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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Halivar" data-source="post: 6813547" data-attributes="member: 9327">One time ten to twelve years ago, I pulled Tucker's Kobolds on my players. They were level 8, the kobolds were CR 1/4 or 1/8 or whatever they were in the MM. Everything was by the rules: trap DC's, etc. Everything was in line with (or even below) acceptable parameters for the party's level. I fudged no rolls, and I was ruthlessly canny with the kobold's tactics. It wasn't a TPK, but it was heading in that direction when one of my players gave me a novel suggestion for what I could do with my campaign and what dark holes I could shove it in. The game (and the campaign) ended early, no one had any fun, nothing but frustration, and to this day one of my friends will not play in a fantasy game I run.So no, I don't play my monsters as smart as they could be; I play them as smart as they need to be to challenge the players to overcome them. I fudge inasmuch as the encounter is difficult but not depressingly frustrating. My players' characters will always face death, but never on terms such that they are helpless in the face of it. That's more important to me (and, clearly, to my players; though they would never couch it as such, and may not even be aware of their own preference; rather, it is clear from their greater enjoyment) than respecting someone's wish for how I may or may not be running the game behind the screen.</blockquote>