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Discuss: Combat as War in D&D
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<blockquote data-quote="Oofta" data-source="post: 8262982" data-attributes="member: 6801845"><p>I think this varies a lot by DM and campaign, but I think it is kind of baked into a lot of D&D that the PCs are supposed to "win" most of the time. Even if that means running the monsters stupid. It's so rare that monsters are effective that we have the <a href="https://media.wizards.com/2014/downloads/dnd/TuckersKobolds.pdf" target="_blank">Tucker's Kobolds</a> story for when they are not.</p><p></p><p>For example in another thread, there was a bit of discussion of how quickly a dragon would die to a few dozen archers because the assumption was that the dragon would attack in broad daylight. Why? Because dragons are there to be killed, of course. Now, a young dragon may be stupid enough to do this but an adult or ancient dragon? Never. They'd wait for a dark night, preferably with rain for cover or at the very least a moonless night. Then, when no one can see it coming until it's too late they'd strafe and fly off into the darkness until their breath weapon regenerated</p><p></p><p>With 60 ft blindsight and darkvision 120 ft there are so many options, none of which involve coming into melee range. Start a forest fire to cover the target sight in smoke. Fly high overhead and drop a few boulders just for fun. If a particular individual/hero is being annoying enough don't land and fight, just use your 15 ft bite range attack to grab the offending individual and deal with them alone if you don't just drop them from a thousand feet up. </p><p></p><p>Battle starting to turn against you? Fly away or use that "get out of jail free" card that you bribed/intimidated/tricked a wizard to get a couple centuries ago. You don't get to be an adult or ancient dragon by fighting to the death unless you absolutely have to do so.</p><p></p><p>So while I do this sometimes, the question will always be <em>is it fun.</em> Sometimes the PCs will face overwhelming odds in my games and charging in headlong is a good way to start up a new campaign with a different set of characters. Other times I want better balanced encounters because I want the PCs to feel like heroes.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Oofta, post: 8262982, member: 6801845"] I think this varies a lot by DM and campaign, but I think it is kind of baked into a lot of D&D that the PCs are supposed to "win" most of the time. Even if that means running the monsters stupid. It's so rare that monsters are effective that we have the [URL='https://media.wizards.com/2014/downloads/dnd/TuckersKobolds.pdf']Tucker's Kobolds[/URL] story for when they are not. For example in another thread, there was a bit of discussion of how quickly a dragon would die to a few dozen archers because the assumption was that the dragon would attack in broad daylight. Why? Because dragons are there to be killed, of course. Now, a young dragon may be stupid enough to do this but an adult or ancient dragon? Never. They'd wait for a dark night, preferably with rain for cover or at the very least a moonless night. Then, when no one can see it coming until it's too late they'd strafe and fly off into the darkness until their breath weapon regenerated With 60 ft blindsight and darkvision 120 ft there are so many options, none of which involve coming into melee range. Start a forest fire to cover the target sight in smoke. Fly high overhead and drop a few boulders just for fun. If a particular individual/hero is being annoying enough don't land and fight, just use your 15 ft bite range attack to grab the offending individual and deal with them alone if you don't just drop them from a thousand feet up. Battle starting to turn against you? Fly away or use that "get out of jail free" card that you bribed/intimidated/tricked a wizard to get a couple centuries ago. You don't get to be an adult or ancient dragon by fighting to the death unless you absolutely have to do so. So while I do this sometimes, the question will always be [I]is it fun.[/I] Sometimes the PCs will face overwhelming odds in my games and charging in headlong is a good way to start up a new campaign with a different set of characters. Other times I want better balanced encounters because I want the PCs to feel like heroes. [/QUOTE]
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