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<blockquote data-quote="Retreater" data-source="post: 8726132" data-attributes="member: 42040">My issue is that you basically have to be &quot;on your game&quot; for 58% of the encounters and &quot;exceed expectations&quot; for 17% of the encounters (using the encounter math from the first volume of Extinction Curse). That's a full 75% of 49 encounters where there's a real chance of character death (if not TPKs) ... in the first volume of the second Adventure Path Paizo published. I don't know about your groups, but I think this level of engagement for 75% of all fights is a superhuman task. People forget synergies, make bad decisions (sometimes &quot;in character&quot;), aren't 100% focused because of exhaustion/work/family/etc., are new players unfamiliar with best practices, etc. The lack of wiggle room is perplexing. If you don't play perfectly, your party is likely going to die in 17% of the encounters. In the first volume of the Adventure Path, where it's expected new players are learning how to play with their new characters.&nbsp; If you're a game designer, do you know where you should put Severe encounters? You should put one in an area that is telegraphed in advance and easily avoided. Then you put one at the climactic encounter of the volume, again telegraphed way in advance with the party able to get important tactical information. So I'm saying the proper rate should be 4% (2 out of 49) Severe encounters in the first volume of an AP - and that's even higher than the rate they used with Trivial encounters (which was 1% in the adventure but should probably be 4% or higher).When you have so many encounters (many of them unimportant), why do you want such a high rate of Severe?</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Retreater, post: 8726132, member: 42040"] My issue is that you basically have to be "on your game" for 58% of the encounters and "exceed expectations" for 17% of the encounters (using the encounter math from the first volume of Extinction Curse). That's a full 75% of 49 encounters where there's a real chance of character death (if not TPKs) ... in the first volume of the second Adventure Path Paizo published. I don't know about your groups, but I think this level of engagement for 75% of all fights is a superhuman task. People forget synergies, make bad decisions (sometimes "in character"), aren't 100% focused because of exhaustion/work/family/etc., are new players unfamiliar with best practices, etc. The lack of wiggle room is perplexing. If you don't play perfectly, your party is likely going to die in 17% of the encounters. In the first volume of the Adventure Path, where it's expected new players are learning how to play with their new characters. If you're a game designer, do you know where you should put Severe encounters? You should put one in an area that is telegraphed in advance and easily avoided. Then you put one at the climactic encounter of the volume, again telegraphed way in advance with the party able to get important tactical information. So I'm saying the proper rate should be 4% (2 out of 49) Severe encounters in the first volume of an AP - and that's even higher than the rate they used with Trivial encounters (which was 1% in the adventure but should probably be 4% or higher). When you have so many encounters (many of them unimportant), why do you want such a high rate of Severe? [/QUOTE]

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