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<blockquote data-quote="Helldritch" data-source="post: 8194346" data-attributes="member: 6855114"><p>Crude meta gaming? Let me laugh. If the players can do it so can the monsters.</p><p></p><p>To make sure that someone is dead, a nice hit on the head is always a good thing. Why do you think it takes three hits? To exactly represent the difficulty of "finishing" someone for good. Three hits means three combatants (or some opponents with multiple attacks). A maul on the head, is pretty good sure way. But you take everything too litteral. Chop the head off? Or Crush it underfoot, or Putting that sword through the brain, Putting that pike exactly on the heart, or whatever narrative you want or need or that situation calls for to make it believable. </p><p></p><p>And remember, I only do this once the players have shown their opponents that getting one of them down is not a sure way to end the threat of that character. So I do not go out of my way to make sure that the players will lose characters. But I play the monsters/foes up to their intelligence. Doing anything less would not do justice to my players or to the game. Yes, it does mean that revivify might not work or might leave a character crippled. That is why such spells as regenerate exists. Playing this way is not pretty wild. It is gritty realism in a fantasy world. Of course, it depends on what kind of players you have. With children, when I initiate some of them to RPG, I wear very soft gloves, it is almost a carebear approach. With teenagers, the carebear is already out. But I play more of a super heroic game style. With older teenagers and adults, I go for gritty realism. No holds barred. </p><p></p><p>You would be surprised at how the mechanics of the game changes once you go gritty realism where monsters will do their best to kill the players for good. From the whack a mole, I have seen players (and not only my groups, but many others) start using actions such as help and dodge, they started healing way before the 911 point is reached, and even spells such as warding bond start to get serious usage when expecting a hard fight. By playing this way, the whack a mole is no longer a problem in my games (it was for about 10 sessions or about 5 sessions with each groups. Then we had a talk together on how to correct this and this was the concensus that was reached... my 12 players and me.) </p><p></p><p>Before the Covid, our friday nights dungeons at the hobby store were watched and many young gamers (read here teenagers around 15 to 17) were surprised to see my players using such tactics but once they saw the monsters using the tactic of "making sure" for them it made sense. Yes, we had to explain a bit as many were playing like "super" heroes, but once the concept sinks in, it is surprisingly logical. With the threat of death, and perma death, the players are much more cautious. Try hitting a Plate and shield warrior who's actively dodging and keeps his reaction to cast a F****ing shield spell... That is an equivalent AC of 30 (31 with warding bond in effect)! Even a paladin with shield of faith, warding bond and a single +1 shield get go as high as an equivalent AC of 28 when dodging. I only hit them on a 20 most of the time. And when one of the wall of steel finally goes down it gets back up with a single word and you would not make the monsters make sure that the wall of steel won't make it back again? Come on! No one in its right mind would let that happen twice. And if the monsters dare to ignore the walls of steel, then the walls of steel attacks! Smites, Green Flame blades (or booming blades) are not to be ignored either. Nope, I do not over do it.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Helldritch, post: 8194346, member: 6855114"] Crude meta gaming? Let me laugh. If the players can do it so can the monsters. To make sure that someone is dead, a nice hit on the head is always a good thing. Why do you think it takes three hits? To exactly represent the difficulty of "finishing" someone for good. Three hits means three combatants (or some opponents with multiple attacks). A maul on the head, is pretty good sure way. But you take everything too litteral. Chop the head off? Or Crush it underfoot, or Putting that sword through the brain, Putting that pike exactly on the heart, or whatever narrative you want or need or that situation calls for to make it believable. And remember, I only do this once the players have shown their opponents that getting one of them down is not a sure way to end the threat of that character. So I do not go out of my way to make sure that the players will lose characters. But I play the monsters/foes up to their intelligence. Doing anything less would not do justice to my players or to the game. Yes, it does mean that revivify might not work or might leave a character crippled. That is why such spells as regenerate exists. Playing this way is not pretty wild. It is gritty realism in a fantasy world. Of course, it depends on what kind of players you have. With children, when I initiate some of them to RPG, I wear very soft gloves, it is almost a carebear approach. With teenagers, the carebear is already out. But I play more of a super heroic game style. With older teenagers and adults, I go for gritty realism. No holds barred. You would be surprised at how the mechanics of the game changes once you go gritty realism where monsters will do their best to kill the players for good. From the whack a mole, I have seen players (and not only my groups, but many others) start using actions such as help and dodge, they started healing way before the 911 point is reached, and even spells such as warding bond start to get serious usage when expecting a hard fight. By playing this way, the whack a mole is no longer a problem in my games (it was for about 10 sessions or about 5 sessions with each groups. Then we had a talk together on how to correct this and this was the concensus that was reached... my 12 players and me.) Before the Covid, our friday nights dungeons at the hobby store were watched and many young gamers (read here teenagers around 15 to 17) were surprised to see my players using such tactics but once they saw the monsters using the tactic of "making sure" for them it made sense. Yes, we had to explain a bit as many were playing like "super" heroes, but once the concept sinks in, it is surprisingly logical. With the threat of death, and perma death, the players are much more cautious. Try hitting a Plate and shield warrior who's actively dodging and keeps his reaction to cast a F****ing shield spell... That is an equivalent AC of 30 (31 with warding bond in effect)! Even a paladin with shield of faith, warding bond and a single +1 shield get go as high as an equivalent AC of 28 when dodging. I only hit them on a 20 most of the time. And when one of the wall of steel finally goes down it gets back up with a single word and you would not make the monsters make sure that the wall of steel won't make it back again? Come on! No one in its right mind would let that happen twice. And if the monsters dare to ignore the walls of steel, then the walls of steel attacks! Smites, Green Flame blades (or booming blades) are not to be ignored either. Nope, I do not over do it. [/QUOTE]
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