Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Shadowsong666" data-source="post: 4706929" data-attributes="member: 71808">Well, i think not all encounters need to be scary to be hard. Sometimes a monster doesn't scare them, but really puts them on a test.But there are scary monsters. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />Last sunday i ran the Dragonlance encounter where Onyx (black dragon) bursts out of a well just to shock them. The players got suprised and only the cleric and ranger could react. But well, their initiative was lower then that of the black dragon. He cast darkness and used his odem. Most of the players tried to run out of the darkness and got a AoO from the dragon in doing so. Our dwarven battlerager just stayed and fought the dragon. After some attacks from the dragon (and misses from the battlerager) the dragon realised that he isn't really hurting the dwarf in slashing him. So he grabbed the dwarf (everything happining inside the darkness) in one round, moved him over the well next round and as a free action just let him fall.... the rest of the players just heard the dwarf raging, screaming and falling to his death (he was just unconscious and out of the encounter). After some rounds all players where bloodied and had no idea how to really fight this beast... Onyx gave them the warning and stealthed down the well - letting the darkness fade and the players where shocked. The ultra-tough dwarf dead, the dragon gone unharmed (well, 60 points of damage.. lol) and no clue how to fight him.Next time they face him - they are one level up, have the blue crystal staff loaded for an effect against the dragon and know what will happen. Maybe they have a better chance of winning. But hell, they are scared of the beast. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />Sometimes its not the damage but how you present it or use the environment. I think that storytelling helps making a monster "feal" tough. If thats not good for your team - remember - you are the GM - just adjust. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

Verification