecialized fighter still carried a mace (for skeletons), a bow or crossbow (for stuff he didn't want to get near) and a ten foot pole (to push rust monsters away with). There was an uncertainty in what was coming next, what kind of threat it would be and where it sat relative to the power/experience level of the characters.  Latter 3.5 (I blame Mearls, mostly) fanned the flames of this attutude by make "official" statements about what was fun and what wasn't.  And it was a short leap from "fun" to "fair".</blockquote>

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