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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Imaculata" data-source="post: 7540500" data-attributes="member: 6801286">I have never had a TPK in any of my campaigns, surprisingly. No matter how hard I try. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />You say that, but then in the very next sentence you say that you may make a hit a crit, or tell them they've failed a save when it wasn't so. How is that not changing their rolls?My players would get rightfully upset at me if I told them that they failed a save, when they didn't. The point of setting challenges, is that the players can attempt to overcome them. When I ask my players to make a jump, I have a difficulty in mind. I don't tell my players that one of them failed their jump, just for the sake of suspense. If they made it, then they made it.But that is what the game is about. A lot of the suspense comes from the chance for failure and success. While the DM is in his rights to change things, I don't think you are being 'a slave to fate' for following the rules of the game as they are laid out. Plus, a DM who understands how to balance his encounters does not need to change the outcome of die rolls, ever.And I would advise completely against this. There is only one thing you need to worry about as a DM: Is everyone having fun?Sometimes the players outsmart their DM, and they often feel proud for doing so. Just allow them to have this moment. Yes, this can make a big boss fight over in a heartbeat, and it may feel anti-climactic (to you). It may not be at all what you intended, but as long as the players had fun, the outcome is probably a lot more memorable than some prolonged battle. In the end a big bad is merely another disposable story element that is on borrowed time. As soon as you introduce a villain, realize that he is on borrowed time, and be prepared to let him die (even if it isn't in the climactic way you intended). D&D (the game) isn't a movie (that is to say, not when you're playing it). You can try to have cinematic moments, but in the end the game also has a lot of unpredictability. Embrace the joy of not knowing what may happen next. You may have planned one thing, when your players do something totally unexpected that drastically changes the fight... and that is okay. Embrace the chaos!For example: I did not expect that my players would use the powers of a giant lens to banish the menacing ghostship from the big pirate battle I had laid out in front of them. This drastically shifted the odds in their favor, but I embraced it, and loved it. Players can be amazingly inventive, if you let them. <-- very important</blockquote>

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