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Message: <blockquote data-quote="FormerlyHemlock" data-source="post: 6686646" data-attributes="member: 6787650">I don't mind talking about the difference.One big difference is that I don't do "standard encounters" where you "open the door and roll for initiative." Because of gaming philosophy is sandbox-oriented, I'm very willing to allow PCs to do things like scout ahead using Pass Without Trace, so the PCs don't have to be surprised at close range by a facefull of orogs. Also, I don't use battlegrids, so there's no psychological pressure keeping the PCs in a certain range of the enemy, so mobile tactics are more feasible. I don't ban feats like Sharpshooter, so the baseline damage output on PCs at my table may be higher than at your table. And I'm perfectly fine with allowing partial and total cover, so PCs can take feats like Sharpshooter and Warcaster to win archery duels. And I have a necromancer PC at my table--he hasn't been onscreen for a while, but his skeleton archers have probably colored my memories of the kinds of fights 5E PCs can brute-force their way through.I think the point #1 (that I allow and encourage scouting) is probably the key difference. There are ways you could set up the encounter so that a bunch of orogs and a couple of hill giants would cream the PCs; but most of them require the PCs to be tactically surprised (not necessarily "surprised" in the D&D sense) and surrounded. And that can't feasibly happen if you've got a Shadow Monk scouting ahead for you.Notice that most of the tactics you named (Dire Wolves in melee, Orogs closing to melee, etc.) first require closing to melee range, which means you have to get through 600' of ranged attacks from the PCs first. Dire Wolves move 50' per round, and all of the PCs in my test party (the synthetic party I use to balance encounters, instead of my actual players' PCs) have movement speeds of at least 40' due to Longstrider, so at very best the Dire Wolves will take a full minute to close distance even if the PCs aren't on horses or using Expeditious Retreat, so they'll eat 10 rounds of attacks before the Dire Wolves even get one attack... it's Pickett's Charge all over again, man. By the time all the Dire Wolves are dead, the Orogs are about ready to break and run. (I do roleplay enemy morale.) There's really nothing the Dire Wolves and Orogs can do to change this calculus during daytime hours[1]--which is why I find Orogs boring compared to hobgoblins, who totally do have options here thanks to longbows.So you see, it's not really about a difference in our tactical abilities as DMs. It has more to do with our respective agendas as DMs before the monsters are ever encountered, and the way we visualize monster ecologies. I don't do "open the door and roll initiative," nor do I have any interest in running or playing a game which does. This results in a different kind of game than yours. YMMV.[1] "Wait until dark" is a valid option, and if the PCs can't force the orogs to engage before then, the tables will be turned and it's probably 50/50 TPK will occur.P.S. The above is all conjecture. There may be other factors I haven't identified, such as my desire to roleplay monsters during combat instead of wargaming them. Maybe if you talked about how you would play things out with the orogs and dire wolves, that might be helpful.</blockquote>

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