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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lord Zardoz" data-source="post: 3049600" data-attributes="member: 704">In and of its self, I do not think that it is inherently wrong to run monsters who are both capable of killing the PC's and make every reasonable effort to do so.  There are however, limits to this.- The players should have a reasonable chance of winning.Your players must have a shot at winning the fight.  Its ok if the players are a little out gunned, but do not over do it.  This means that you should avoid doing fun things like throwing 1st level characters against Acerak the Eternal.  Do not throw 1st level characters against a monster whose minimum damage will drop the highest HP player in 1 hit.- The players should have the means to cut and run if they figure out they are losingIf your players get into the fight against the villian, and 3 rounds in they have lost their primary melee guy, and have only hit him once, they may want to flee.  Now, if the players are in a sealed room, the DM screwed up.  But if the players have the option of fleeing at any time, its not such a problem.  - The players should have some advance warning that your out for bloodNow, there is no in game way to handle this.  You actually have to tell the players at some point "This villian is out for blood.  If I can score a TPK here, I will".  If you run every fight this way, no biggie.  But if the players are used to fights that they can breeze through, they deserve more warning of the increased lethality than 3 of 4 characters being dropped in one round.- The Villian should not be over customized against the players without reasonEmphasis on the 'without reason'.  If you have a villian nail exactly the right targets with exactly the best attack to drop them in the first encounter, you screwed up.  As an example, consider a party of Orcs showing up to fight the players.  If they all mob the mage in the first round to prevent death by fireball, and give the combat reflexes character a wide berth and pepper him with arrows long before he gets cleaved reach attacks off, that is unfair.  But if this is a 2nd encounter against orcs where a bunch of Orcs got away alive early on, you have an in game reason for the orcs to know who is dangerous.- The situation must be justified in gameIf your going to be out for blood, dont just do it on a whim.  You should not throw the players up against a trained assassin in the middle of an adventure that the Asssassin is not a part of.  If your going out for blood, the story should call for it.  A near TPK should be a climactic event.There are only two points at which you should put the PC's in mortal jeopardy.Against a signifigant villian or other threat in the context of the storyAny situation in which the players bring it on themselves and they should know better (Waking up a sleeping dragon).END COMMUNICATION</blockquote>

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