Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
White Dwarf Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Nest
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
EN Publishing
Twitter
BlueSky
Facebook
Instagram
EN World
BlueSky
YouTube
Facebook
Twitter
Twitch
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
breaking the healing rules with goodberries
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Celtavian" data-source="post: 6686086" data-attributes="member: 5834"><p>I have already stated there is no invulnerable paladin problem. Someone else stated that and you provided solutions I did not need. I have always known that as a DM you can kill your players at any point in time with various tactics. That is not the goal of a DM. Never has been. So providing ways to challenge a party is only helpful to new DMs that don't know what can be done. That is not me. I've been doing this a long, long time and can kill any party at any point in time with tactical play. For me it is walking the line between challenging play and not killing the party that is the trick. That's why I increase the difficulty slow because in the past I've designed encounters I thought the party could handle that ended up killing them. I learned over time it is better to find out what they can take through a trial and error process that tends to error on the side of caution.</p><p></p><p>I stated to you my problem quite clearly which was AC variation amongst the group which allowed damage numbers to be very high against some party members and lower against others creating a problem with encounter design that I am trying to refine as I learn this system. I do not need outside help since others do not know how I run encounters and what I'm looking to do. When an AC allows for substantially higher damager numbers against one target than another, you're going to have problem balancing the encounter. For example, if a monster does 4d12+4 with three attacks. One guy has an AC where only one of those attacks will hit on average and another guy has an AC that will be hit by two and the lower AC guy has 3/4s of the hit points of the higher AC guy, that creates an encounter imbalance unless you as a DM focus fire on the higher AC guy. If you choose to hit the lower AC guy, he's going down hard and quick and the higher AC guy will be left standing alone. If he requires support to survive from the lower AC guy, then you might have a wipe. In that instance the AC variation is causing the damage spike because the gap is wide enough to double the damage against the lower AC target. So you have to plan encounters a bit differently to take the lower AC guys squishiness into account. Given I come from 3E/<em>Pathfinder</em>, I'm not accustomed to things working in this fashion because as I stated casters and squishier characters had other means to defend themselves that worked other than AC. Not always the case in 5E. </p><p></p><p>My players would not let you put them on a cliff 60 feet up with three stone giants unless you forced them to do it. Maybe that is what you do with your players: force them into situations they can't avoid. My players scout first. Decide the best place to engage. Draw the enemy to that point. That is their standard modus operandi. Yes. you can create encounters where the party gets spotted beforehand. They face those encounters sometimes. That is a new problem for them to solve. My job is to put them into situations they can solve without killing them, while at the same time creating the possibility of death. My job is not to view the players as enemies to be "solved." Players are too limited to have any power to challenge a DM that wants to kill them. Thus I've never understood "killer DMs" or DMs that look at beating players as a challenge.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Celtavian, post: 6686086, member: 5834"] I have already stated there is no invulnerable paladin problem. Someone else stated that and you provided solutions I did not need. I have always known that as a DM you can kill your players at any point in time with various tactics. That is not the goal of a DM. Never has been. So providing ways to challenge a party is only helpful to new DMs that don't know what can be done. That is not me. I've been doing this a long, long time and can kill any party at any point in time with tactical play. For me it is walking the line between challenging play and not killing the party that is the trick. That's why I increase the difficulty slow because in the past I've designed encounters I thought the party could handle that ended up killing them. I learned over time it is better to find out what they can take through a trial and error process that tends to error on the side of caution. I stated to you my problem quite clearly which was AC variation amongst the group which allowed damage numbers to be very high against some party members and lower against others creating a problem with encounter design that I am trying to refine as I learn this system. I do not need outside help since others do not know how I run encounters and what I'm looking to do. When an AC allows for substantially higher damager numbers against one target than another, you're going to have problem balancing the encounter. For example, if a monster does 4d12+4 with three attacks. One guy has an AC where only one of those attacks will hit on average and another guy has an AC that will be hit by two and the lower AC guy has 3/4s of the hit points of the higher AC guy, that creates an encounter imbalance unless you as a DM focus fire on the higher AC guy. If you choose to hit the lower AC guy, he's going down hard and quick and the higher AC guy will be left standing alone. If he requires support to survive from the lower AC guy, then you might have a wipe. In that instance the AC variation is causing the damage spike because the gap is wide enough to double the damage against the lower AC target. So you have to plan encounters a bit differently to take the lower AC guys squishiness into account. Given I come from 3E/[I]Pathfinder[/I], I'm not accustomed to things working in this fashion because as I stated casters and squishier characters had other means to defend themselves that worked other than AC. Not always the case in 5E. My players would not let you put them on a cliff 60 feet up with three stone giants unless you forced them to do it. Maybe that is what you do with your players: force them into situations they can't avoid. My players scout first. Decide the best place to engage. Draw the enemy to that point. That is their standard modus operandi. Yes. you can create encounters where the party gets spotted beforehand. They face those encounters sometimes. That is a new problem for them to solve. My job is to put them into situations they can solve without killing them, while at the same time creating the possibility of death. My job is not to view the players as enemies to be "solved." Players are too limited to have any power to challenge a DM that wants to kill them. Thus I've never understood "killer DMs" or DMs that look at beating players as a challenge. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
breaking the healing rules with goodberries
Top