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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celtavian" data-source="post: 6847448" data-attributes="member: 5834">Why would you think this? The party went in at the same time with the tanks in front. You gave the bard the gem of seeing. Why wouldn't she use it if she noticed invisible targets in the gloom? Wouldn't the DM be metagaming if he changed to cloudkill based on one character being able to react? I don't see how five of six characters being surprised is prepared for the encounter. I would say they were rather unprepared.I feel as though I ran it as you would have run it. Had you told me in game that I saw invisible targets in the gloom, I would have used my gem of seeing moving into 60 foot range not only to counterspell, but also to cutting words. Maybe the slaad could have run at her, but they still would have needed a double move to close the distance giving the party time to set up. The way you set them up made it very easy to set up as I did. Now I do think with different players playing each character tactics would have been less optimal as we saw with Bold Italic doing what he wanted to do versus what I wanted to do. I could agree that multiple players making decisions would affect things. Had I been playing the bard, I would have done what I did. The entire reason I build for hit points and Con is to survive.I don't think how the encounter was DMed was suboptimal at all. I don't freak out over secret rolls. You would have had to tell the bard she saw the slaad. Would you have really considered 5 of 6 characters surprised a failure on your part? If the bard runs forward, you would metagame changing to cloudkill even though they have no idea the bard can counterspell? DMing online hurt play in the part you ran due to the inability to give us a clear map showing exactly where everyone was standing. It showed up very differently once I mapped it. There's no way you could have spaced the giants attacking the cleric and paladin while avoiding hypnotic pattern. Just like the placement of the slaad seemed good on paper. Once you see it mapped and in play, their placement is more advantageous to the players. The PCs can move 10 feet to be in counterspell range. The slaad are a double move away from melee combat. The PCs can do more damage than both the slaad together with the archer who can see the same distance once they're visible.But that doesn't help the monsters necessarily. This is an odd understanding of movement in D&D. For example, an iron golem that has melee in his way doesn't get to move past them. Same as giants don't get to move past a huge giant ape. Tight quartes allow for the PCs to seal the enemies from attacking the casters easier. We maneuver to seal off attack all the time, which is why the dodge action human crowd control works. It's made for tight quarters in dungeons and rooms. Wide open spaces with highly mobile creatures are much harder to defend against than tight quarters. Tight quarters allow the Pcs to funnel the monsters and NPCs to the targets they want.If you had set us up in a huge cave with little cover where we had to find a way to get to the giants while they bombard us with rocks, that would have been a pain in the behind.</blockquote>

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