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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pming" data-source="post: 7957621" data-attributes="member: 45197">Hiya!Keep the murder-train running.Seriously. It has been my experience that catering/coddling/going-easy-on the PC's only leads to the Players having warped expectations of play and unbalanced ideas of "difficulty". Next time maybe they'll think more about the group as a whole in stead of focusing on just what they want to play, individually, and trying to force the DM to "fix it all for them so they don't die". That's NOT how a group-oriented game should be; they should be making characters as a GROUP. That said...: Henchmen and hirelings. They're a thing. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> Suggest to the Players that they should probably have their PC's hire some burly fighter types to help them with the heavy lifting and general physical protection. Yes, this means giving up part of the treasure and XP (wait...is the XP thing still, er, a "thing" in 5e?...officially?...it is in my game...but not sure if that's core 5e or not).Adding in NPC Henchmen/Hirelings adds a large dimension to the game. When used well, by a competent DM, it can really ground the PC's to the rest of the inhabitants of the world...and it can form emotional connections with the Players themselves. Using NPC's gives the opportunity for the DM (and Players) to think of more than just the immediate adventure at hand. They have to consider that Joraak Fellhammer, the dwarven Fighter they hired on has a family. Joraak has his own things to worry about...his own goals, his own priorities, and his own hang ups. What if Joraak is severely injured? Well, the actions of the PC's will be of prime consideration, to be sure! If they just drop Joraak off at home, battered and mangled, on the edge of death, with nothing more than a toss of a bag of gold and a "Here's his pay. Thanks!"...word WILL get around that the PC's care only about themselves. This could lead to future "difficulties" in securing outside help.Anyway, yeah. My suggestion is DON'T "cater to the PC's". Just don't. The world doesn't care what classes/races/spells/etc that the PC's are....and neither should you (the DM). Other than the most basic of basic info (re: "A group of 5, average level of 4th")...your concern should end there. Build/run encounters as you see them and they make sense in your world. If your Players don't have a PC of Race X, Class Y or that has Spell Z....tough noogies for them. In short...it's NOT your job, as DM, to 'fix the world/adventure' for them; you just present it. It's up to the Players to figure out how to succeed. That's the point of the game; DM presents obstacles...Players use their brains to overcome said obstacles. If you're already "pre-selecting" encounters for them to succeed at, then you are robbing them of the key point of playing the game in the first place.^_^Paul L. Ming</blockquote>

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