Epic Challenges

[glass]

One thing that I did learn, is that it's ridiculous to hit your players with random encounters of their levels when travelling from town A to town B. The ecology of the world simply isn't that dangerous, or the whole plane would be full of epic characters/creatures. Instead, travel happens much faster, as I tell the players "on your way there, you meet a band of ogres and a few hellhounds. They learn at their expense that they simply are no match for your suprahuman abilities." without actually rolling the fights.

AFAIAC, a random encounter for an epic party is 'you get word of a rampaging whatever, somewhere on the continent'.

Really, they are that mobile, they can be wherever they need to be in a couple of rounds. They are not likely to be encounter anything between towns A & B, unless the encounter is with some astral creature or phenomenon that disrupts teleports.


glass.

 

[moritheil]

That's not a secret, it's an opinion.

If I am DMing, I like to make (sparing) use of random encounters, because IMO they have a couple of advantages:

• They help keep things interesting for the DM. D&D is a game, after all, even for the DM.
• They reduce the predictability that can come when the players know their DM well.
• They make it more difficult for players to metagame to figure out the significance of an encounter or the power of an opponent.

IOW, they keep the players guessing, because they can result in encounters that they know you'd never plan as DM.


glass.

Ironically enough, my party tends to fear encounters that I plan or that I am partial to, more than anything that a random roller spits out.

 

[styker]

But random encounter can happen even to epic partys, fo example, in the abyss where they want to go... they never was there so they don know the places to use a teleport, then letś walk...