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Message: <blockquote data-quote="James Gasik" data-source="post: 8666773" data-attributes="member: 6877472">I think it comes down to whether or not you feel that it's fair play.  Does it stretch verisimilitude to have an enemy who is perfectly prepared to counter the party?  Who has all resources available, and is protected from their tricks?I'm not saying that it's impossible to imagine, but how often can this or should this occur?  If the party's tactics are known, have been observed, or the party is relatively infamous, or they leave enemies behind to tell the tale, I can see this happening, but only to a point.Let's not forget that, outside of Clerics and Druids, most spellcasters have set spell lists- even a Wizard who could know every spell, is not likely to have every spell at their disposal.  So even if they know what they are up against (as in, they literally woke up that day and went, I'm fighting that party of adventurers today!), perhaps they shouldn't have the correct spell loadout?And non-spellcasters really can't change their tactics up much, since their choices are usually locked in, so tailoring responses to deal with them can feel like dirty pool- like they're being punished for not being able to change up what they, unlike a spellcaster, who might be able to switch out their entire spell list if their enemies become too savvy about their abilities.Finally, what do you do if your players are exceptionally sly, and take steps to obfuscate their battle tactics?  Like disguising the Wizard as the Rogue with illusion magic and vice versa?  These are the things that go through my mind when I create adventures.  I assume that any given spellcaster has used some magic throughout the day (as the players sure have!), and that, unless they do have some kind of advance warning, their battle plans are fairly generic things like "disable spellcasters first, and have minions press the healer types".Even if they do, they'd need a long rest to fully swap out their spell lists, so it's the rare enemy who can be perfectly prepared for the players.What's good for the goose is good for the gander, so to speak.  If the players can consult sages and use divination magic to find out what they are up against in advance, or they frequently try to employ advance scouting or interrogate captured enemies, that's one thing.But if they surprise an evil Wizard in his lair, who had no idea who they are, then they get the advantage of catching them off guard.I also don't give enemies extra hit points if the players got in a lucky crit or high damage rolls- there's always more adventures, and more enemies.  Let them have their victory, even if it seems "cheap".  There is always next time, and the pendulum will swing the other way eventually.But that's just my way of playing, I hate throwing "gotcha" encounters at my players that they had no way of preparing for.  For me, half the fun of the game is rewarding the players for making good strategic and tactical choices.  I try to give them access to as much information as possible- if they refuse to use it, well, that's on them.  But I won't stand for anyone at my tables to say I was ever unfair.Beating up on players who had no way to know the evil queen is actually a disguised medusa (as an example) strikes me as about as fun as stealing a small child's ice cream and eating it in front of them.In the end, though, it comes down to how your players feel. If they like the odds being totally against them, and want the thrill of overcoming unknown enemies with devastating tactics (and I know such people exist!), then by all means, ad hoc everything!  I personally don't, however, and I run the game accordingly.  Sometimes this means my careful plotting is stymied, and in the moment, that is rough, but my mantra has always been, "take a breath, step back, and ask yourself how this affects the game world*.  You always have more challenges you can use."*as in, sure, you might have easily defeated an enemy.  But are they the minion of an even greater enemy, who will take note of the fact that the players are obviously strong threats? And will they step up their plans, or take steps to deal with the players in short order?</blockquote>

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