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<blockquote data-quote="Saeviomagy" data-source="post: 6578279" data-attributes="member: 5890"><p>Your example was weathertop as a trivial combat encounter. An encounter in which:</p><p>1. The party would have all died had noone made their knowledge check to find out that ringwraiths fear fire.</p><p>2. The party would have all died had they been tagged by the wraiths just once apiece</p><p>3. Frodo would have died without a minor quest to save his life, and even afterwards his character is altered by the experience.</p><p></p><p>Can you see why I assumed you had missed the word trivial?</p><p></p><p>Your combat encounters aren't trivial - they include the risk of death, loss of resources, and player tactics matter. Most importantly I wouldn't consider them as being <em>trivialized</em> - all of these combat encounters are more-or-less going to play out as initially planned.</p><p></p><p>A trivial combat encounter might be one where the players all have ranged weapons, and the foe is a guard dog trapped in a 30ft deep pit with steep sides, but that is still not an encounter that has been <em>trivialized</em>.</p><p></p><p>Your non combat examples are not trivial - their solutions are the result of preparation and smart application of consumable resources.</p><p></p><p>The runes, resting and death knights encounters are only examples of an encounter being trivialized IF the DM expected them to be more substantial than consumption of a single spell slot. My original meaning was that if the DM reruns the same or a substantially similar encounter with the expectation that next time they will somehow get a better story result, then everyone involved will be disappointed.</p><p></p><p>Further to that, I don't think it behooves the players to catch an idiot ball and forget that perfect tactic, just because 'it makes a better story'. Because frankly it doesn't, it just makes the character look dumb, and forces the player (and usually all of the players) to metagame. The only way it works in fiction is if the circumstances change enough that the tactic is no longer valid, and that is the DM's bailiwick.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Saeviomagy, post: 6578279, member: 5890"] Your example was weathertop as a trivial combat encounter. An encounter in which: 1. The party would have all died had noone made their knowledge check to find out that ringwraiths fear fire. 2. The party would have all died had they been tagged by the wraiths just once apiece 3. Frodo would have died without a minor quest to save his life, and even afterwards his character is altered by the experience. Can you see why I assumed you had missed the word trivial? Your combat encounters aren't trivial - they include the risk of death, loss of resources, and player tactics matter. Most importantly I wouldn't consider them as being [i]trivialized[/i] - all of these combat encounters are more-or-less going to play out as initially planned. A trivial combat encounter might be one where the players all have ranged weapons, and the foe is a guard dog trapped in a 30ft deep pit with steep sides, but that is still not an encounter that has been [i]trivialized[/i]. Your non combat examples are not trivial - their solutions are the result of preparation and smart application of consumable resources. The runes, resting and death knights encounters are only examples of an encounter being trivialized IF the DM expected them to be more substantial than consumption of a single spell slot. My original meaning was that if the DM reruns the same or a substantially similar encounter with the expectation that next time they will somehow get a better story result, then everyone involved will be disappointed. Further to that, I don't think it behooves the players to catch an idiot ball and forget that perfect tactic, just because 'it makes a better story'. Because frankly it doesn't, it just makes the character look dumb, and forces the player (and usually all of the players) to metagame. The only way it works in fiction is if the circumstances change enough that the tactic is no longer valid, and that is the DM's bailiwick. [/QUOTE]
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