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<blockquote data-quote="green slime" data-source="post: 5328296" data-attributes="member: 1325"><p>Not too difficult, you have lots of advice above. Prep battles in advance: read about NPC and monster abilities. Make sure you have understood the player's favourite spells, and do NOT rely on the reading offered by the player alone.</p><p></p><p>Secondly, you DO want to make them feel pressured. I've handled 3.x combats, and always challenged the characters to the limit. Step right up to the thin line bordering on TPK. Make the players feel like they had to sweat to get their victory. </p><p></p><p>1) The Stalingrad gambit: have reinforcements continually entering the field of battle. This makes it seem as if the battle is almost winnable, they only need to push a little bit harder, and they will attain their goal.... Only to discover yet more reinforcements arriving... </p><p></p><p>2) Goose / Gander : good for one, good for the other: foes <em>teleport</em>/<em>word of recall</em> away too. Only to read a scroll of <em>heal</em>, grab a few scrolls, and summon even more reinforcements. Or flee.</p><p></p><p>3) the battlefield radar: IMC there is a spell that allows a spellcaster to track where a teleportee went, and follow after them. Prevents certainity of escaping. So surprise the players with a vicious strike on their home turf after they try to escape. Makes for an extremely desperate battle, and one they cannot afford to lose.</p><p></p><p>4) Scramble and delay teleport, and teleport warning spells also exist. So pursuing is not always so healthy, either</p><p></p><p>5) Dragons can't fit in doors. Even undead ones with 400 hp. And most cities object to undead lurching around their streets. Make life difficult for them. </p><p></p><p>6) Hostile terrain. In their case, a plane closely connected to the Positive Energy Plane, if not that plane itself.</p><p></p><p>7) Such powerful Evil anti-heroes are sure to attract hordes of questing heroes, of equal or higher level. Best in the form of recurring NPC's attempting to capture and convert them. 1 NPC party of 20th level trying to capture one or more of them may give them pause for thought.</p><p></p><p>8) I never, ever let a player badger me about something for weeks. Ask, give me your reasoning (why: storywise, and a proper analysis of game effects), I'll consider it between sessions, and give you my verdict at the next session, including reasoning. Badgering me about something is likely to get me waving my ban-hammer. Tip "Because its cool to carry a bucket of snails!" is the wrong answer...</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="green slime, post: 5328296, member: 1325"] Not too difficult, you have lots of advice above. Prep battles in advance: read about NPC and monster abilities. Make sure you have understood the player's favourite spells, and do NOT rely on the reading offered by the player alone. Secondly, you DO want to make them feel pressured. I've handled 3.x combats, and always challenged the characters to the limit. Step right up to the thin line bordering on TPK. Make the players feel like they had to sweat to get their victory. 1) The Stalingrad gambit: have reinforcements continually entering the field of battle. This makes it seem as if the battle is almost winnable, they only need to push a little bit harder, and they will attain their goal.... Only to discover yet more reinforcements arriving... 2) Goose / Gander : good for one, good for the other: foes [i]teleport[/i]/[i]word of recall[/i] away too. Only to read a scroll of [i]heal[/i], grab a few scrolls, and summon even more reinforcements. Or flee. 3) the battlefield radar: IMC there is a spell that allows a spellcaster to track where a teleportee went, and follow after them. Prevents certainity of escaping. So surprise the players with a vicious strike on their home turf after they try to escape. Makes for an extremely desperate battle, and one they cannot afford to lose. 4) Scramble and delay teleport, and teleport warning spells also exist. So pursuing is not always so healthy, either 5) Dragons can't fit in doors. Even undead ones with 400 hp. And most cities object to undead lurching around their streets. Make life difficult for them. 6) Hostile terrain. In their case, a plane closely connected to the Positive Energy Plane, if not that plane itself. 7) Such powerful Evil anti-heroes are sure to attract hordes of questing heroes, of equal or higher level. Best in the form of recurring NPC's attempting to capture and convert them. 1 NPC party of 20th level trying to capture one or more of them may give them pause for thought. 8) I never, ever let a player badger me about something for weeks. Ask, give me your reasoning (why: storywise, and a proper analysis of game effects), I'll consider it between sessions, and give you my verdict at the next session, including reasoning. Badgering me about something is likely to get me waving my ban-hammer. Tip "Because its cool to carry a bucket of snails!" is the wrong answer... [/QUOTE]
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