NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ForceUser" data-source="post: 911698" data-attributes="member: 2785">Last Monday I ran the first combat encounter of my new campaign. The group is composed of characters ranging in level from 1st to 4th, with the average level being 3rd. The 1st-level paladin won the initiative and charged his foe - an owlbear. He attacked and did 6 points of damage. The owlbear went next in the initiative order, and so attacked the paladin back - once for 8 damage, and once for 18 damage. The paladin only had 11 hit points, so he died. The player was shocked at this outcome. I was a little surprised myself: surprised that a 1st-level character charged an owlbear, and surprised that the owlbear converted a critical hit on him. After the session I asked him why he'd charged the owlbear, and his reply was illuminating - he'd assumed that since his character was 1st-level, therefore all the characters were also 1st-level, therefore the owlbear must have been a 1st-level monster. In other words, he died because he metagamed. Like some of the other posters have said, shake things up. Vary the terrain, use monsters that require something more than raw force to defeat. Pit the party against some demons: the bebilith, for instance, can destroy armor with a special piercing attack, and the babau has a protective slime that can destroy any weapon that comes into contact with it. Throw in a few mind flayers with rings of invisibility. Axiomatic half-fiendish dire bears. Monks with the Improved Sunder feat. Flying wizards with protection from arrows...etc etc.The last combat encounter I ran involved the party being attacked by feral goblins in the middle of the wilderness at night amid tall grasses that offered concealment bonuses to the short goblins. The goblins' burrows were likewise concealed by the 4-foot tall grass, and players who accidentally stepped into a burrow while trying to fight the goblins had to make Reflex saves or twist their ankles, reducing them to 1/4 movement. Spicing up the battlefield will go a long way to making a fight both more challenging and more interesting.Good luck!</blockquote>

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