NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Maidhc O Casain" data-source="post: 5501800" data-attributes="member: 29558">I've been playing with a few folks - and GMing some of them as well - who are much more tactically minded than I. I'm trying to learn from them, and where the bad guy's intelligence and combat skill allows for it to play your enemies 'smarter.'Paizo adventures have a reputation for being extraordinarily tough, and with the exception of a few fights where I had some good rolls you guys have been walking through this one pretty well.Tsadok's been down but not out a couple of times so he's really been feeling some punishment; but his character's pretty 'squishy,' and he's playing him like a front line fighter (which I find very cool because it's very much in character, but it's led him into a couple of tight spots). I've barely managed to touch the rest of you.Part of that's been because I haven't been using the bad guys to their full potential - I missed a LOT of opportunities in the fight with Hadar the Katapeshi Wereleopard, for example.Part of it has been a pacing issue. Too much time to rest and regroup has meant that I haven't been able to make you use up your resources, and you've been able to hit almost every major fight with all of your spells, etc. at your disposal.This last series has been a little better. First, the pacing is a little more stressful - this will be the third encounter without a real break.I couldn't do much with the Peryton, because 1) though he was smart his playing field was limited and his strategy was set by his madness and 2) Tsadok was slamming him every single freakin' roll. But he did suck up a lot of HP, and by extension used up some resources in the form of spells and energy channels.The Gnolls I played somewhat smarter. They set up where they couldn't be flanked, gave their archers cover and were patient. Harnry's caltrops could've been bad for them - it was a great idea, but I was able to use that second row against you. I couldn't catch a break on my attack rolls, so I never actually managed to damage you at all in that fight. But again, it sucked quite a few of your resources because the set up forced your wizard to play like a wizard instead of a fighter. Also, Houwlou's out of javelins <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" />.Finally, the Gnoll's were smart enough to send for reinforcements, which leads nicely into your third encounter . . .I've still got a lot to learn about playing combats smarter, but I'm getting there. And while I don't want to kill your characters, I do want to do a better job of challenging all of you as a group rather than just trying to kill off Tsadok <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" />.</blockquote>

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