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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Imaculata" data-source="post: 7540170" data-attributes="member: 6801286">I disagree in regards to the idea that a boss fight can't be climactic unless the DM forces his hand to make the fight tough(er). Quite often the fights against big bads that are easy, are the most memorable. Even last evening, as me and my friends sat down for an early xmas dinner together, one of the players recalled casting that Feeblemind and reducing the big bad to a magic-less idiot, and using a cannon to blow another big bad apart. It seems players also remember the times that they outsmarted their DM, and not just the really tough as nails fights.I don't hold any punches when it comes to my players. But because I also don't fudge hitpoints and saves for my bad guys, I don't have to worry about hitting them with a crit every now and then. It balances out, as long as you know the strength of the group, and are able to balance your encounters. And because my players know that I don't protect them against the randomness of the dice, that means they are a little bit more cautious, and there is more suspense when they are about to die. They know that no DM-hand is going to shield them from death, and that raises the stakes.I get that, but sometimes they also need to suffer. Death and misfortunate are as much a part of the game as victory and fortune are. If you take away the chance for them to fail miserably, you remove a little bit of their feeling of victory too I feel. A few sessions ago an unlucky crit of one of my crocodile soldiers nearly killed one of their favourite cohorts (he was down to like 2 or 3 hitpoints). I would not have shielded him if he had died, and so my players panicked, and then later made a sigh of relief when the fight was over. Thats what you get in return for being merciless to your players, some real suspense when things go bad for them.So a TPK can't happen in your campaign? Then where is the suspense?My players are going to be fighting a dragon sometime soon (for the first time in the campaign), and they know that when they do, I will absolutely try to murder all of their characters. It will be a mean, hard, bad-@ss fight with no punches being helt. They could very well die, and they are scared of that fight, as they should be... and yet also excited. How many times do you get to fight an actual dragon in Dungeons & Dragons? Well... that depends on the campaign I guess... but I try to make these sort of encounters memorable, and truly terrifying. Facing off against the game's namesake should be nothing to sneeze at. If the players had any feeling that a TPK was not a possibility, because the DM doesn't want them to die, that would undermine a lot of the suspense. But because they know I don't shield them at this point (they are high level), you can bet they will be preparing very carefully for this fight.</blockquote>

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