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DMs, how do you fudge?
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<blockquote data-quote="OB1" data-source="post: 8594557" data-attributes="member: 6796241"><p>This!</p><p></p><p>For me, it goes back to Fate (DM control of the world, monsters and NPCs), Choice (Player control of their PCs) and Chance (dice control over uncertain outcomes). The whole point of rolling dice is to invite randomness into the game, to have chance decide the outcome instead of the player or DM.</p><p></p><p>So I won't adjust HP of monsters or give them a new ability mid combat either (since HP and CR is a sort of DC) but I will change tactics or have something unexpected happen in the event that I realize I screwed up my encounter. For example, I once created what I thought was a middle of the road encounter that the PCs could not escape from and after 1 round I realized it could only end in TPK of the party. I had the big bad (an evil cleric) call out to a dozen or so minions to lend him strength and prove their loyalty by throwing themselves into a lava pool (that was already established), thus rebalancing the encounter to the level I had intended. It worked thematically (was super evil/creepy) and was seamless to the players, who then blamed big bad's next big hit on what had happened. In my own head, the big bad expected to gain some advantage from it, but didn't, thus establishing a reason in fiction for the events.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="OB1, post: 8594557, member: 6796241"] This! For me, it goes back to Fate (DM control of the world, monsters and NPCs), Choice (Player control of their PCs) and Chance (dice control over uncertain outcomes). The whole point of rolling dice is to invite randomness into the game, to have chance decide the outcome instead of the player or DM. So I won't adjust HP of monsters or give them a new ability mid combat either (since HP and CR is a sort of DC) but I will change tactics or have something unexpected happen in the event that I realize I screwed up my encounter. For example, I once created what I thought was a middle of the road encounter that the PCs could not escape from and after 1 round I realized it could only end in TPK of the party. I had the big bad (an evil cleric) call out to a dozen or so minions to lend him strength and prove their loyalty by throwing themselves into a lava pool (that was already established), thus rebalancing the encounter to the level I had intended. It worked thematically (was super evil/creepy) and was seamless to the players, who then blamed big bad's next big hit on what had happened. In my own head, the big bad expected to gain some advantage from it, but didn't, thus establishing a reason in fiction for the events. [/QUOTE]
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