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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dr. NRG" data-source="post: 682560" data-attributes="member: 7697">First, if you are fearful of what your players might be able to do, use some of their own tactics against them.  If the players are constantly kicking BBEG butt with X tactic, don't hesitate to use X tactic (or a relevant variant) against them.  This is THE inherent balancing factor built into the game.  It's as simple as the old adage, "Anything you can do, I can do better."  When the improved invisible flying sorceror runs into an enemy flying improved invisible sorceror with true sight on and fire resistance 30, he will learn fear...Second, DMs often fall into a situation where each of their players has a huge amount of time to spend detailing and charting their particular character's capabilities.  Players have a very strong incentive to maximize their capabilities, and to optimally use the party's capabilities in concert.  DMs, however, do not have as much time per opponent to spend.  There are two possible solutions.  The first one involves spending a whole lot of time detailing your biggest, baddest NPCs to PC levels.  This can be fun, provided you have the resources and time to invest.  This is the path one of my current DMs loves so much that he fills the Rogue's gallery full of detailed back stories on the lives of NPCs that have just faced the party.The second solution is to take shortcuts.  If you notice that the party seems to beat down NPCs with low Will saves, add 5 to the Will saves of "boss" opponents.  Players neither need to know the stat blocks of opponents, nor should they know them any more than their characters would.  If you find that the tanks in the party are decimating opponents like a meat-grinder, add Spring Attack to a bunch of enemies.  As you may be able to tell, this is more my DM'ing style.  If you feel locked to the books, the players (having had time to study the intricacies of their PCs' abilities) are likely to beat up their foes (your creations) too easily.  However, the books, stat blocks, etc. are there as a guideline.  If you free yourself to diverge from absolute fidelity, you open a whole realm of possibilities.  For example, in a 2E campaign I DM'ed, I found that the archers and melees were pounding foes with too much ease -- I implemented something like Damage Reduction for certain high-level enemies to solve the problem.  It wasn't in any of the books, the PCs had no idea why these guys wouldn't drop as easily, and it made the world more realistic in that PCs are not all-knowing.  There are, or IMHO should be, abilities out there that characters have neither seen nor heard of.  If you agree, make some up and use them...  If not, invest as much time into prepping each NPC and their tactics as the players spent building their characters and defining their party tactics.NRG</blockquote>

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