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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Belphanior" data-source="post: 4734321" data-attributes="member: 12401">I began with 2e, and even I've done that twice now. Of course, the DM in question sent a group at us with an xp budget five times what was supposed to be used. Both times. And I do mean "sent at us", it's not like we willingly sought out a nest of black dragons at level 2... <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f631.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":eek:" title="Eek!    :eek:"  data-smilie="9"data-shortname=":eek:" />As a result, both encounters were played as if we were facing drooling morons without any tactical talent or half their powers. Not very satisfying at all. With a DM pulling his punches like that you just don't feel like you've just slain a dragon, just a big pile of hit points.Anyway, point here is the xp budget can fulfill a very useful role in constructing encounters. Players second-guessing the DM all the time can be jarring, but the flipside of that coin is that some encounters are so obviously out of whack that a player can't help but wonder just how screwed up this fight is.</blockquote>