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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Majoru Oakheart" data-source="post: 5793189" data-attributes="member: 5143">Why is that?  When I sit down to play Monopoly, I don't have to change the rules or do preparations in advance based on one of the other players is playing the Boot.  I don't change the rules of Settlers of Catan based on the fact that STEVE is playing with us vs when BOB plays with us.  But those games play fine without changing anything based on who is playing because the system was designed balanced.Here's an idea.  The potential of ALL 5th level characters is the same(or very close to the same) so that you can say "The characters are 5th level, they have the ability to easily get through locks that are DC 15, but DC 30 will be impossible for them.  If I put a DC 30 lock in this room, I can expect they won't be able to enter."  Instead, I have to wait to find out if they have a Wizard since he'll be able to open it easily(or teleport through or make a hole through the wall) and have to change my adventure accordingly.It is in SOME D&D worlds.  Not in others. Say I want to run a game where the land outside of a kingdom's borders are unexplored.  There are 250,000 people in this kingdom and that is the only civilization that they know.In this kingdom, there are wizards.  But their order numbers 725(the same percentage of the population that is doctors in the US) or so.  Most people in the country have never seen a Wizard.  There are tales of what they can do, but no one knows exactly except the Wizards themselves which they keep hidden to avoid anyone being able to oppose them.So, why would all the enemies plan to have a Wizard show up?  What COULD they even do to plan for a Wizard?Or even if we consider a slightly more magic plentiful world.  Say there are 2500 Wizards in the kingdom.  That's still only 1 in 100.  And with the technology level of most D&D campaigns, that means most people have still never met or even seen a Wizard in real life.Sure, as the DM you know the exact abilities of a Wizard.  But most people on most D&D worlds would have no idea.  The abilities of Wizards would be past on via Bards and stories that would act like a giant game of Broken Telephone until the abilities didn't resemble what they could ACTUALLY do at all.  And finding a Wizard willing to help you by warding your entire building against the abilities of Wizards would be next to impossible and would cost more money than most people have.I don't put traps in the game to design around the Rogue.  I put the traps in there to give the PCs a challenge.  If they have a Rogue they can defeat the challenge by disarming it.  If they don't have a Rogue they may defeat it by dodging/avoiding the trap or smashing the trap with their weapons/spells.  I know that regardless of the party composition, they will be able to pass the trap, just using different methods.I put guards in front of buildings to prevent people from getting in, regardless of their class.  They aren't put there as a design around the Fighter or Rogue.  They can stab swords into Clerics and Wizards the same way they can a Fighter or Rogue.Except that magic locks can be picked by Rogues in 3e and 4e.But, yes, my point is it takes more time than it should and seems contrived when you do it ALL the time.  If you come across one enemy who is extremely rich and his warehouse has a magic lock on it that can't be picked and needs to be dispelled with magic and you think "Wow, this guy has to be rich to be able to afford this!" then it's special.  If your thought is "Of course he has a magic lock.  Every house in the city has a magic lock." then there is a problem.  Of course, the reason they all have magic locks is because the DM planned against the Wizard and wants to make sure that he has to use up his spells on things like locks rather than combat spells to balance him".  Meanwhile it causes the Rogue to go "Why did I come along?  All of these doors are warded against picking.  You don't need me."I was one of the Triad members in Living Greyhawk back in 3.5e.  When you read through some of the higher level adventures from later in the campaign, the amount of contrivances to stop high level players were completely out of whack.  Our campaign had to follow the rules without any house rules, and we were never allowed to destroy equipment...that was considered unfair.So, by the end there was an adventure where Devils and Demons are fighting each other and the PCs come into the room in the middle of it.  They both turn around and attack the PCs.  Each Demon and Devil had no less than 6 spells put on them, each with caster level 20.  The adventure instructed you to start their durations the moment the PCs entered.  The spells in question were a mix of Cleric, Druid, and Wizard spells that none of the Demons or Devils there had the ability to cast.  And at least one of the spells had a range of Personal.The reason they had all those spells up is because the adventure was designed for level 14 characters, and by this point the campaign staff had realized that Wizards were too powerful and without that suite of protection spells the battle would be so short as to be insignificant.  I once talked to the author and asked him "How could they even do that?  It seems like we are stuck in an arms race against the PCs and now we're writing things into adventures that isn't even possible just to defeat their powers."  He said "Well, they could have had all the spells stored in Ioun stones and cast them from there just before the PCs enter the room."  I said "But they didn't have any Ioun stones with them."  He said "Well, the text says a Wizard passed through the room just before the players get there.  Maybe he took them."As a side note, they all had to be 20th level caster level because PCs have this tendency to cast Dispel Magic and remove all the spells from enemies, reducing them back down to a level they could beat easily.Also, I'd like to note that even with all those extra spells, most people playing the adventure thought it was too easy.</blockquote>

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