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Message: <blockquote data-quote="fusangite" data-source="post: 921791" data-attributes="member: 7240">Re: Re: Re: Re: ?A general point that I think may have been lost:One of the features of this ambush was that I wanted to create a situation in which the vampires were disadvantaged, in order to provide the characters an opportunity to take them on. Thus, I came up with a scheme whereby the high level casters amongst the vampire wizards would have used-up a large portion of their high level spell slots with mind-control spells cast on NPCs rather than hitting the characters at full strength. Furthermore, I had the vampires doing a time-critical task that required the vast majority of their attention so that they couldn't focus it all against the PCs. It therefore seemed only reasonable to me that given that the vampires' own strength would be drastically depleted for this encounter, that the party should also be caught somewhat off-balance.Let's start by responding to Numion,So you think my game would have been more enjoyable if, in addition to the heavily-armoured characters not showing up, the duke hadn't shown up either, the sorceror hadn't returned to the melee and a rogue, a bard and a wizard had been left to face down the vampires on their own?It seems to me that you cannot simultaneously make the case that it was unfair for me to enforce the rules for putting on armour and make the case that I should have superseded the rules in order to prohibit the characters from receiving the aid of an NPC because receiving it (even thought it was within the rules) was "unrealistic."If I had decided to waive the rules and allowed people to don their heavy armour instantaneously, would it be your position that this rule should never be enforced in my campaign again or that it should be randomly enforced based on "mood"? Would it also be your position that rules for donning light armour should also be thrown out the window?Some people who have a tactical emphasis rather than a role playing or puzzle solving emphasis (see above post on this distinction) cannot have fun if the rules are arbitrarily changed on them all the time. Tactically-focused players like to know that the rules are always applied equally both to themselves and to their adversaries. So, it's not simply a case of waiving rules willy-nilly and everyone being happy because of that; some players won't want to continue in a group where they don't know whether it will take them 40 rounds or 0 rounds to put on their armour -- and, by extension, where they don't know whether it will take their adversaries 40 rounds or 0 rounds to put on their armour. How could tactically-focused players plan an ambush if they couldn't rely on knowing whether I would apply the armour donning rules to the people they intended to ambush?Yep. I cannot say that didn't influence my decision. I didn't see why I should punish the heroic characters who tried to save innocent lives. However, I made sure that getting the duke's aid did not involve breaking any rules. In response to  Drezden327,Opening a door is a move-equivalent action (ie. 2-3 seconds) according to my recollection of the PHB. The sorceror had had 4 rounds to think up the shortest-possible things to say both to the guards and the duke which took about 20 minutes of game time. Thus, his statements were incredibly terse; in fact, he simply flew over the guards' heads after two rounds, conversation only partly concluded. Why would the duke need a detailed explanation of what was happening? He'd just conducted a 1 hour public meeting about it 5 hours before?Well, I thought saying "it will take 40 rounds to don this armour. You can stop putting it on any time," 20 times would have been sufficient. I have to tell you, this thing hit me right out of left field. Similarly, the other players kept commenting that if people took the whole time to put on their armour, hundreds of people would die. At one point, the bard practically yelled at the whining player (whom she's been common-law married to for 5 years) who was complaining that the other PCs didn't wait for them, "People are dying! What are we supposed to do!?"That would likely have happened if the whole group had decided to sit at home while the armoured characters put their armour on. That eventuality I had planned for, complete with different locations, available spells, etc. for the vampires. The group would have found the tower heavily fortified and well-defended with the guard pretty well wiped-out. In response to Valiantheart, I'm not arguing that the duke had regained all his spells or that no rest of any kind is required by elven sorcerors. All I'm telling you is that he wasn't asleep.</blockquote>

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