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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Rechan" data-source="post: 4634929" data-attributes="member: 54846">Many moons ago, a poster on EnWorld made a great suggestion: that you should reward a player's character choices by putting them in a situation where they excel. For instance, as a DM, let the monster marked by the fighter or paladin attack someone else, so the fighter gets an extra attack/paladin does damage, so they get to showboat their powers. The specific example was, "I have a tiefling in my party. I love throwing fire users at her, because that fire resistance makes her shine." I liked this idea. However, recently, I was wondering how much of an impact this would have in an encounter (and an adventure) if you did this. How often should you use monsters your players have better defense or offense against, and how often should those monsters attack the PC with the defense? The initial thought occurred to me after I was setting up my campaign. In it, main area of the whole campaign is a jungle. Many, many monsters use poison. An Amulet of Poison would make a great item to drop into a treasure, but then, how often should I throw poison-using monsters at the PCs, and how often should those poison-users attack the amulet barer? The same could be said for various items that harm monsters that grapple the user, etc. I, the DM, know that monster is going to be selecting a sub-par choice even before it makes the attack. So should I exercise it often? And, once the monster would realize "Hey, this is a bad idea", they would shift their attacks to someone who is not as well defended against their attacks. Is that good, because the PC's item is making the monster avoid them now, or bad, because the PC isn't getting to exercise that item (like the Tiefling with the fire resistance who can't get the fire users to shoot at him).After all. As a DM, I want the PCs to enjoy their loot/abilities. On the other hand, I don't want to put duct tape and foam on the enemies and hold the proverbial punches. I want each battle to be rough and tumble and be a bit dangerous.</blockquote>

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