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My (Personal) Early Evaluation of the D&D 5thEd System – Wall of Text
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<blockquote data-quote="Swarmkeeper" data-source="post: 7510683" data-attributes="member: 6921763"><p>Ah, details. When you are talking about a paladin with magically enhanced AC and additional buffs blocking the doorway, the CR 3 baddies <em>are </em>pretty useless. That's a good encounter to narrate (or have the players narrate) an easy victory rather than go through the motions of dice rolling to resolve... the inevitable.</p><p></p><p>Then again, as long as you are throwing a score of wights against them, what's to stop you from bringing some stealthy reinforcements down the hall on the other side of the door where the squishier PCs are? And that's not necessarily about trying to "win" as DM. That's mixing it up to surprise/delight/scare the players with the unexpected and keep them on their toes - players who are otherwise going to get bored after easily defeating the latest group of "bags-o'-hit-points" if that continues for too long.</p><p></p><p>Of course the DM has to work at it. But again, IME, it's not really about going "above and beyond", it's part of the basic assignment. It's somewhat obvious, but the players get to focus on running a single PC with the help of the other players at the table to coordinate their teamwork. The DM is alone in coordinating multiple bad guys, often of various types, with no input from other people. It's not necessarily an easy skill. It takes work and experience to adjust on the fly so that an encounter is challenging without being stupidly impossible. One day I hope to get really good at it!</p><p></p><p>I like to think I run reasonably balanced encounters, occasionally serving up an intentional (or unintentional) meatball and occasionally dropping a PC and once-in-a-while telegraphing a situation that they should handle with some alternative to combat. But I'm constantly running over what I could have done differently and/or better combat-wise in my mind after each session to make it more fun for everyone. I guess that's part of the fun, too.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Swarmkeeper, post: 7510683, member: 6921763"] Ah, details. When you are talking about a paladin with magically enhanced AC and additional buffs blocking the doorway, the CR 3 baddies [I]are [/I]pretty useless. That's a good encounter to narrate (or have the players narrate) an easy victory rather than go through the motions of dice rolling to resolve... the inevitable. Then again, as long as you are throwing a score of wights against them, what's to stop you from bringing some stealthy reinforcements down the hall on the other side of the door where the squishier PCs are? And that's not necessarily about trying to "win" as DM. That's mixing it up to surprise/delight/scare the players with the unexpected and keep them on their toes - players who are otherwise going to get bored after easily defeating the latest group of "bags-o'-hit-points" if that continues for too long. Of course the DM has to work at it. But again, IME, it's not really about going "above and beyond", it's part of the basic assignment. It's somewhat obvious, but the players get to focus on running a single PC with the help of the other players at the table to coordinate their teamwork. The DM is alone in coordinating multiple bad guys, often of various types, with no input from other people. It's not necessarily an easy skill. It takes work and experience to adjust on the fly so that an encounter is challenging without being stupidly impossible. One day I hope to get really good at it! I like to think I run reasonably balanced encounters, occasionally serving up an intentional (or unintentional) meatball and occasionally dropping a PC and once-in-a-while telegraphing a situation that they should handle with some alternative to combat. But I'm constantly running over what I could have done differently and/or better combat-wise in my mind after each session to make it more fun for everyone. I guess that's part of the fun, too. [/QUOTE]
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