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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Crazy Jerome" data-source="post: 5749331" data-attributes="member: 54877">I nearly always run some form of sandbox, where there are definitely encounters that are cakewalks and killers, and 4E is no exception.  Accurately scaling DCs to the party power in no way encourages or presents this compared to other options.  (The parts of 4E that encourage this bad impression are:  1. Some advice in the DMG that is good advice but poorly written.  2. Internet rumors that are not backed by the text.) Knowing the challenge levels simply means that if the DM does decide to use a cakewalk or killer challenge, he can't pretend that it was an accident.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /> As far as the players picking up on what their characters are getting into, I think there are limits on what you can do with mechanics.  At some point, no matter what else you do, the players have got to decide to go after X or run from it or try to work around it somehow.  (And gee, haven't we had that discussion about eleventy different ways lately? <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" />)   So I prefer to give the players plenty of information (overkill, really), in character, and it is up to them to decide when something appears too threatening to risk.  If that means that they occasionally run from a cakewalk, hey, sometimes the threat is more fun than the execution. Mechanically, a better help than providing such information directly is a system that lets the characters have a decent shot at running when they get in over their heads, and/or limited resources (killer spells, action points, etc.) to save until needed but burn when desperate.  Of course, that requires players willing to save some such resources until such need, and a DM willing to not push them to the max every time.  Works for us.   I really do think that maximum overall tension in a roleplaying campaign is best achieved by the DM pulling back on the throttle a bit on challenge, but then not backing away from whatever challenges the players choose to go after.  You'll have dull minutes at times, but those aren't an unwelcome break from the stark terror at others. <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devil.png"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":devil:" title="Devil    :devil:" data-shortname=":devil:" /></blockquote>

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