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Message: <blockquote data-quote="yipwyg" data-source="post: 2547770" data-attributes="member: 3302">CR/EL SystemThe only real thing that I have seen a problem with this system is, players seem to not have any fear at all when it comes to combat.What do I mean? There seems to be a mentality among my D&D group that whenever an encounter is going to take place that it will be "balanced" to their level.  Basically, most of the  encounters would be at an EL equal to or lower to them, so the default reaction (if combat is going to happen) is the we can take it attitude. Just recently I was playing in a game of D&D, we were 3rd level.  Our characters stumbled upon a wrecked caravan train, dead bodies lying in  the road.  One of the caravan wagons looked like it was dragged off by 2 creatures.  We did some exploring, and discovered a troll den, with a male, female, and two kids.  In front of the cave, tied to a pole where two survivors.  Our group decided that we should save the survivors, however our methods were different.  I thought that we should get some reinforcements, the rest thought we should do it ourselves.  So the fighter tried to sneak to a better position, got discovered and combat ensued.  The only reason that we did not get totally spanked by the trolls is that the DM fudged the entire combat to the point that we could not lose.Now the DM knew that this battle would be way to tough, and probably planned it that way.  I haven't talked to him since then (labor day weekend camping trip).  I do not think that he expected the party to go in with "guns" blazing.  When the party did, he basically in his mind went oh crap, and altered the combat to favor the players.  This is a DM's perogative and I do not mind it, it kinda lowers the excitement though knowing that it is virtually impossible to die though.In my opinion, if the players do something totally insanely stupid, they should potentially die.  I do not believe that everyting should be conformed to the players levels. I mean yes at low levels they will tend to be fighting less powerful creatures. However, the players should realize when they are over their head and know when they should cut and run.  They should not automatically assume that the enounters should be equal to them.For example take the movie Dragonslayer.  Everyone in town knows there is an ancient dragon in a cave on the mountain.  Every so often a person is sacraficed to it to keep it happy.  If someone, or for that matter a party, enters the cave, and they are not prepared for it, they should expect to be possibly killed.I use the CR/EL system as a guideline, however I also expect my players to determine how they handle the encounter.  To me it is just as much their responsability as it is mine to determine if an encounter is to tough for them. If they think the encounter is too tough, avoid it, or find some other way to handle it besides full on attack.</blockquote>

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