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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lord Twig" data-source="post: 6859600" data-attributes="member: 31754">You do realized that the characters in D&D are supposed to win, right? The DM is not the opponent. They are a storyteller. The characters are the protagonists. The dragon/demon/giant underestimates the heroes because they have already slaughtered hundreds (if not thousands) of non-heroes.In the adventure Hoard of the Dragon Queen, the adventure starts right out with a situation where the characters will get no long rest basically until they are level 2 (or even 3). Unless of course they decide to hide in the bushes all night, which is an option that is recognized in the book, but that doesn't sound very fun to me. But I guess that's what "optimized" characters would do?I'll admit that there are definitely some optimized builds, but usually when I hear about an "optimized" group blowing through challenges, it is because the party is optimized towards the DM's play style. Essentially the DM has trouble with "optimized" characters because he has agreed with the players that the party's tactics "are the best" and then just always allows those tactics to work. The DM doesn't change things up, or introduce situations where those tactics don't work.A good exercise is to use the same tactics against the party. The characters must make some enemies along the way, even if they don't know who those enemies are. Have the enemy send a strike force to take them out. You can even copy their characters, a Lord Bard, a Wizard to counter spell casters, a Ranged Sharpshooter, etc. The see what the party does. Then have your own NPCs do the same thing when the party goes back to their same old tactics.But yeah, if you like white room, open field encounters, then don't use melee only monsters. What would an 18 Int Marilith be doing alone, out in the open, and only with melee weapons? That would be dumb, wouldn't it? I can guarantee that if my players saw that they would suspect a trap. And they would be right.</blockquote>

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