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Message: <blockquote data-quote="shilsen" data-source="post: 3947735" data-attributes="member: 198">Why is that? Is cocky for some reason an inferior character trait? Some PCs are cocky, just like some people are. Perhaps. Depends on the character and the situation. In this case, what happened? Did the NPC take him down? If so, he learned not to be cocky. Did he beat up the NPC easily? In that case his cockiness was completely justified. The only way they can assume that every challenge thrown at them is reasonable is if the DM doesn't know how to use CR. The DMG even says that for a 4-person party 15% of encounters should be an EL 1-4 higher than the party, and 5% should be EL 5+ higher than the party. That means 1 in 20 encounters should have a better than even chance of a TPK. If you use CR and EL exactly as written, your PCs should never assume every challenge thrown at them is a reasonable one.Sure there is. Just depends on the particular context. Have the enemy casually disarm the main fighter-type, or clearly focus on defense (Combat Expertise or fighting defensively) and still hit a PC with ease. Or cast a high-level spell that doesn't kill but seriously weakens the PCs, letting them know they're facing high level enemies. If there are NPC allies, obliterate one of them. There are lots of ways to show PCs they're in over their head without killing them.  See above. And if PCs can be cocky, why shouldn't NPCs be cocky too? If the enemy is that superior to them, he can toy with them and make it clear he's doing so. Or smash an NPC ally. Or knock a PC down into negatives with one blow.Two simple ways - one OOC and one IC. OOC (and I highly recommend this), talk to your players and tell them that they won't always face reasonable challenges. Some will be ludicrously easy, some will be just right, and some will be far too tough to survive. And back this up IC by having such encounters appear early in the campaign. Once the PCs have actually seen that you meant what you said, you won't have a problem. A big part of that, I think, is also making it clear that just because an NPC suggests something doesn't make it a good idea to follow. To go back to your original example, here's how an equivalent situation went down in my game. The paladin, who's quite cocky about his abilities, went wandering around in a rough part of Sharn (this is the Eberron game in my sig) without his armor. Since he was 6th lvl at the time, he was a lot more powerful than most people around too, and he knew it. So he got mugged by four thugs, half of them not wearing armor either, two of which were 2nd lvl and two were 1st lvl. They beat the crap out of him and he woke up naked in a sack, about to be sold into slavery, and had to be rescued by his friends. He's still a little cocky, but he doesn't go wandering off alone if he can help it, and he's 14th lvl now.In short, as people have said ad infinitum on this thread, if you're going to threaten a PC, threaten him. It's easy.</blockquote>

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