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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mengu" data-source="post: 5351466" data-attributes="member: 65726">I think a better understanding of rules would help both sides of the table.The bard is not breaking the game per se. In part I believe the DM is at fault. Saying "yes" does not mean bending over backwards for the player. To give a couple examples based on the OP.Double 20 shouldn't slay anything important. You get two crits, you do some damage, you move along. If there is some house rule going on, then perhaps it's not the bard or the game that's at fault but the house rule.When the bard mimics sounds of a dragon to scare away some beetles, if the DM wanted to reward the creative thinking, the wise thing to do would be to either have a couple younger beetles hesitate (meaning they don't enter combat until the second round), or to have a younger beetle flee, making the encounter a bit easier. If there were a few minions, you could instead have the minions flee. But there is no reason to scratch out a whole encounter for one good idea. You can reward, without compromising the plan. If you were fine with the encounter being avoided entirely (maybe it's an easy encounter, insignificant to the plot, but there for flavor to display the PC's are in a dangerous place), then you could quickly make some adjustments to turn it into a skill challenge. Perhaps the dragon noise just makes the beetles halt, Then with a nature check someone could discover how to really scare them off, with an intimidate check someone could try to scare off a few. Then an athletics check could be made to pick up a large rock and toss it their way as a display of superiority. And maybe a stealth check followed by another intimidate check could be made to scare them from another direction giving them the impression they are outmatched, and they might go running.Either way, the PC's should get full XP for fighting the encounter if they went that route (regardless of if a youngling or a few minions fled at the beginning of the encounter), or they should get full XP for the skill challenge (assuming they succeed). If they fail the skill challenge and have to fight the beetles, you just reward them the XP for the fight.DM has the power to dictate the environment, and events in the game. PC's interact with that environment, and have the power to influence the events. As DM you can reward good thinking and creativity. But the extent of those rewards should not halt the game or prevent other people's fun.I think the topics of teleporting the target out of the belly, and invisibility have been pretty well covered by others.</blockquote>

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