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In Praise of Dice
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<blockquote data-quote="Imaculata" data-source="post: 8173356" data-attributes="member: 6801286"><p>My feelings on fudging:</p><p></p><p>I've been running the same 3.5 campaign for over 7 years (!) and I have not had any player character deaths yet. Not for lack of trying. And as some of you may know, 3rd edition is generally considered more deadly than 5e. It has lots of save or die effects and monsters can hit hard.</p><p></p><p>During those 7 years only one or two situations have come up where I had a monster switch targets to not outright kill a pc. They were first level at the time, so I went easy on them. No fudging though. If I don't want a monster to kill a pc, he does not have to attack him. But as soon as I grab those dice I am commiting myself to the outcome.</p><p></p><p>And at high levels I DO try to kill them. The challenge rating will always be suitable to the strength of their party, but I don't go easy on them. If say, they encounter a dragon, it will try to kill them. And if they flee back to their ship, that dragon burns the ship. Flee back to town? The dragon burns the whole town down to the ground!</p><p></p><p>Sometimes I may rule that a monster dies without rolling any dice. That guard that was just pushed off the bridge into the lava pit? I think it's fair to have him die a cinematic death, without the dice telling me he still has 3 hp left after that fall. I don't roll. Those last few hp will not get in the way of a cool cinematic moment and I don't want my combat to drag on forever.</p><p></p><p>But if I decide that the dice should determine the outcome, I should then also accept the outcome. That monster does not need to attack, and those scripted reinforcements can be adjusted, or erased entirely before they appear. There are plenty of tools at my disposal to adjust the difficulty without the need to ignore or change the outcome of a roll.</p><p></p><p>I've also learned to trust my players to save themselves. They have plenty of special abilities to force a reroll, deflect or half damage, or cancel a deadly outcome. I can't track all their hp and remaining abilities, but I know they have plenty of both. Even in a game like 3e, it takes quite a lot to actually kill a high level character. More so in 5e.</p><p></p><p>Those few moments where they do clutch it out, are genuinly suspenseful moments. When last week that Fire Giant rolled a crit on his Smite Good, they were terrified, but they managed just fine in the end. You've got to have a little faith in the game. Besides, if in al those 7 years not a single character ever drops to 0 hp, then I'm not challenging them enough. Plus, it's not like 0 hp is instant character death.</p><p></p><p>And note that by core 3e CR rules, my encounters are considered pretty deadly. My players are level 18, but I throw a horde of CR 18 monsters at them, with a CR 20 boss. And yet they do just fine. No need to change the outcome of any roll.</p><p></p><p>So to those who fudge in 5e, what are you so worried about?</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Imaculata, post: 8173356, member: 6801286"] My feelings on fudging: I've been running the same 3.5 campaign for over 7 years (!) and I have not had any player character deaths yet. Not for lack of trying. And as some of you may know, 3rd edition is generally considered more deadly than 5e. It has lots of save or die effects and monsters can hit hard. During those 7 years only one or two situations have come up where I had a monster switch targets to not outright kill a pc. They were first level at the time, so I went easy on them. No fudging though. If I don't want a monster to kill a pc, he does not have to attack him. But as soon as I grab those dice I am commiting myself to the outcome. And at high levels I DO try to kill them. The challenge rating will always be suitable to the strength of their party, but I don't go easy on them. If say, they encounter a dragon, it will try to kill them. And if they flee back to their ship, that dragon burns the ship. Flee back to town? The dragon burns the whole town down to the ground! Sometimes I may rule that a monster dies without rolling any dice. That guard that was just pushed off the bridge into the lava pit? I think it's fair to have him die a cinematic death, without the dice telling me he still has 3 hp left after that fall. I don't roll. Those last few hp will not get in the way of a cool cinematic moment and I don't want my combat to drag on forever. But if I decide that the dice should determine the outcome, I should then also accept the outcome. That monster does not need to attack, and those scripted reinforcements can be adjusted, or erased entirely before they appear. There are plenty of tools at my disposal to adjust the difficulty without the need to ignore or change the outcome of a roll. I've also learned to trust my players to save themselves. They have plenty of special abilities to force a reroll, deflect or half damage, or cancel a deadly outcome. I can't track all their hp and remaining abilities, but I know they have plenty of both. Even in a game like 3e, it takes quite a lot to actually kill a high level character. More so in 5e. Those few moments where they do clutch it out, are genuinly suspenseful moments. When last week that Fire Giant rolled a crit on his Smite Good, they were terrified, but they managed just fine in the end. You've got to have a little faith in the game. Besides, if in al those 7 years not a single character ever drops to 0 hp, then I'm not challenging them enough. Plus, it's not like 0 hp is instant character death. And note that by core 3e CR rules, my encounters are considered pretty deadly. My players are level 18, but I throw a horde of CR 18 monsters at them, with a CR 20 boss. And yet they do just fine. No need to change the outcome of any roll. So to those who fudge in 5e, what are you so worried about? [/QUOTE]
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