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Defenders require bad AI from monsters
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<blockquote data-quote="Skallgrim" data-source="post: 4648789" data-attributes="member: 79271"><p>To second what several posters have said, the party is a band of "Heroes". They are distinct from most of the people wandering around. If the local lord could just order his guards to go and rescue the hostages, or defeat the undead, or storm the keep, he would have already done that. Those people aren't Heroes.</p><p></p><p>The party is chock full of Heroes. People who can take a hit, fall down, and get back up. People who can perform miracles for their deity, or astounding acts of magic. In most cases, the opposition isn't expecting Heroes. They are expecting regular people. That's why they don't mass at the battlements and shoot 20 arrows a round. What are 5 regular people going to do?</p><p></p><p>Spoiler Alert:</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>For instance, at the Horned Hold, why is the Hold guarded by just a few orcs. Several reasons. Aside from the fact that the Hold was designed to guard the minotaur city from invasion from the Underdark (on the other side), not from the city itself, and the fact that the Hold isn't on any marked routes, a few orcs and a porticullis are sufficient to guard a door from regular people. What are regular people going to do to 5 orcs? Die, that's what.</p><p></p><p>Heroes, on the other hand, are a different matter. </p><p></p><p>I think that, in general, most monsters in populated areas should be expecting regular people, not Heroes. Now, if you are adventuring in the Bone Citadel in the Wastes of Evil, what regular person ever goes there? If the 5 guys defeated your first and second lines of defense, they are probably Heroes, too. But, in general, it's not stupid of the monsters to expect that they can beat the PCs. Most opposition is regular people, and they can beat them pretty easily. Heck, they might even be extra-overconfident, because 5 people attacking your keep are either suicidal fools, or Heroes, and when's the last time anybody saw a Hero around here?</p><p></p><p>This allows the PCs to use their cool abilities without the monsters swamping them, and turning every adventure into one single level 20 bloodbath, composed of the PCs versus every guy in the place at once. It also explains why the adventurers are even there, instead of just having all the troubles put down by the local soldiery.</p><p></p><p></p><p>If, on the other hand, the PCs aren't anything exceptional or unusual in your game world (everybody has character levels), then you've already altered the game expectations considerably, and you probably have (or should have) already thought out reasons why the PCs are even needed (maybe they ARE the guards). In that case, most monsters will need to be a lot more cautious, because, from past experience, everybody they meet is an actual threat to them. This assumption seems to alter the fabric of the game world well away from 4E assumptions (though it is fine, and fun to run), so I think I'll let it pass without further comment as it is definitely a special case.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Skallgrim, post: 4648789, member: 79271"] To second what several posters have said, the party is a band of "Heroes". They are distinct from most of the people wandering around. If the local lord could just order his guards to go and rescue the hostages, or defeat the undead, or storm the keep, he would have already done that. Those people aren't Heroes. The party is chock full of Heroes. People who can take a hit, fall down, and get back up. People who can perform miracles for their deity, or astounding acts of magic. In most cases, the opposition isn't expecting Heroes. They are expecting regular people. That's why they don't mass at the battlements and shoot 20 arrows a round. What are 5 regular people going to do? Spoiler Alert: For instance, at the Horned Hold, why is the Hold guarded by just a few orcs. Several reasons. Aside from the fact that the Hold was designed to guard the minotaur city from invasion from the Underdark (on the other side), not from the city itself, and the fact that the Hold isn't on any marked routes, a few orcs and a porticullis are sufficient to guard a door from regular people. What are regular people going to do to 5 orcs? Die, that's what. Heroes, on the other hand, are a different matter. I think that, in general, most monsters in populated areas should be expecting regular people, not Heroes. Now, if you are adventuring in the Bone Citadel in the Wastes of Evil, what regular person ever goes there? If the 5 guys defeated your first and second lines of defense, they are probably Heroes, too. But, in general, it's not stupid of the monsters to expect that they can beat the PCs. Most opposition is regular people, and they can beat them pretty easily. Heck, they might even be extra-overconfident, because 5 people attacking your keep are either suicidal fools, or Heroes, and when's the last time anybody saw a Hero around here? This allows the PCs to use their cool abilities without the monsters swamping them, and turning every adventure into one single level 20 bloodbath, composed of the PCs versus every guy in the place at once. It also explains why the adventurers are even there, instead of just having all the troubles put down by the local soldiery. If, on the other hand, the PCs aren't anything exceptional or unusual in your game world (everybody has character levels), then you've already altered the game expectations considerably, and you probably have (or should have) already thought out reasons why the PCs are even needed (maybe they ARE the guards). In that case, most monsters will need to be a lot more cautious, because, from past experience, everybody they meet is an actual threat to them. This assumption seems to alter the fabric of the game world well away from 4E assumptions (though it is fine, and fun to run), so I think I'll let it pass without further comment as it is definitely a special case. [/QUOTE]
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