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Message: <blockquote data-quote="green slime" data-source="post: 468705" data-attributes="member: 1325">Hello Gaiden!I'm glad you don't accuse me of DMing fairly. I don't. I DM to challenge the players to their limits, to provide interesting and challenging encounters. In a climatic BBEG fight, the battle will be just that; climatic. The players expect to be challenged, not just win by some faulty game design. If it is all about harm and magic missile, what is the point of the adventure? I can just hand out treasure, without the boring uninteresting encounters, that all go down within 2 rounds anyway. The DM's job isn't to be fair, but to provide an interesting, challenging adventure, with consideration for the players desires, and their characters interests.Jaxom has pointed out the house rule they use for harm. That puts paid to that tactic. But there are other similar tactics for 18th level characters, or 8 16th level characters. This is where it becomes imperative to know the style of play your players prefer.It comes down to whether it is the sole encounter, or the end of a long string of encounters. No Great Red Wyrm in my game lounges around in solitude, half-asleep, begging adventurers to come and tear its throat open. So yes, I believe I could give even 8 18th level characters a run for their money, even playing by the "rules". And what is wrong with causing so much death and mayhem with an encounter that the party has to flee in panic? Knowing when they are beat and escaping to lick your wounds is a vital part of the adventure story. You assume the Dragon can't know a thing, because then the party would loose. I make no such assumption. The Dragon is allowed to be prepared, and the party better assume it is prepared for them, or they will be facing TPK! Such is adventuring life at such lofty levels. Dragons of such great age would immensely enjoy playing mind games with the players, long before they get to physically encounter the Dragon.I assume that they Dragon knows about the party, because: Which to me suggests the dragon has all the time in the world to prepare traps, rally forces, and organise a defense. It knows: WHO is coming, WHY they are coming, WHAT the roles of the party members are (Cleric, Mage, etc), THE GOALS of the party, HOW they are equipped.This suggests to me a very challenging encounter indeed. Given that the dragon may also have a few rounds of prep time before the appearance of the party to cast short duration spells, well then...Jaxom:In order to answer your question, I'd say it is precisely to provide a challenging encounter to what is likely to be a VERY well prepared party. 4 18th level characters, that are aware they are going against a Red Dragon are indeed a force to be reckoned with. The trick is to avoid the walk over of either party or Dragon.</blockquote>

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