Healing Potions seem odd

[Saeviomagy]

But, it's the same thing as the security argument. Why would the bad guys leave this type of info just lying around if it tells people about them or their weaknesses?

I always found this to be a bit of a DM crutch.

The argument for this is: security is only as strong as it's weakest link. It's blatantly stupid, for example, to write a computer password on a sticky note and stick it to your computer screen - but that doesn't stop people from doing it constantly. For that matter look at some reports of industrial accidents sometime - life-and-death matters where people took stupid shortcuts, or just plain messed around. Is it really so hard to imagine the bad guys in D&D making mistakes?

 

[KarinsDad]

Is it really so hard to imagine the bad guys in D&D making mistakes?

I don't have a real problem with it once in a while, I just find it repetitive if it happens often.

1) Find secret compartment.
2) Read note.
3) zzzzzzzz

It's a cliche.

I prefer PCs acquiring information by earning it outside of clues left lying around after the bad guys are killed (e.g. eavesdropping or using magic or tricking the bad guys or setting up their own information network, etc.).

 

[KarinsDad]

I think the primary reason is that it makes it very difficult to write an adventure. Just because it's possible for your PCs to level up 20 times before the end of their first day of adventuring does not mean that they have, and the more possible levels the PCs can get, the bigger a spread of actual levels you'll have to cope with at a given point.

We were talking about one level in a single day, not 20.

I don't think it is that difficult to cope with considering that a party could level mid-day anyway (i.e. the DMG allows alternate times when leveling up can occur) and considering that the DM set up the difficulty of the encounters, so he should know when the PCs should level.

 

[FadedC]

But, it's the same thing as the security argument. Why would the bad guys leave this type of info just lying around if it tells people about them or their weaknesses?

I always found this to be a bit of a DM crutch.

Well there are a lot of ways the information could be found without it just lying around. If the grand doomsday device is vulnerable to fire, it's not at all unreasonable that a researcher or subboss you kill would have made or recieved some kind of note to keep it away from fire. They were presumably not expecting to be brutally slaughtered on their home turf by adventurers. There could even be notes taken by rival groups planning to destroy it.

Some clues give no strategic advantage but provide context for the adventure. Sometimes it's more interesting to know that your fighting the restless remains of the king and his mistress who were murdered by a jealous queen, rather then just a bunch of undead.

 

[Danceofmasks]

And sometimes, the clues are traps.
'cos magical fire is a sure fire way to set off ground zero?

 

[Stalker0]

I'm looking at a thread about healing potions, and the last half of this page has been about investigating and clue finding in adventures. I think we need to get this topic back on track.