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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Swarmkeeper" data-source="post: 7555922" data-attributes="member: 6921763">Throwing an easy encounter at the players can keep them guessing or make them think before just going full-on murder hobo.  Maybe they just incinerate the 12 goblins with a fireball, but now they won't get that map to the secret goodies which, while not necessary to the plot, would have been a nicer reward than just a smallish amount of XP.  Oh, and I'll hint at it, too, as they inevitably loot the bodies:  "You find a map entitled Grate Gobln King Trezzur Mapp with its middle burnt out."Also, just leveling up the difficulty of combats because the PCs leveled up seems a tad artificial to me (in the context of fantasy roleplaying, of course).  Sometimes the PCs find an encounter easy, sometimes they are well matched, sometimes they need to walk away, sometimes they need to run.  It adds a bit of sandbox feel to an adventure which otherwise might be quite linear.Lastly, we will sometimes just narrate an easy encounter.  For example, last night we had a situation where the party of 7 PCs (all between level 7 and 11) entered a room with 12 prisoners and two CR 1 guards.  The guards, upon noticing the PCs enter the room, just needed to get from one side of the room to the door on the other side in order to warn their allies in the next chamber.  However, every single PC rolled higher initiative than the two guards.  I just asked each player around the table what they were going to do.  The swashbuckler charged in with his scimitar and the cleric used flame strike.  Most of the others just went to help out the captives while the vengeance paladin stomped toward the door to the next chamber to stop an unlawful summoning ceremony at the behest of one of the prisoners.</blockquote>

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