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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Skyscraper" data-source="post: 5622748" data-attributes="member: 48518">@ Quickleaf: good stuff there. The entire cliche thing is besides the point in this dicussion, really. The scene you describe does seem cliche, but your narration makes it look cool nonetheless.I find it too bad that such a great RP moment would raise eyebrows from your players with regards to their incapacity at healing the NPC from a purely mechanical standpoint. This is a moment where they should dive into the scene IMHO.And by the way: are they aware that NPCs don't necessarily have healing surges in 4E?Also, doesn't it strike you as odd that you arbitrarily ruling that the Lord has been attacked and badly injured by the enemy is fine (you're not rolling each and every battle between NPCs that occurs in your game world, are you?) but you not rolling for his death saving throws is frowned upon? Why is that? Once the PCs enter a room, the rules for NPCs should change? But as soon as they go out for a breather, he can die without questions being asked?This topic is related to the entire player vs DM approach that I fnd really weird. Some players claim that the DM is "fair" or "unfair" during a battle, apparently forgetting that he's the one that decides on the encounter design at the outset. DMs arbitrarily design and decide a whole lot of things that will influence the game in a tremenoudous manner, but when he decides that a dying NPC can't be healed or that he's failed his saving throws: oh no, that's totally unacceptable! Heh. That's somewhat beyond me.I think this comes from the fact that the game provides the illusion that DM and players can interact in an "objective" environment defined in part by the combat rules. But really, that's an illusion. The DM decides on too much stuff for it to mean much. It means something, but I'm not looking to base my game on an alleged objective environment. I'm looking to cooperate with the players to reach a point where we can create something together.And of course, I try to be fair within the confines of the battle rules - that's not the point I'm tryint to make here. The "objective" battle environment is fun to interact with, as long as it doesn't rule over the storytelling.</blockquote>

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