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Message: <blockquote data-quote="James Jacobs" data-source="post: 3875381" data-attributes="member: 23937">Not all encounters should present equal challenges. That's one of my overarching philosophies of adventure design. Each adventure should have encounters that allow PCs to feel like they're the heroes—that means that some encounters SHOULD be pushovers. Also, some encounters should serve only to advance an adventure's theme; this is the case of the 6th level fighter in question. Having the PCs encounter a big freaky mutant like this is the goal of the encounter, not to push them to the limits of thier capabilites, or even to give them a stand-up fight.I think the main problem here isn't that some monsters have low armor classes or glass jaws... it's that the CR system doesn't work as well as it should. According to the rules, a 20th level human commoner is the same CR as an 18th level lich wizard. You get the same XP for each. Likewise, a fighter with the appropriate amount of gear who spends that gear on stuff other than armor (and therefore has a really low armor class) and only picks feats from the PHB is the same CR as a fighter who spends all his money on armor and a weapon and numbercrunches his feats from dozens of non-core supplements.I suppose we could be a bit more realistic about assigning CR scores to creatures. As written, the ogrekin fighter at the start of "Hook Mountain" is more like a CR 5 or CR 6 monster, but if we start doing that, we'll be having a different set of messageboard debates.ANYway, I think there's plenty of High Armor Class villians as is in Pathfinder. The BBEG of "Skinsaw Murders" can easilly start out that battle with an AC well over 30, for example. Also, keep in mind that Pathfinder isn't for one particular group to play; it's for thousands of groups. Not all of them are going to be as good at the game. I suspect that there are groups out there who find the NPCs in Pathfinder to be uniformly TOO tough.We're kind of aiming for the middle of the road here. That, plus the fact that I always want some encounters in an adventure to be mood setters or make the PCs fell tough is why you'll continue to see NPCs in Pathfinder that you might think are underwhelming.ALSO: I try to preserve what the authors of adventures want, in most cases. A lot of times, that means that an author who's more gifted at the story side of an adventure than he is at the mechanical side of the adventure will include NPCs that aren't really capable of filling the role of super-numbercrunched foe. Usually I'll try to err on the author's side, even if that means putting in a fighter who's got a deformed hand that means he can't use shields or two handed weapons.ANYway, if you haven't thrown some wimpy foes at your PCs, you should try it out some time. If the PCs come out of the battle feeling heroic and proud and tough, and if the players seem to have had a good time of it, isn't that good for the game?</blockquote>

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