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<blockquote data-quote="ForceUser" data-source="post: 1107060" data-attributes="member: 2785">Like others have mentioned here, I try to create a world that the PCs inhabit instead of a series of appropriately-leveled challenges that magically scale with them as they level. This means that sometimes it's in their best interests to avoid combat, and that they shouldn't go into every encounter ready to scrap. Conversely, there are threats they can easily deal with if they turn their attention to them. The trick as a player in my campaign is to pay attention to the clues and choose their fights carefully. Most of the time this will see them through okay. Other times they will be in a disadvantaged situation no matter what they choose. That's okay, as long as you don't kill them outright. A powerful villain who dismisses the PCs as beneath him and allows them to tuck tail and run can become a great recurring adversary as the PCs keep saying to themselves &quot;one day...&quot;One of my players is having a hard time adjusting. Twice now his character has died because he assumed I wouldn't attack the party with anything he couldn't handle CR-wise: in the very first encounter of the campaign he charged an owlbear as a 1st-level paladin; the second time he died the party (9 characters average level 4th) got jumped by a pair of trolls and he tried to go toe-to-toe with one with his 3rd-level fighter. He's understandibly frustrated. I'm sympathetic, but thems the breaks. When I describe a large ugly critter with long taloned arms that could rip a man apart, perhaps I mean what I say <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin&nbsp; &nbsp; :D"&nbsp; data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /></blockquote>

[QUOTE="ForceUser, post: 1107060, member: 2785"] Like others have mentioned here, I try to create a world that the PCs inhabit instead of a series of appropriately-leveled challenges that magically scale with them as they level. This means that sometimes it's in their best interests to avoid combat, and that they shouldn't go into every encounter ready to scrap. Conversely, there are threats they can easily deal with if they turn their attention to them. The trick as a player in my campaign is to pay attention to the clues and choose their fights carefully. Most of the time this will see them through okay. Other times they will be in a disadvantaged situation no matter what they choose. That's okay, as long as you don't kill them outright. A powerful villain who dismisses the PCs as beneath him and allows them to tuck tail and run can become a great recurring adversary as the PCs keep saying to themselves "one day..." One of my players is having a hard time adjusting. Twice now his character has died because he assumed I wouldn't attack the party with anything he couldn't handle CR-wise: in the very first encounter of the campaign he charged an owlbear as a 1st-level paladin; the second time he died the party (9 characters average level 4th) got jumped by a pair of trolls and he tried to go toe-to-toe with one with his 3rd-level fighter. He's understandibly frustrated. I'm sympathetic, but thems the breaks. When I describe a large ugly critter with long taloned arms that could rip a man apart, perhaps I mean what I say :D [/QUOTE]

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