Do your PCs ever completely outclass the enemy?

[shilsen]

I was posting on a thread in the Rules Forum where there was a small tangent on the subject of PCs getting into fights where they are substantially superior to the opposition. I've always figured that the PCs should have a few such fights at rare intervals. Not only does it underline the status quo nature of my game (it's not as if the NPCs level up just because PCs do), but it also lets the PCs strut their stuff and really get a sense of how far they are ahead of the hoi polloi.

For example, as I posted in the other thread, one of the most enjoyable fights for the then 7th lvl PCs in one of my Eberron games was when they interrupted a mugging by four 2nd lvl muggers, who then made the mistake of attacking the PCs. A couple of the PCs politely got out of the way (barely bothering to defend themselves as they did so) so that the others could get to the muggers, and spent the time the fight took (maybe 3 rds, only because they were intentionally prolonging it) rolling smokes and making bets on how soon each mugger would go down, how soon they'd run, how far they'd get, etc. It was a hoot!

Do you do the same, or do your PCs never have such encounters?

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

Every time I run an evil campaign, and I don't do it often, my players unfailingly go through the "oh my god we're stronger than this whole town" phase, where they kill a whole town full of people. They only do it once per campaign, and then the novelty wears off and they get back to business. But they do it every time, as soon as they find themselves in an area in which the highest-level local NPC has a lower level than the party average, and become aware of that fact.

Of course, someone always comes looking for them afterward. Usually a party of heroes. And those heroes find out what the important thing is that the evil party is trying to accomplish, and try to mess it up...which wouldn't have happened if they had kept a low profile.

 

[ForceUser]

Do you do the same, or do your PCs never have such encounters?

Not often enough. I generally DM once per month, and I'm always striving to challenge the PCs--you know, give them the most bang for their buck since we play so infrequently. It's easy to forget that players get great pleasure just owning up on bad guys once in a while.

 

[SgtHulka]

Every single fight. Otherwise roughly half the time it would be a TPK. The nature of the EL system forbids a fair fight.

Think of it this way -- a 4-member group of level 4 Characters is an EL 8 encounter. Yet the highest recommended ecounter for them is EL 7, and that's for the ultra-bad boss monster. So by definition the PC's are always fighting "down".

 

[Erratic K]

I always try to give the players a couple "show off" encounters during an adventure.

An encounter that they can really show off their powers and ace.

They like it. It also makes up for the occaisional fight that goes bad (rolling or tactics or whatever).

-E

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

We don't have these that often. It's kind of annoying.

Now, in our (dear, departed, mourned) epic game, we were supposed to have those every once in a while, where one of the 30th-level PCs would go ape on some CR 10 or so opponents. Sadly, I didn't get my turn before the game died.

Brad

 

[arwink]

Usually once every three or four levels, usually against opponents that used to give them a hell of a lot of trouble. One of my players still fondly remembers the 18th level group decimating a force of 20 ogres, 4 manticores and a pair of wyvverns that were threating a town. All three had given them a hell of a lot of problems back at 5th to 8th level or so, and suddenly they could clean up a small horde of them inside of three rounds. Apparently it was the first time he could truly put a high-level PC into context.

 

[ThirdWizard]

As the PCs climb in levels its happens more and more often. It happens at least once per session, often times more than that. Sometimes we gloss over it, sometimes we play it out. Last session, the PCs were infiltrating a temple at level 9. Most of the guards were War2s with some special Fighter4s. The BBEG was a Minotaur Fighter7 with an intelligent nine lives stealer, though, so it goes both ways. The PCs learn to watch out, one encounter might be a cakewalk and the next a death trap. Ah, the life of the adventurer.

 

[Dog Moon]

Not usually. In my campaigns, the battles are generally made to be challenging, which everyone enjoys, so it's all good. Rarely does it ever seem that the fight is going against them, but it's not easy. Pretty much the only times when they do slaughter the opposition is when one of the players minmaxes greatly and he's able to kill most of the enemies.

 

[Crothian]

Yes, I like to have it happen occasionally to show that th power the PCs get actually means something.