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Combat Encounter Difficulty
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<blockquote data-quote="Prism" data-source="post: 6812445" data-attributes="member: 9501"><p>The encounter guidelines are certainly thrown when you use feats, magic items, rolled stats or larger parties. However the party composition can have a large effect on it too. Looking at this particular party it seems on the face of it to be very combat focused and less focused on exploration and interaction. For example the two players who took fighters rather than rangers seems to have made their decision based primarily on combat ability. Fighters are certainly more effective in combat but rangers are typically much more effective in the exploration pillar (we have a ranger in one of our campaigns who is invaluable). The assassin rogue is the strongest in combat of the rogue archtypes and the fiend pact is the most combat focused warlock. The shadow monk is an exception to this I would say being more exploration and stealth focused. I dare say a party with a bard, ranger and great old one warlock would be less effective in combat.</p><p></p><p>Also, in my experience DMs tend to play slightly less optimally in combat then players. Players often focus fire whereas the monsters do so too but not always to the same extent. Its rare to see every single monster attack the same character in a single round. Its not fun when your character is killed in the first round so this kind of optimal monster play is usually avoided. Players think nothing of using such tactics though.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Prism, post: 6812445, member: 9501"] The encounter guidelines are certainly thrown when you use feats, magic items, rolled stats or larger parties. However the party composition can have a large effect on it too. Looking at this particular party it seems on the face of it to be very combat focused and less focused on exploration and interaction. For example the two players who took fighters rather than rangers seems to have made their decision based primarily on combat ability. Fighters are certainly more effective in combat but rangers are typically much more effective in the exploration pillar (we have a ranger in one of our campaigns who is invaluable). The assassin rogue is the strongest in combat of the rogue archtypes and the fiend pact is the most combat focused warlock. The shadow monk is an exception to this I would say being more exploration and stealth focused. I dare say a party with a bard, ranger and great old one warlock would be less effective in combat. Also, in my experience DMs tend to play slightly less optimally in combat then players. Players often focus fire whereas the monsters do so too but not always to the same extent. Its rare to see every single monster attack the same character in a single round. Its not fun when your character is killed in the first round so this kind of optimal monster play is usually avoided. Players think nothing of using such tactics though. [/QUOTE]
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