D&D 5E Is Familiarity worked into CR?

[JacktheRabbit]

Simple question really

Do we assume a certain level of familiarity from players and assume that when determining the level of challenge a party faces.

Here is an example. My 4th level party will be facing what they think is the big baddie tonight. After they kill him, TWICE, they will encounter the baddie that was pulling the big baddies strings.

The string puller is not any tougher than the party can handle but as one example the party sorcerer has already demonstrated openly that he throws around lots of magic missile spells. The string puller is going to have shield spell ready to offset this danger. Here is the twist, the string puller is a student of the far beyond and all of his spell are twisted. When he casts shield it will appear to everyone that he quickly ripped open a hole in reality that swallowed up the magic missiles instead of him being hit.

Everything else about the spell will be the same, it will have the exact same technical aspects but will visually look completely different and thus remove the familiarity of the spell and make the players completely unsure how tough this foe is.

Do you think it would be a harder encounter because of this and the party should gain extra XP if they win? I plan on doing this with every one of his spells, they will all be twisted in some manner and visually look different.

Opinions?

 

[Satyrn]

Simple question really

Do we assume a certain level of familiarity from players and assume that when determining the level of challenge a party faces.

Here is an example. My 4th level party will be facing what they think is the big baddie tonight. After they kill him, TWICE, they will encounter the baddie that was pulling the big baddies strings.

The string puller is not any tougher than the party can handle but as one example the party sorcerer has already demonstrated openly that he throws around lots of magic missile spells. The string puller is going to have shield spell ready to offset this danger. Here is the twist, the string puller is a student of the far beyond and all of his spell are twisted. When he casts shield it will appear to everyone that he quickly ripped open a hole in reality that swallowed up the magic missiles instead of him being hit.

Everything else about the spell will be the same, it will have the exact same technical aspects but will visually look completely different and thus remove the familiarity of the spell and make the players completely unsure how tough this foe is.

Do you think it would be a harder encounter because of this and the party should gain extra XP if they win? I plan on doing this with every one of his spells, they will all be twisted in some manner and visually look different.

Opinions?

I'd say worry about the XP after the fight. When you find out how much an impact these visual changes had you, then you can decide if it was worth a bonus.

You might think this feels a bit like cheating, though. But consider it also as a learning experience. The next time you do this sort of thing you can decide in advance based on how you decided this time.

 

[iserith]

In my games, the players regularly rename their spells to fit their character concept. Usually to hilarious effect. I do as well, sometimes. It doesn't appear to have any impact on difficulty.

In order to avoid any perception of what you're doing as a "gotcha" though, you might want to foreshadow the nature of the villain's magic in a way that gives the players a heads up on what they might see later. It seems like you have a Big Reveal planned, so you may have to be pretty subtle, but I'm sure you can figure out a way. Some sagely NPC discussing the matter or an ancient tome that references "The Far Beyond" or whatever will often do in a pinch, even if it doesn't seem relevant in the scene in which this information is introduced.

 

[JacktheRabbit]

In my games, the players regularly rename their spells to fit their character concept. Usually to hilarious effect. I do as well, sometimes. It doesn't appear to have any impact on difficulty.

In order to avoid any perception of what you're doing as a "gotcha" though, you might want to foreshadow the nature of the villain's magic in a way that gives the players a heads up on what they might see later. It seems like you have a Big Reveal planned, so you may have to be pretty subtle, but I'm sure you can figure out a way. Some sagely NPC discussing the matter or an ancient tome that references "The Far Beyond" or whatever will often do in a pinch, even if it doesn't seem relevant in the scene in which this information is introduced.

On the other hand a brand new player that has not read and memorized the PHB may not know that Shield block magic missile and would have the same "ah ha" moment. So why should someone that has memorized the PHB be allowed to complain if you switch up the flavor text to hide the spell in question.

 

[Barolo]

Even though CR and XP are paired in 5e, I feel like they shouldn't. See, CR is just a gross estimation of the amount of direct punishment a monster can dish out and withstand. It does not take into account any special non-damaging abilities, tactics, special movement or anything. CR is useful to roughly gouge whether a monster could quickly kill a PC of a given level assuming a simple straight clash of forces, that's all.

 

[iserith]

On the other hand a brand new player that has not read and memorized the PHB may not know that Shield block magic missile and would have the same "ah ha" moment. So why should someone that has memorized the PHB be allowed to complain if you switch up the flavor text to hide the spell in question.

I'm not in the business of allowing or disallowing others to complain since I can't control other people. I do know that sometimes players can perceive things like this as a "gotcha" and object accordingly, so I take proactive steps like the ones I mentioned to try and avoid that. A side benefit is that when you foreshadow, it tends to make the setting and emergent story a little richer. There's basically no downside and neatly avoids common problems at the table.

 

[KahlessNestor]

If it has no effect on the difficulty of the encounter -- and it sounds like it's just retrapping the spells, to use Savage Worlds terms -- then I wouldn't give any extra XP.

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