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<blockquote data-quote="DEFCON 1" data-source="post: 9213919" data-attributes="member: 7006">Yep!&nbsp; You build some encounters that are a cakewalk for the entire party, some that are a cakewalk for the ranged but not melee, some for the melee PCs but really screw over the ranged, and some that screw over everyone.&nbsp; That's the whole point in DM encounter design.&nbsp; Balance, like you said.&nbsp; Give everyone time to shine and everyone time to fear.Too often I think people have this idea that these encounters just &quot;show up&quot; in some defaulted generic state where every monster is a melee attacker that appears 120 feet away and has to spend 2 rounds dashing the party to engage, thus giving ranged characters two full rounds to kill everything while the melee characters sit on their hands.&nbsp; And if this was a computer program that made these encounters for us, or just a DM who didn't put any thought or care into what they threw out there I could understand thinking this was the way.But these encounters and fights aren't-- they are usually crafted by the DM to take every member of the party's abilities, power level, and desired difficulty into account.&nbsp; The DM makes these choices.&nbsp; That why the powerful &quot;Big Bad&quot; is always the last encounter of the adventure, rather than one of the first.&nbsp; Because the DM designed it to be that way.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="DEFCON 1, post: 9213919, member: 7006"] Yep! You build some encounters that are a cakewalk for the entire party, some that are a cakewalk for the ranged but not melee, some for the melee PCs but really screw over the ranged, and some that screw over everyone. That's the whole point in DM encounter design. Balance, like you said. Give everyone time to shine and everyone time to fear. Too often I think people have this idea that these encounters just "show up" in some defaulted generic state where every monster is a melee attacker that appears 120 feet away and has to spend 2 rounds dashing the party to engage, thus giving ranged characters two full rounds to kill everything while the melee characters sit on their hands. And if this was a computer program that made these encounters for us, or just a DM who didn't put any thought or care into what they threw out there I could understand thinking this was the way. But these encounters and fights aren't-- they are usually crafted by the DM to take every member of the party's abilities, power level, and desired difficulty into account. The DM makes these choices. That why the powerful "Big Bad" is always the last encounter of the adventure, rather than one of the first. Because the DM designed it to be that way. [/QUOTE]

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